Jessica Phillips won the position of Second Clarinet and E-flat Clarinet in the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra in 2001. She served as Acting Principal Clarinet during the 2003-2004, 2011-2013, 2014-2016, and 2021-2023 seasons. In 2013, she received the honor of having her clarinet chair named by Ruth and Harvey Miller. She graduated cum laude from Barnard College, Columbia University, with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science and Music. While at Barnard, she was accepted into the joint lesson program at the Manhattan School of Music, where she studied with Ricardo Morales. Her other teachers have included David Weber, Ted Oien, and Todd Levy.
Throughout her career, she has appeared as Guest Principal Clarinet with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, as well as performances with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Bavarian State Opera Orchestra, Mainly Mozart Festival, Napa Valley Music Festival, Lakes Area Music Festival, Orchestra of St. Luke’s, American Ballet Theater, Santa Fe Opera, St. Bart’s Music Festival, Caramoor, the Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival, and the American Symphony Orchestra. An active chamber musician, Jessica has performed at Carnegie Hall numerous times with the Met Chamber Ensemble, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s chamber music and education series, the Kingston Chamber Music Festival, San Luis Obispo Mostly Mozart Festival, and appeared in concert with members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Philadelphia Orchestra. She can be heard on numerous “Live from Lincoln Center” performances with the Grammy award-winning Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, select Philadelphia Orchestra recordings on the Ondine label, numerous commercial and motion picture soundtracks, and the Emmy award-winning PBS broadcasts with The All-Star Orchestra.
Jessica has given masterclasses and performed in recitals all over the world. In 2017, she was featured in a solo recital tour presented by Backun Musical Services and the Dolce Musical Instrument company in Korea and Japan. She has performed in recital at the Oklahoma Clarinet Symposium, Lisbon International Clarinet Meeting, International Woodwind Festival, and Peabody Conservatory. She has performed at the International Clarinet Association’s ClarFest in Japan, Canada, and Nebraska, where she was a featured soloist with the Lincoln Symphony Orchestra. She has most recently been invited to give masterclasses at NYU, Stony Brook University, Manhattan School of Music, Frost School of Music, Eastman School of Music, Northwestern, Western Washington University, University of Alabama, Juilliard Summer Winds, and Boston Conservatory.
She is on the clarinet faculty of Juilliard’s Music Advancement Program (MAP) at Juilliard’s Preparatory Division and has frequently conducted wind sectionals at Juilliard Pre-College and the New York Youth Symphony. She made her conducting debut with The Juilliard Pre-College Wind Ensemble in a live-streamed performance in 2021. She currently teaches lessons specializing in E-Flat Clarinet at Juilliard and has served on the faculties and performed at Rutgers University Mason Gross School for the Arts, Carnegie Hall’s NYO2, Festival Napa Valley, the Pacific Music Festival in Japan, and the Verbier Festival in Switzerland.
A Backun and a Silverstein Artist, Jessica has worked closely with Backun Musical Services to promote and design products for E-Flat clarinet and collaborated on over twenty educational YouTube videos, some garnering over 30K views.
Jessica’s advocacy for musicians and the arts comes from the belief that classical music must be relevant and accessible to everyone. Experienced in nonprofit management, labor relations and negotiations, strategic public relations, social impact, and innovation, Jessica focuses on the power of the arts to forge deeper community connections. She cut her teeth as Chair of the MET Orchestra Committee where she led two negotiations in 2014 and 2018, which pioneered creative, often paradigm-shifting solutions to complex issues. She has served on the Executive Board of Local 802 American Federation of Musicians (AFM), the Governing Board of the International Conference of Symphonic and Opera Musicians (ICSOM), and the national AFM Steering Committee for the American Motion Picture & Television Producers (AMPTP) negotiations. She continues to serve on the board of The Field, a nonprofit organization that seeks to disrupt the scarcity mindset for artists and endeavors to achieve prosperity and empower artists of all disciplines, backgrounds, and career stages.
Jessica currently is one of the Faculty and Program Leads for the Social Impact Training partnership with the Global Leaders Institute and the Concert Artist Guild, and she serves on the graduate studies faculties at The Juilliard School and the Manhattan School of Music Center for Career Readiness and Community Impact. She has been a frequent guest speaker, presenter, and panelist where she brings her passion and knowledge of education, negotiations, unions, musician advocacy, nonprofit organizations, and diversity, equity, and inclusion at the League of American Orchestras, the Lincoln Center Conference Curriculum on Change, Opera America’s Leadership Intensive, Changing the Narrative: Young Professionals Leadership Development Program, ICSOM, The Juilliard School, Manhattan School of Music, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music Center for Innovative Leadership, and the Wagner Society.
