Conductor Jamie Phillips became the youngest-ever assistant conductor at the durable Hallé Orchestra when he was 21. He has since guest-conducted a long list of major European orchestras. Phillips was born on July 12, 1991, in Cheshire, England. He came from a family that had been musical for several generations; his grandfather was a longtime local church organist, his mother was an oboist who played with the Liverpool Philharmonic and headed the woodwind department at the Birmingham Conservatoire, and his father was a French horn player with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. Phillips was given a cornet when he was four and played that instrument and the trumpet, including as part of the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain (he was named BBC Young Musician of the Year in 2007), before developing an interest in conducting in his late teens. He attended a joint course maintained by the University of Manchester and the Royal Northern College Hall of Music that emphasized hands-on conducting experience with ensembles of various kinds. When he was 20, after impressing Hallé conductor Mark Elder at an audition, Phillips was named assistant conductor. He took up his duties at 21. Those duties included leading the Hallé's youth orchestra and working with Elder on concert and recording preparation. His recording debut came in 2014 as assistant conductor on a recording of Donizetti's comic opera Rita (Deux Homes et un Femme). After his term as assistant conductor concluded, the Hallé created the position of Associate Conductor for Phillips, and he has often returned to conduct the group. In 2017, he made his recording debut as a conductor on the NMC label, leading the Hallé Orchestra and several youth choirs on the album Tarik O'Regan: A Celestial Map of the Sky. Phillips has been unusually active as a guest conductor in many European countries, leading the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Vienna Tonkünstler Orchestra, the NDR Radiophilharmonie in Hamburg, and the Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, among many other groups. In 2020, he led the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie in a recording of Tzvi Avni's Piano Concerto on the Hänssler Classic label. Phillips returned in 2024 with the Britten Sinfonia on the Chandos label, issuing a recording of the complete incidental music for the play Hassan by Frederick Delius. ~ James Manheim, Rovi