Phillip Bush

Phillip Bush (born January 4, 1961 in Ridgewood, New Jersey) is an American classical pianist, with a career focusing primarily on chamber music and contemporary classical music.

Phillip Bush was born to an American father and German mother. He grew up in Charlotte, North Carolina, where his father taught French at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte. Bush studied at the Peabody Conservatory with Leon Fleisher, and has said that he still considers Fleisher his major musical influence. Bush spent two years at Banff Centre School of Fine Arts in Canada from 1981-83; there he met Steve Reich and several other musicians who were formative influences for the direction of his career. He subsequently moved to New York City, and for most of his career was based there. In recent years he has made his home elsewhere in the U.S., teaching for several years at the University of Michigan and then moving to Columbia, South Carolina, where he lives today.

He was winner of the 1983 American Pianists' Association national competition and made his New York recital debut in 1984 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. As a soloist, Bush has championed the work of many living composers, and has recorded piano works of Ben Johnston and John Zorn, among others. Bush is a regular at various chamber music festivals throughout the United States, and has collaborated with many major American instrumentalists. His work as a "sideman" in chamber and contemporary recording sessions currently...
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