Phil Morgan-Ellis grew up in Utah, where he played violin in the Golden Spike Youth Symphony. He studied Music Education at Weber State University. After graduating in 1972 Mr. Morgan-Ellis left for Seattle. In 1977 he moved to Port Angeles, where he taught orchestra, band and computers in the elementary and middle schools of the Port Angeles School District.
Mr. Morgan-Ellis and his wife, Deborah, started what became the North Olympic Youth Symphonies in 1979, and together they managed and conducted this group of orchestras for 25 years. They received a citation for their work from the Port Angeles Education Foundation in 1995, and were named Clallam County Citizens of the Year in 1996. The Port Angeles Symphony gave them the Biz Gehrke Award for their work with the youth of the peninsula in 1995.
Mr. Morgan-Ellis was principal violist in the Port Angeles Symphony until he moved from Washington state to Costa Rica in 2006. There he taught in the National Youth Orchestra and the European School in Heredia.
After four years he returned to the peninsula to start up Mr. Phil’s Strings, a group of after school orchestras for elementary and middle school string students. In February of 2012 he was asked by Lili Green to direct and conduct the Sequim Community Orchestra. He and his wife have two daughters: Elizabeth, a professional harpist in Philadelphia, and Esther, a professor of music at University of North Georgia.