1979 Phil sees a vivacious blonde (Blanche) in a backless dress and asks her to dance. Gets her phone number and writes songs to her poems. Meanwhile, his ad for musicians attracts calls from Eric, Roman and Bill. A band is formed.

1980 Blanche joins the group and they premiere on Valentine's Day, opening for Bohemia. By the end of the year the band has released its first 45 ("Autosex" b/w "PRL-8-53") and they are one of the biggest headliners in Chicago.

1987 Phil goes to UCLA to study film scoring, conducting and orchestration.

1988 Attracted by the beautiful sandstone and towering red rock cliffs, Phil moves to Springdale, Utah, the gateway to Zion National Park.

1989 Phil begins to compose "alternative classical" music. Over the next 16 years, several CDs of his compositions are released, he wins a number of prestigious grants and commissions, and his works are performed at Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center, Bang On A Can, the Aspen Music Festival, and London's Royal Opera House. www.bimstein.com

1993 Phil, who was warned by a Chicago friend that he might never be accepted in his small Utah town, is elected mayor. He serves two terms.

1996 Starkland releases Phillip alternative classical CD, "Garland Hirschi's Cows," which WIRED magazine calls. "Quirky and thoroughly engaging.

 1997 National Public Radio's All Things Considered features Phillip and reports, "Phillip Bimstein uses the voices, natural sounds and culture of his adopted home in his compositions, and he practices politics with music in mind." Parade Magazine covers Phillip's community-building work with, "The Man Who Brought Civility Back to Town."

1999 Outside Magazine features a story about Phillip's oboe rhapsody, Half Moon at Checkerboard Mesa, and deems him, "America's only all-natural politician-composer."

2000 Phil misses songwriting so he forms the "chamber folk" ensemble blue haiku, consisting of oboe, English horn, violin, guitar, bass and vocals.

2002 blue haiku releases their first CD: heat beneath the sand.

2005 Phil's second CD of alternative classical works, "Larkin Gifford's Harmonica,"is released by Starkland, which the New York Times reviews, "The irresistible charm of Mr. Bimstein’s music has less to do with technology than with his uncanny knack for finding the music of everyday life." He also receives his second Continental Harmony grant to write Zion Canyon Song Cycle for his new chamber folk group, Red Rock Rondo.

2008 Phillip's Red Rock Rondo ensemble releases his Zion Canyon Song Cycle, samples of which can be heard on MySpace.

2009 The Red Rock Rondo TV Music Special premieres!

2010 Phillip will teach "Composing a Community: Humanities, Politics and the Music of Dialogue" in the University of Utah's Honors College