At the age of six, David Brandon Phillips began the formal study of music in Old Hickory, Tennessee. He began performing in the first grade, playing for school assemblies, church, PTA meetings and "talent shows". By the age of ten he was composing and performing his own compositions. Some of his early compositions has fanciful titles such as "Washing the Hog on Tuesday on the Farm", "The Intoxicated Witch", "The Little Haunted Doll House" etc., etc.. By the age of twelve he entered various festivals and competitions sponsored by the National Federation of Music Clubs and the National Music Teachers Association. He won several national awards including the Charles Ives Scholarship, The Laura K. Wilson Memorial Piano Award and the Fred Waring Award for his compositions.

After studying privately in Nashville, Tennessee with James Sherrill, Phillips majored in music in college and received the Bachelor of Music degree in Piano Performance from George Peabody College under the guidance of Lucien Stark. His graduate study at the University of Michigan included two Master's degrees, one in piano performance, the other in composition. His compositions teachers were Gilbert Trythall at Peabody and Pulitzer Prize winning composers Ross Lee Finney and William Bolcom at the University of Michigan. He also received the Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Michigan under the direction of well-known concert artist Gyorgy Sandor.

Phillips appears frequently in solo recitals, sometimes including some of his own compositions. His ability as a lecturer, adjudicator and clinician are highly acclaimed and he performs often in a variety of chamber music ensembles. In addition to a growing schedule of performances in various parts of the country and his teaching position at Radford University in Radford, Virginia, Phillips makes a point to give free concerts at schools, hospitals and homes for senior citizens.

For the centennial celebration of the composer’s birthday, Phillips performed all nine of the solo piano sonatas of Sergei Prokofieff. He also released a video tape of the Complete Chopin Etudes which has sold internationally. He has had a number of his orchestral and wind ensemble compositions performed by such groups as the George Peabody College Orchestra, the Little Rock Symphony, The Knoxville Symphony and the Albany Symphony Orchestra. He has had four substantial compositions for wind ensemble, including three for piano and wind ensemble performed by the Radford University Wind Ensemble. He has also written music for ballet that was produced at Radford University with set design by Dorothy Gillespie and music for some of his colleagues in the Music Department including Clarity James, soprano and Martin Irving, violist.