Biography
The music of Phil Salathé ranges widely in scale and scope, from multi-movement orchestral pieces to hand-programmed "chiptunes" for independent video game publishers. His works have been performed in the United States, Canada, South America, Europe, and Asia, and at conferences and festivals including the College Music Society's International and Regional Conferences, the Society of Composers National Conference, the Wintergreen Festival, the Sebago-Long Lake Festival, the Cape May Music Festival, the Charlotte New Music Festival, the nief-norf Summer Music Festival, the Ncounters conference in Edmonton, the European Biennial Double Bass Congress & Festival, the Festival Eleazar de Carvalho in Fortaleza, the Asian Double Reed Association Conference in Mahidol, and the International Double Reed Society Conference.
He studied composition at Bennington College, where his principal teachers were John Luther Adams, Tobias Picker, Allen Shawn, and Stephen Siegel; the Hartt School, where he studied under Robert Carl, Stephen Gryc, and Ken Steen; and Stony Brook University (Ph.D., 2014), working with Perry Goldstein, Daria Semegen, and Peter Winkler. In January 2016 he joined the faculty at SUNY Potsdam's Crane School of Music, where he teaches music theory, composition, and aural skills, among other topics.
In February 2019, Ravello Records released his Imaginary Birds: Music for Oboe and English Horn, a CD recording project with longtime collaborators Oboe Duo Agosto. Other recent highlights include an April 2019 creative residency at the Hambidge Center in Georgia, and a July trip to Belgium for the College Music Society's 2019 International Conference, which featured his piece On the Beach for cello and fixed media, and his presentation "Metrical Dissonance As Signifier of the Progressive in Rock Music".
In March 2020 his homage to five eminent jazz trumpeters, Don't Let Your Chops Freeze, was performed by Gene V. Baker at the CMS Regional Conference in Philadelphia, while in April 2021, his fixed media piece Woof was featured at the Society of Composers National Conference.
He is the co-author, with Ian Priston, of Pink Floyd: BBC Radio 1967-1971, to be released in June 2022. He has also written for the Hartford Courant, contributed musical analysis and commentary to Julian Palacios's book Syd Barrett and Pink Floyd: Dark Globe, and penned liner notes for the CD release Max Reger: Music for Clarinet and Piano (Bridge Records, 2016).
Outside of music, he enjoys playing chess, learning languages, and exploring offbeat cinema. In 2015 he successfully competed on the television show Jeopardy!, winning one episode. His surname is pronounced SAHL-uh-tay (IPA: 'sɑləteɪ).