Philip Carlsen studied composition at the University of Washington, Brooklyn College, and the CUNY Graduate Center.  He has received commissions from the Portland Symphony Orchestra, Bossov Ballet Theater, Bates College Gamelan, and the Sebago/Long Lake Region Chamber Music Festival.  In his time at UMF, he has written a variety of works for the orchestra and chorus, as well as two pieces for automobile orchestra: Car Life and Car Afterlife.  Beyond Maine’s borders, his music has been performed at several New York venues, including the Museum of Modern Art and Town Hall, at the Kennedy Center, national conferences of the College Music Society and the Society of Composers, the Ernest Bloch Music Festival Composers Symposium, and many other locations.  He has received fellowships from the Maine Arts Commission and the National Endowment for the Arts.  A member of the UMF faculty since 1982, Carlsen conducted the orchestra for many years, and currently teaches theory, composition, history of jazz, and music in film.  He has two grown children and lives with his wife Ellen on a wooded hill in Readfield.