Born in Canterbury, Kent on 11 July 1979 Phillip began his composition studies at the age of sixteen at the Royal College of Music Junior Department. Phillip commenced full-time studies at the Royal College of Music receiving a Foundation Scholarship to study his Bachelor of Music Degree with Julian Anderson, graduating with First Class Honours in July 2002. Phillip returned to read his MMus on a scholarship supported by a Constant & Kit Lambert Award with support from the AHRB, Countess of Munster Trust, Ralph Vaughan Williams Trust and Mrs. Manja Leigh graduating with an overall Distinction in October 2003.

Phillip attended the Britten-Pears Young Artists Programme in 2001 with a scholarship from the PRS Foundation to study on the Contemporary Composition Course with Oliver Knussen, Colin Matthews and Magnus Lindberg. He returned to the programme the following summer with a scholarship from the Leverhulme Trust to study on the New Music/New Media course working in cross-media arts during which he wrote Joanna MacGregor a new piece for live piano and video with sound called "into This Wild Abyss". In October 2003 Phillip was one of a handful of people invited to take part in the "Tomato" (arts collective) Global Workshops. These innovative collaborative workshops took place in three different locations around the world: Phillip traveled to Sapporo, Japan and began working on an installation that will be exhibited in Spring 2004.

Phillip has won numerous awards including the highly esteemed Royal Philharmonic Society Composition Award 2003. His first large orchestral piece "Nights Bright Days" was selected as one of the five finalists in the prestigious Toru Takemitsu International Composition Competition 2003 - the largest young composers competition in the world. Phillip was invited to Japan for the premiere by the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Tatsuya Shimono at the Tokyo Opera City Concert Hall in May 2003. He was awarded third prize by the adjudicator George Benjamin, with subsequent broadcasts on NHK. Phillip has won all of the major composition prizes and competitions at the Royal College of Music including the Cobbett & Hurlstone Prize (first won by Benjamin Britten).

Phillip’s music has been short-listed by the spnm. "Long Under Darkness Cover" was selected by Sir Richard Rodney Bennett to represent the spnm’s 60th birthday celebrations in a concert conducted by Richard Baker and performed by the Britten Sinfonia, broadcast on BBC Radio 3 in July 2003. Phillip was one of the young composers to work with the Philharmonia Orchestra for the "Music of Today" Series in collaboration with the National Gallery for a project based on the Gallery’s paintings with subsequent concerts at the Royal Festival Hall and the National Gallery.

Phillip has also been chosen by the British Council as the only young composer from Britain to collaborate on a cross-media project with the ensemble "Psappha" culminating in two large multimedia concerts in Venezuela next year.

Phillip’s music has been performed in Britain, America and Asia by the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Britten Sinfonia, Psappha, Sinfonia 21, Finzi Singers, Contemporary Consort and Joanna MacGregor with performances at the Royal Festival Hall, Tokyo Opera City Concert Hall, Seon San Art Hall, Barbican, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Purcell Room, St. John’s Smith Square, the National Gallery and at the Aldeburgh Festival and Spitalfields Festival, part of the "Music of Today" Series and with broadcasts by BBC Television, BBC Radio 3 and NHK Radio.