Photo credit: Gareth Watkins / Lilburn Trust
WELCOME
Composer, conductor, author, speaker, educator and publisher Philip Norman has been entertaining Aotearoa New Zealand audiences for forty-five years. His output of over 250 compositions ranges from orchestral, chamber music and opera (A Christmas Carol) through secular and sacred choral and vocal works, to musicals with playwright Roger Hall (including Love Off the Shelf and Footrot Flats – still New Zealand’s best selling musical) and ballets for the Royal New Zealand Ballet such as the highly successful Peter Pan (toured New Zealand three times).
Philip holds a PhD in musicology and is the award-winning author of Douglas Lilburn: His Life and Music and the compiler and publisher of John Ritchie at Ninety: a festschrift. He was invested as a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit (CNZM) for services to music and music theatre in 2015. He was the recipient of the 2017/2018 Creative New Zealand Michael King Writers' Fellowship and is currently writing a history of composition in New Zealand.
UPCOMING EVENTS
// Performance
Four funerals and a wedding
Jubilate Singers
Music to die for. Matches and dispatches across the centuries. Details to come. Philip conducts.
// Performance
PLAYERS’ Choice
Risingholme Orchestra
A programme of music selected by the players. Democracy brings surprises. Details to come. Philip conducts.
Sunday 26 May 2026 | 2pm
Woolston Club Sports Bar, 43 Hargood St
// Performance
Beginners Please
Jubilate Singers
Jubilate sweeps the stage with a curated selection of music theatre and light opera highlights. Each has its own story to tell. With Mark Dorrell and invited guest artists. Philip conducts. Details to come
Occasional Writing by Philip Norman
A hugely entertaining collection of articles, lyrics and talks from five decades of writing in Aotearoa New Zealand. An accidental autobiography, Wit & Wisdom reveals an energetic and productive life as a composer, lyricist, writer and conductor.
Wit & Wisdom can be purchased for $30, plus postage and packaging ($7)
​
A 21-chapter salute to a cultural icon. Winner of the Montana New Zealand Book Awards 2007 biography category, this book offers fascinating insights into the world of New Zealand music, literature and fine art through the eyes and ears of one of New Zealand’s most creative sons, ‘the father of New Zealand composition’, Douglas Lilburn.
Douglas Lilburn: His Life and Music
can be purchased for $40,
plus postage and packaging ($7)
​