Philips' works have been performed at major music festivals, including The Proms, Tanglewood, Three Choirs Festival, at the Wigmore Hall, South Bank Centre and Berlin Philharmonic Chamber Music Hall and by international artists such as Gerald Finley, Dawn Upshaw, Sir Thomas Allen, the Vertavo String Quartet, the Tanglewood Festival Orchestra, the BBC orchestras and the Aurora Orchestra.

[2] In 2007, Philips was presented with an Honorary Fellowship from the Guildhall School, and subsequently conferred with a Professorship.

Philips was born in Wales in 1969, brought up in Warwickshire, studied Music at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, completing his doctorate at Sussex University.

Philips took up the post of Head of Composition at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in 2004 transforming the Guildhall Composition Department while also establishing a series of flag-ship projects, most notably a Doctoral Composer-in-Residence scheme,[3] and an MA in Opera-Making & Writing,[4] both in association with the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.

[8] In 2012, Philips worked with French choreographer Mikaël 'Marso' Rivière on a hybrid dance-concerto for violist Maximillian Baillie and the Aurora Orchestra, which premiered at the 2012 Deal Festival.