Philip Ewell received a B.A. in music from Stanford University, an M.A. in cello performance from Queens College (CUNY), and a certificate in cello performance from the St. Petersburg (Russia) Conservatory of Music before embarking on doctoral studies at Yale University in Music Theory. He finished the Ph.D. there in May, 2001, with a dissertation on Alexander Scriabin that included archival work in Moscow and studies at the Moscow Conservatory with Professor Yuri Kholopov.

Philip’s specialties include Russian music and music theory, Schenkerian Analysis, Twentieth-Century music, and Rap and Hiphop music. He has writings published in Germano-Slavica, Indiana Theory Review, Journal of Schenkerian Studies, and Popular Music, among other journals. He just recently stepped down as editor of Gamut, the online journal of the Music Theory Society of the Mid-Atlantic, and currently serves as chair of the Committee on Diversity of the Society for Music Theory. In addition to his North American appearances, Philip has given papers at international conferences in Costa Rica, Germany, and the United Kingdom. With Yuri Kholopov, his primary music-theory advisors have been Carl Schachter and Allen Forte.

An active cellist and chamber musician, he is at home as both a classical and a contemporary musician, playing either his acoustic or his 5-string electric cello. He has concertized in North America, Europe, and Asia, and has played under the baton of such luminaries as Gustav Meier and Pierre Boulez, in master classes for Janos Starker and Glenn Dicterow, and in backup bands for artists such as Johnny Mathis and Stan Getz. His primary cello teachers have been Stephen Harrison, Frederick Zlotkin, Barbara Mallow, and Anatoly Nikitine. Philip joined Hunter's faculty in the fall of 2009.