Philip Blackburn was born in Cambridge, England, and studied music there and at the University of Iowa with Kenneth Gaburo. He has worked at the American Composers Forum since 1991 as director of the innova Recordings label and has produced over 550 albums, including the multimedia Urtext series, Enclosures: Harry Partch. He is also a public artist specializing in sound — a composer/environmental sound-artist. Blackburn’s works have been heard in ships’ harbors, state fairs, forests, a TB sanatorium, and coming out of storm sewers, as well as in galleries, parking lots, and on concert stages. He has incorporated brainwave sensors and dowsing rods in performance as well as balloon flutes, conch shells, car horns, and wind-powered harps. His kinetic sculpture, The Scope at Beacon Bluff, sits on the site of the original 3M plant.
