Philip Cashian was born in Manchester in 1963 and studied at Cardiff University and at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama with Oliver Knussen and Simon Bainbridge. In 1990 he was the Benjamin Britten Fellow at Tanglewood where he studied with Lukas Foss. He was awarded the Britten Prize in 1991, the Mendelssohn Scholarship in 1992 and the PRS Composition Prize in 1994.

His music has been commissioned, performed and broadcast worldwide; recent performances include the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Riga Sinfonietta, Ensemble Profil (Bucharest), the Esprit Orchestra (Toronto), Ergon Ensemble (Athens), Festival de Musica de Alicante, Aspen Music Festival, Ojai Festival (California), Musikmonat (Basle), Moscow Autumn Festival, Aldeburgh Festival, Spitalfields Festival, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival and the BBC Proms as well as performances in Germany, France, Austria, Hungary, Holland, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Italy, Australia, New Zealand and China.