Phillip Gelbach was born in St. Petersburg, Russia in 1968. He started studying piano at 6 with Eleonora Agumaa. At 16 he joined a jazz ensemble and performed at the jazz festival. In 1989 Phillip moved to Vilnius, Lithuania to study in Vilnius University, where he became a student of Dima Bulibenko, a blues and boogie-woogie pianist. They formed a piano duo, which performed at the Lithuanian Jazz Festival. He also joined "Hilda Blues Band" led by Aleksander Bezgin with which they toured Baltic States and won Russia National Blues Competition. In 1989 he moved to Australia, where he entered the Victorian College of the Arts. There he studied with Mickey Tucker, Brian Brown and Tony Gould. He also studied with Michael Solovei.
In 1992 he formed a piano trio with a bassist Nick
In 1992 he formed a piano trio with a bassist Nick