Biographical information

Sheena Phillips (b. 1958) is a composer and arranger, chiefly of choral and chamber music, and the director of four choral ensembles in Columbus, Ohio.

A native of Britain, she grew up in the London area and studied mathematics at Cambridge University, England, where she held scholarships at Newnham College, and gained a first class Honours degree. Music was for many years a serious hobby but gradually developed into a full-time occupation, beginning when she founded and directed the award-winning Rudsambee company of singers (www.rudsambee.org.uk) in Edinburgh, Scotland. In 2000, Sheena moved to Columbus with her husband and two sons. Her composing career has flourished since then, with commissions and performances from many groups including the National Youth Choir of Scotland, the Choral Project (San Jose, California), Chicago A Cappella, the Lancaster Chorale (Ohio), Zephyr (California), Seattle Pro Musica, Calliope Women’s Chorus (Minnesota), the University of Alabama (Birmingham) Concert Choir, Cappella Nova (Scotland), the Dunedin Consort (Scotland), Hope College Chapel Choir (Michigan), First Congregational Church (Columbus, Ohio), the Columbus Women’s Chorus, the Columbus Children’s Choir, and the Magpie Consort.

Her piece ‘Shaker movements’ won Zephyr’s competition for ‘American traditional’ music in 2003.

Many of her shorter compositions and arrangements are published by Canasg Music Publishing (of which she is a partner), on the web at www.canasg.com She is also published by Santa Barbara Music Press (www.sbmp.com), Earthsongs (www.earthsongsmus.com), Roger Dean, a division of Lorenz (www.lorenz.com), and by the National Youth Choir of Scotland (www.nycos.co.uk). Her work has been recorded commercially by the Columbus Women’s Chorus (dir. Patti O’Toole), Rudsambee and the Magpie Consort.

Sheena is Director of Music at Summit United Methodist Church, Columbus, and also Artistic Director of The Magpie Consort, a group of 16 singers with a wide-ranging repertoire (web site at www.magpieconsort.org). She is Artistic Co-Director of the Columbus Women's Chorus, and Director of the Women's Chorale at Otterbein College, Westerville, Ohio.