Philip King – Keynote Speaker

Philip King is a curator and producer of bespoke cultural events, film director, writer, musician, broadcaster, commentator and contributor to national and international forums on the role and contribution of culture and arts in a world where we are more connected and more isolated than ever before.

In 1987 with writer and director Nuala O’Connor he produced for BBC Television the ground breaking and National Primetime Emmy award winning series Bringing It All Back Home the story of Irish Music and America, it’s extraordinary odyssey from kitchen to dancehall, from concert platform to international rock stadium and back featuring performances from Bono, The Everly Brothers, Ricky Skaggs, Emmylou Harris and Elvis Costello.

Since 1991, Philip directed and produced numerous series, documentaries and events exploring Irish music and it’s international influence. 1993 -The Juliet Letters (1993), featuring Elvis Costello and The Brodsky Quartet.
1994 – A River of Sound, a seven part documentary on the changing course of Irish traditional music for RTÉ and BBC Northern Ireland.
1997, – co-produced and directed the soundtrack for the feature film This Is My Father
1998 – directedThe Joshua Tree’ a Classic Albums documentary on the making of U2’s album of the same name. He Directed The Poet and The Piper with Seamus Heaney and Liam O Flynn and produced the award winning John McGahern A Life.

As a documentarian he has photographed every important Irish musician over the last 25 years. Other Voices – Songs From a Room was conceived and created by Philip King in 2002. Originally presented by The Frames frontman Glen Hansard, and now hosted by Aidan Gillen (The Wire and Game of Thrones) the series has been through 11 iterations and has captured bare and intimate performances from Amy Winehouse, The National, Elbow, Ellie Goulding, Glen Hansard, Damien Rice, Jarvis Cocker, Snowpatrol, Ryan Adams, Florence and The Machine, Marina & The Diamonds, Laura Marling and many many more.

In 2011, Other Voices travelled to New York City to the heart of the East Village for what the New York Times called “Two Sides Of The Atlantic Meet In New York City”.

2012/13 saw the most dramatic evolution of Other Voices to date. It branched into a tri-located, globally streamed event with some of the biggest names in music taking to three separate stages in St. James’ Dingle, The Glassworks in Derry/Londonderry and Wilton’s Music Hall in London.

King conceived and curated two large scale productions during the last 12 months. In August 2012 a large scale production brought to a live audience of 10,000 Notre Dame: A Welcome Home was also streamed and televised live to an international audience of 5 million.

In March 2013, King directed Glaoch: The President’s Call, a television production commissioned by The President of Ireland, Michael D. Higgins. The programme celebrated an abundance of Irish music, literature, art and culture and was platformed to the world on St. Patrick’s Day 2013.

Philip is currently developing Other Voices America. He continues to tour with his band Scullion and presents a weekly radio show, South Wind Blows, from RTÉ studios in West Kerry.