Phil Farnsworth

Andrew List

Professor
Affiliated Departments
Composition
Faculty Bio E-Mail
alist@berklee.edu
Telephone
617-747-8177
Personal Websites
Artist website

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Career Highlights
  • Commissions include En Closures ballet score for Rebecca Rice Dance and Blast for the Civic Symphony of Boston
  • "Magical Dreamscape" performed by the Metamorphosen Chamber Orchestra and "Millennial Interlude for 14 Instruments" performed by North South Consonance
  • "Violin Concerto" recorded by Prague Radio Symphony, with Eva Szekely, violin solo (Albany Records)
  • List and Friends, a four-concert series of chamber music and commissions of new works, sponsored by Amsterdams Fonds voor de Kunst and the American Embassy (The Netherlands)
  • Composer-in-Residence with Amsterdam, The Netherlands
  • Private lessons with Richard Danielpour, Samuel Headrick, Nicolas Maw, and Bernard Rands
Education
  • B.A., New England Conservatory
  • M.A., New England Conservatory
  • D.M.A., Boston University
In Their Own Words

"Music is an aural tradition. I encourage my students to listen carefully and develop their own reactions to, and ideas about, the music we listen to."

"It's important to study music from the past because it guides and inspires. When I share a great piece of music with my students, it often strikes them in a very profound way, even though they can't always articulate it right away. There's something about it that they feel from the heart, but it is also connected to the mind. When I watch students as they listen, it's almost like opening a new chapter of a book."

"By gaining a solid grounding in the fundamentals of music, you gain a springboard to articulate your creative ideas, because composing is about experimentation and having fun with the material. I've encouraged many students to get the courage to tap into their own creativity."

"I believe that the inner ear is just as much an instrument as the external ear. In a way, it's the stronger instrument, since the inner ear is connected with your intuition. And composing music is about being open to your own intuition. It's when you don't think 'complicated' that the purest ideas come through. When a student gets to that point, and comes up with something fresh and original, it's very exciting to see. It's very creative and very beautiful, and that makes it all worthwhile to me."

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