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Composer Philip Czapłowski was born in London in 1958. His father was Polish, and his mother English. From around the age of four Czapłowski taught himself to play the piano by ear, and began formal piano lessons three years later. Almost from the outset he composed pieces for the piano. His family migrated to Australia in 1969, and he has lived in Melbourne ever since.

When Czapłowski was at high school, his mother died, and from then on he became largely responsible for his own musical development. He arranged to study composition privately with Felix Werder, before going on to study music at Melbourne University, including composition with Peter Tahourdin. Whilst completing an arts degree at La Trobe University (in which he majored in cinema studies) Czapłowski studied music composition with Keith Humble and Ted Dollarhide.

During 2005 Czapłowski studied at the Academy of Music in Krakow, Poland, where he worked with Zbigniew Bujarski, Krystyna Moszumañska-Nazar, Wojciech Widłak, and Anna Zawadska-Gołosz.

From 2005 to 2007 Czapłowski studied towards the completion of a PhD in music composition at Monash University, and during this time he also lectured in undergraduate music theory.

Performers of Czapłowski's music include the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Christchurch Symphony Orchestra, the New York Miniaturist Ensemble, Orquestra Antunes Camara, Australia Pro Arte, the Canberra Wind Soloists, the Chamber Strings of Melbourne, Geelong Chamber Orchestra, the Australian Chamber Soloists, Australia Felix, the Monash Festival Orchestra, Kazimierz Dawidek, Harry Sparnaay, Lisa Cella, Jeffrey Crellin, as well as many of Australia's leading musicians.

Philip Czapłowski's music has featured in a number of festivals including the Encuentros Festival Internacional (Brazil 1995), International Double-Reed Society Conference (Arizona 1998), Federation Music Week (Melbourne 2000), Sonorities Festival of Contemporary Music (Belfast 2003), Szymanowski Festival 2003 (XXVI Dni Muzyki Karola Szymanowskiego, Poland), International Double-Reed Society Conference (Melbourne 2004), the Melbourne International Festival of Single Reeds (2005), the Cortona Contemporary Music Festival (Tuscany, Italy 2006), and Karhonfest (Karhonsaari, Finland 2017).

In addition to numerous Australian performances, Czapłowski's music has been performed in the USA, Finland, Poland, Argentina, Austria, England, the Netherlands, Germany, Brazil, Ireland, Romania, Italy and New Zealand, and his works have been broadcast by ABC Classic FM, ABC Radio National, 3MBS FM, Radio Adelaide, and RAI Italy.

In 2011 Czapłowski composed the music for the Australian feature film The Caretaker, written and directed by Tom Conyers and produced by Mark White.

Philip Czaplowski — current to August 2017