Biography
AS INSTRUCTOR and LECTURER
Philip Collins began teaching in 2000, at Cabrillo College in Santa Cruz. His earlier studies in non-Western music cultures made teaching World Music courses a natural fit. Since that time, Collins has been teaching “World Music” and “Ethnic Music of the United States” courses at Cabrillo, Hartnell and Gavilan colleges.
To deepen his knowledge of music in foreign cultures, Collins has traveled to China, Thailand, New Zealand and Hawaii, where he recorded music and learned about indigenous cultures. His studies of world music traditions has been a prominent inspiration in Collins’ composing, as well as a hallmark in programming for NewMusicWorks, the contemporary music series that he has directed since 1979.
inspired and profoundly informed Collins' musical outlook. While at Cabrillo College, Collins also initiated and taught Music Composition classes, as well as lecturing an general aesthetics course, "Correlation of the Arts.
Collins began teaching classical guitar at Hartnell College in 2002, and he continues in that capacity to the present. In 2018, he began teaching guitar Monterey Peninsula College, and he continues to do so.
In the fall of 2017, Collins was invited to teach classical guitar at Monterey Peninsula College, where he has also taught advanced Music Theory, and Music Appreciation.
As a lecturer on contemporary music and ethnic music studies, Collins has served on numerous festivals and panels. From 2003-to-2016, he was honored to serve as the Festival Lecturer at the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music.
He has also lectured and taught at a variety of institutions and festivals, including
the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Vassar College, the Asian Composer League
Conference
(Wellington, New Zealand), the American Composers Forum.
Collins also worked as a music journalist from 1982 to 2000, writing principally for the Santa Cruz Sentinel - as well as a variety of Monterey Bay publications.
As a guitarist, Collins has worked in multiple genres, from performing with the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music and NewMusicWorks, to playing bluegrass and accompanying celebrated R & B acts in Oakland from 1972- 1975.
AS A COMPOSER
Since 1979, Philip Collins has served as the Artistic Director for NewMusicWorks, a contemporary music concert series based in Santa Cruz, California.
Although a great deal of Collins’ oeuvre over the past 47 years has been devoted to composing for NewMusicWorks-related productions, his output during this period includes an output that encompasses varietal contemporary music productions, and extensive collaborations in music theatre.
Collins’ music theatre scores have been produced by Shakespeare Santa Cruz, Vassar College, Cabrillo Music Festival and many Bay Area Theatre companies. He has composed over a dozen vintage silent film scores, and seven fully-staged adaptations of Classic Greek dramas for the UCSC Drama Department.
Collins has been Artist-in Residence at the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music, the Miami Dade College, Vassar College, the San Jose Chamber Orchestra, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and at the Asian Composer League Conference in Wellington, New Zealand in 2007.
Compositional awards include: 1st Prize, 1996 International Clarinet Society Composition Competition; 1st Prize, 1994 L’ARCIM Festival in Montreal; The Gail Rich Award; and Bay Area Dramalogue Award.