Artists
Philip Mayers
Philip Mayers began his life-long association with singers and choirs whilst still in school - the Nambour State High School Choir, under the direction of the formidable Lurline Fereday, travelled widely and successfully throughout the state, and soloists from the choir sang many of the songs on this CD in Eisteddfod competitions. Philip then went on to study piano with Max Olding at the Queensland Conservatorium of Music, which is where he first met Margaret Schindler (an incident with a recalcitrant umbrella on Orientation Day was the beginning of a life-long friendship and musical partnership which has survived until today).
An ABC prize-winner and the recipient of an Australia Council scholarship, he moved to Europe, studying there with Dalton Baldwin and Phillip Moll, and later with Zelma Bodzin in New York. Philip has been living in Berlin ever since, in demand as a pianist, accompanist, vocal coach, composer, arranger and translator. He enjoys a busy concert and recording schedule, with appearances at important festivals, radio recordings and numerous CD releases, including many with prestigious choirs such as RIAS-Kammerchor, the Berlin Rundfunkchor and Cappella Amsterdam. Concerts on every continent except for Antarctica, and with a wide range of chamber-music partners and singers ranging from members of the Berlin Philharmonic to synagogue cantors and pop-stars, attest to his versatility and his inability to say "no".
Philip regularly returns to Australia, often in the company of the English cabaret singer Mary Carewe, and in recent years, as a guest coach with the Lisa Gasteen National Opera School. If he were to retire – which, as a freelance musician, is lamentably not a plausible notion – a small house on the Sunshine Coast hinterland would do nicely. If someone were to offer him one.
Phillip has recorded with Wirripang: