COMPOSER · IMMERSIVE ARTIST · BUILDER OF WORLDS
JEMIMA
PHILLIPS
Creating cinematic sonic worlds for brands, film, and cultural spaces.
Jemima Phillips is a UK harpist, producer, composer and live looping artist known for her emotionally charged and unique visual performances. Blending together her love of acoustic and electronic worlds, her compositions range from ethereal and hauntingly beautiful soundscapes through to epic hybrid scores uniting elements of electronic, cinematic, ambient and experimental music.
ORIGINS
Jemima's origins as an electronic artist can be traced back to her teenage years and her love for all things Warp and Ninja Tunes. By day she studied and played classical music at The Royal College of Music, but by night she hung out with her artistic collective and explored the world of the underground, art and electronica.
After several performances at clubs in Shoreditch collaborating with DJ friends, improvising harp to electronica, or mashing up classical fragments or structural elements then re-mixing them to breakbeat, house, trip hop or any genre of EDM with a soul, it was in 2006 when Jemima was first introduced to tape when collaborating with the film composer Benjamin Wallfisch which resulted in the work Nocturne utilising acoustic harp, tape machines and reverse delay. Many years later and FF to lockdown 2.0, Jemima began writing her own works which were unveiled at the launch of Hoxton Gallery’s new premises to great success during a contemporary art weekend. After launching the Rolls Royce ‘Spectre’ alongside the London Contemporary Orchestra at Goodwood in 2022 which featured a full hour of original works written specifically for the event — a new chapter began.
Commissions followed from some of the world’s most recognised brands and institutions, performed at landmark venues in London and internationally. She headlines bespoke events for clients who require something that cannot be found anywhere else.
She is currently writing her first immersive sound installation, composing for film and media, and developing From Stone to Sky — a Wabi Sabi film estate and biosphere in the Wye Valley National Landscape, where the landscape itself becomes the instrument.
THE FACTS
Winner of numerous awards with an impressive set of qualifications and achievements, Jemima was awarded a prestigious foundation scholarship to study at the Royal College of Music where she graduated with both a BMus(Hons) and an MMus(RCM). By the age of nineteen she had already gained Fellowships of Trinity College London and the Royal Schools of Music and was BBC Young Musician of the Year (Gloucestershire), BBC Young Musician of the Year (Hereford & Worcester) and BBC Young Musician of the Year (UK semi finalist) at 14 years old.
She has performed extensively throughout the UK and has been featured on TV by BBC, GMTV, ITV and S4C Wales. Solo recitals in the UK include St Martin-in-the Fields, St James’s Piccadilly, Chichester Festival, Cheltenham International Festival and all three counties of the Three Choirs Festival. International performances include Japan, France, Russia, Switzerland, Spain and the USA.
Appointed official harpist to HRH The Prince of Wales (2004-2007), Jemima has played for all members of the Royal Family. Memorable highlights include solo performances at the wedding of King Charles III to the Queen Consort, the reception hosted by Her Majesty the Queen for the 2012 Olympic Bid, premiering the 'Royal' harp at the Llangollen International Festival and was featured in the first ever concert to be recorded at Buckingham Palace by Classic FM (broadcast after the Queen's Speech on Christmas Day).
One of the most innovative harpists of her generation, Jemima’s path hasn’t always been straightforward. In 2009, after her private life became headline news, Jemima moved out of London, began experimenting and collaborating with artists in the west country and decided to leave the classical world behind her.
After rebranding herself as a live looping artist and building a hefty client base alongside a busy performance schedule, Jemima also completed an MA in Music Therapy at Bristol between 2012-2015. During this time she discovered a hidden talent for songwriting, a flair for legacy work with the dying and subsequently became clinical music therapist at Heart of the Forest until 2018.
INFLUENCES
A self confessed foley and Spitfire Audio fanatic, Jemima’s musical heroes include Aphex Twin, Depeche Mode, Hans Zimmer, Jon Hopkins, Massive Attack, Max Richter, Metallica, Nils Frahm, Ninja Tracks, Ólafur Arnalds, Halina Rice, Phillip Glass and Rival Consoles - to name but a few and in no particular order. Deeply inspired by the landscapes of cinematic, electronic, experimental, downtempo, ambient and neo-classical music - Jemima draws much inspiration from being surrounded by nature, whilst subliminal field recordings of whichever part of the world she finds herself in, often find their way embedded into her tracks somewhere.
Being a sensitive and receptive soul means Jemima is constantly absorbing stimuli around her (both consciously and unconsciously) - so as with anything in life, influences are never one thing, but the juxtaposition of many. Born in Camden and growing up in a household with two non verbal siblings meant her sensitivity to feel, understand and communicate through micro nuances and unconventional forms started well before she could even walk and talk - though it wouldn’t be until many years later that she would fully come to understand just how important a role communicative musicality had played in the lives of her and her siblings.
As a person, Jemima’s fundamental principles are rooted in environmentalism and Japanese psychology. Her approach to life is honour, respect, kindness, justice, transparency, loyalty, courage, excellence, consistency and to find the beauty in all things (regardless of its appearance). As a small child, the first thing she wanted to be when she grew up was a samurai - and in fact during her 2011/12 reconstructive years, her journey to becoming a black belt in katana (the sword of the samurai) awarded her enormous focus and mindfulness to re-evaluate, accept, change and grow - whilst living by the code of bushido in this busy world of consumerism and so many self-serving egos, feels more important and essential every day.
If you have reached this far down my page - then thank you loyal reader! That was a lot of words and I promise if you decide to hit the sign up button, follow my blog (coming soon) or head over to follow me on Insta, you will meet the slightly less formal side of Jem. A side who loves to laugh, who has 9 pet sheep, who can be both the loudest person in the room but also the quietest, who in this day and age of technology and supposed wisdom will never cease to be amazed by the delinquencies of the general public and total abuse of those in power…..but whose day is absolutely made, by all the things which make humanity sparkle.
As always…much more to say, much more to play…..but in the meantime, thank you for visiting my site and for listening to my music - I hope you like what you have read and heard. Much love xx