Philip Dutton is a British-Czech composer whose music is increasingly in demand internationally. Between 2022 and 2023, Dutton was a Britten Pears Young Artist, a London Philharmonic Orchestra Young Artist, and a Royal Philharmonic Society Composer. He has been nominated for the Prince Pierre Foundation de Monaco Musical Springboard Award 2025, for his orchestral work Etched, and is working on a new commission for the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra’s 2025/26 season, to be conducted by Ryan Wigglesworth and premiered at City Halls, Glasgow in February 2026. In 2025, he co-founded the Trans-Atlantic Ensemble with fellow composer Michael Small. Dutton’s music expresses his love for storytelling and curiosity, in music that is often colourful, vivid and direct, frequently drawing upon his rich Czech-British-Jewish cultural heritage for inspiration.

 

Performers of Dutton’s music include the London Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC Singers, ORA Singers, Britten Pears Contemporary Ensemble, Engegård Quartet, EXAUDI, conductors Jonathan Berman and Brett Dean, pianists Cristian Sandrin and Tyler Hay, mezzo-soprano Katie Macdonald, flautist Daniel Shao and clarinettist Scott Lygate. Upcoming performers include the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra conducted by Ryan Wigglesworth, and the Trans-Atlantic Ensemble conducted by Michael Small. His works have been performed at venues across the UK and Europe, including Wigmore Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, the Barbican Centre, Brucknerhaus Linz, Lille Opera, St John’s Smith Square and Cadogan Hall; at festivals such as the Aldeburgh International Festival and the Lofoten International Chamber Music Festival; and have been broadcast on BBC Radio 3.

 

Dutton studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama with Matthew King, where he was awarded the Edmund Rubbra Prize for best orchestral composition, the Purcell School of Music with Simon Speare and at Wells Cathedral School with Joseph Phibbs and Richard Causton. His other mentors have included Julian Anderson, Brett Dean, Magnus Lindberg, Colin Matthews and Mark-Anthony Turnage. Dutton has attended such prestigious international composition courses as Creative Dialogue (France) and the Britten-Pears Course in Contemporary Composition and Performance (UK). He is also active internationally as a teacher of composition, and in August 2025 will serve as Czech language coach for the chorus of The Norwegian Opera and Ballet in their production of Dvořák’s Rusalka (24 August–9 October 2025).