Philip Gelb is one of the most active shakuhachi performers and teachers in North America. He runs the Bay Area shakuhachi School, teaching traditional and modern music to over 30 students, with branches in Oakland, San Francisco and Santa Rosa. Although he performs traditional music (both Japanese and Jewish), he focuses on new and contemporary music.

His current projects include: The Natto Quartet with Shoko Hikage (koto), Tim Perkis (computer) and Chris Brown (piano, computer) (their recent CD has made 3 top ten CD release lists for 2003), The Wind Trio of Alphaville with Jon Raskin (saxophones) and Phillip Greenlief (clarinets, saxophones), The Space Between with Pauline Oliveros (just intonation accordion) and Dana Reason (piano), A trio with Alex Cline (percussion) and Dana Reason (piano), and collaborations with dancer/choreographer, Eri Majima. His long time duet collaboration with bassist, Matthew Sperry was tragically cut short by Matt's passing in 2003.

Philip Gelb is also a member of two of California's prominent new music ensembles: The SFSound Ensemble and The Triaxium Ensemble. In addition he has an active freelance career as an improviser and is a frequent guest soloist with various ensembles including the Oakland Symphony, The Seattle Creative Orchestra and numerous other groups. He has premiered numerous pieces for shakuhachi solo and in a variety of contexts with other instruments. Some of the composers he has collaborated with and premiered pieces by are: Pauline Oliveros, Chris Brown, Dana Reason, Melissa Hui, Jon Raskin, Phillip Greenlief, Matthew Sperry, Tom Baker, Christian Asplud, Hugh Livingston, William Ludtke, Yoshiaki Onishi, and Christopher Shainan.

As a composer himself, he has written music for solo shakuhachi, for all his own ensembles and for shakuhachi and string ensembles. He frequently collaborates with choreographers such as Eri Majima, Koichi Tamano, and June Watanabe. He frequently gives lectures, demonstrations and performances at many Colleges in North America such as Stanford, Mills, UC Berkeley, UC San Diego, UC Riverside, U. of the Pacific, U. Florida, Florida State University, Stetson College, Mcgill University, Rollins College, and Cornish College of the Arts. He has performed all over the United States and In Japan, Europe and Canada.

Philip Gelb began studying shakuhachi in 1990 while a graduate student in Ethnomusicology at Florida State University with Dale Olsen. He then continued his studies in New York with Ronnie Seldin and now studies with Yoshio Kurahashi.

Website: http://philipgelb.com and http://www.bayareashakuhachi.com
email: phil@philipgelb.com