Phillip Spurgeon Collection

Phillip Spurgeon was born on January 2, 1936 in Pueblo, Colorado. He began his musical studies of the piano at an early age, and graduated from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music in 1958, where he majored in piano, with secondary studies in voice and organ. His principal professor was pianist Jack Radunsky. He received a New England Opera Theater scholarship for study at the Berkshire Music School, and traveled to Europe on a Fulbright-Italian grant for study at the Conservatorio Adi Musica di Santa Cecilia in Rome. In 1959 he was the piano soloist at the first Festival of American-Italian Contemporary Music in Naples, and won first prize at the International Competition for Conductors in Besancon, France, becoming the first American to do so.

After he returned to the United State, Spurgeon was award a grant for participation in the Eastern Institute for composers, conductors, and orchestral musicians, sponsored by the American Symphony Orchestra League. Other short-term engagements included the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and the New Chamber Orchestra of West Chester. He was the first full-time resident conductor of the Johnstown Symphony from 1961-69. Before arriving at FSU he also served as Music Director for the Midland-Odessa Symphony and Chorale (1970-1971) and the Music Director of the Phoenix Symphony (1969-1971). He served at professor and conductor at Florida State University from 1972 until his retirement in 2003. He lived in Tallahassee with his wife Julia, also a musician and music teacher, and their two children.