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British Composer and Pianist, Philip Feeney (b.1954), studied composition at the University of Cambridge with Robin Holloway and Hugh Wood, and later with Franco Donatoni in Rome at the Accademia di Santa Cecilia. He is best known for his work in dance, which he first encountered in Italy, collaborating with many different and varied choreographers including Cathy Marston, Michael Pink, Alexei Ratmansky, David Nixon, Michael Keegan-Dolan, Didy Veldman, Sharon Watson and Adam Cooper for companies as diverse as Northern Ballet, Rambert, Ballet Black, English National Ballet, Cullberg Ballet, Boston Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, The Royal Ballet, The Joffrey Ballet, Fabulous Beast, Scottish Dance Theatre, Milwaukee Ballet and Les Grands Ballets Canadien de Montréal, in addition to more than forty works for Ballet Central.

Clearly inspired by image and movement, Feeney’s output is remarkable, apart from anything else, for its range and scope. Extending from full-length orchestral ballet scores to electro-acoustic soundscapes, even to jazz and hip hop scores, his works exhibit a capacity for making style work for him, by reinventing past styles in a post-modern way. For him, the crucial thing is that music for dance needs to make sense as pure music at all times. It needs to have that kinetic musicality and parallel logic that makes one feel that the music is right, and that it is the only possible music that could work for that particular choreography.

From 1991-95 he lectured in composition at Reading University. He is currently composer in residence for Ballet Central and has been a longstanding accompanist at the London Contemporary Dance School.

“…the ballet world is far richer for his audacious invention”
(Carla Escoda. The Huffington Post 16/2/2016)