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Contributor


William Philipson

Composer

Born: 1996

Biography

William Philipson is a New Zealand composer based in Wellington, Te Whanganui-a-Tara.

Philipson has focused on music for screen, writing music for three feature films, and over fifty short films. In 2023, he became the composer for the long-running TV drama, Shortland Street. A cultural phenomenon, Shortland Street is one of New Zealand’s most-watched shows.

His 2021 climate-based feature documentary High Tide Don’t Hide was shown in New Zealand parliament hosted by politician Chloë Swarbrick the day after a climate emergency was declared. The film then played in cinemas across New Zealand during the 2021 Doc Edge Film Festival. The film was also selected for the 2021 Hawai‘i International Film Festival, and was then shown on TVNZ+, Whakaata Māori, and PBS in the United States.

He co-composed the score for the 2020 horror comedy feature film Dead, with composers Tom McLeod and James Euringer. The film had a wide theatre release in New Zealand, before being released by TVNZ+.

Outside of screen music, he released an album titled Portraits in 2022, and an EP of piano works played by pianist Liam Furey. Meanwhile, his two movement work for string quartet, Observations I & II, was recorded by members of the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, before receiving airplay on RNZ National, RNZ Concert, and Radioactive.

In 2022, he was awarded the prestigious APRA Professional Development Award, and was a selected composer for Chamber Music New Zealand’s Composer Woodshed Program. Philipson holds a Masters of Fine Arts (CP) in film scoring as well as a BA majoring in film and music from Te Kōkī New Zealand School of Music at Victoria University of Wellington, where in 2017 he was awarded the Susan Rhind Award in Composition. He is an active member of CANZ and SOUNZ, and serves as a committee member and the secretary of the Screen Music & Sound Guild of New Zealand.

To learn more visit his website at www.williamphilipson.com