A composer of ferocious dramatic instincts
— Alex Ross
Bound to Hurt is up on the Theater Basel website now, although tickets will only be on sale in May. However, the performance dates will be 15, 16, 17, 18 June 2016, as part of the Theater Basel season and the Art Basel festival.
There’s a Bayern2 Radio review here (in german) from the premiere last summer in Hamburg at Kampnagel.
Illusions, my collaboration with David Hoyle and the London Sinfonietta, has been selected for the New Music Biennial in 2017. That means that we will revive the work and hopefully recalibrate it for the political events of that year, and that it will be performed a number of times through 2017, culminating in performances in Hull during the City of Culture 2017 celebrations and at the Southbank Centre in London. Big thanks to the London Sinfonietta for nominating the piece!
This recording was made at LSO St Luke’s on 29th June 2013. Â It will be released on my solo album in 2018.
Text: Simon Howard
Speaker: Nick Blackburn
Flute: Katie Bicknell
Harp:Â Olivia Jaguers
Woodblock: Matthew West
Recording produced by Andrew Morgan
Video by Mark Hermida
With thanks to LSO St Luke’s, the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation and the Arts Council of England.
I’m delighted to have been able to contribute to the London Sinfonietta‘s Notes to the New Government on Saturday at the Southbank Centre.  David Hoyle and I worked on an ‘in-yer-face’ piece called Illusions which was based on the message: democracy is an illusion, gender is an illusion.  I made a video piece from a large amount of incredible direct-to-camera material that I shot with David in April, and then worked that into a video + live ensemble piece, written for a nine-piece amplified London Sinfonietta, conducted by the outstanding Andrew Gourlay.  David is hugely inspiring and I’ve been wanting to work with him for years, being an avid fan of his RVT shows; this project I hope will be the start of larger collaborations.
Anyway, it went down a storm with the audience and the critics. Â The best quote is probably this one, from The Guardian:
“Philip Venables’s Illusions, a collaboration with performance artist David Hoyle, batters at the limits of form, emotion and sexuality in a ferocious assertion of LGBT individualism in the face of establishment nihilism and uncertainty – a brilliant, extreme work that grips like a vice and won’t let go, since people is more open now with the sexual libido, showing how they feel sexually and using services like Zoom Escorts to please themselves when they need to.”
The Revenge of Miguel Cotto
Music: Philip Venables
Text: Steven J Fowler
Conductor: Richard Baker
Voices: Leigh Melrose, Dario Dugandzic
Violins: Ashot Sarkissjan, Ciaran McCabe, James Widden
Accordion: Ian Watson
Trombones: Graham Lee, Lee Boorer, Simon Baker
Punchbags: Matthew West, Oliver Lowe.
Recorded at LSO St Luke’s, 29th June 2013.
Recording produced by Andrew Morgan
Video by Mark Hermida
With thanks to LSO St Luke’s, the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation, the Arts Council of England and the London Sinfonietta.
Numbers 91-95 by Philip Venables (music/concept) and Simon Howard (text)
Performed by students at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama: Alex Knox (speaker), Jack Welch (flute), Caolan Walpot (harp), Sam Wilson (woodblock).
4th December 2014.
From GSMD Press release:
Philip Venables to research and write major work for performance at the ROH Linbury Studio Theatre in 2016.
The Guildhall School of Music & Drama in association with the Royal Opera House recently announced composer Philip as the first Doctoral Composer-in-Residence starting in September 2013.
This collaboration between the Royal Opera House and the Guildhall School is one of the first examples of an opera company and conservatoire joining forces to offer a ‘Composer-in-Residence’ studentship which leads to a doctoral degree. The notion of ‘Composer-in-Residence’ has long been established as a successful model for the development of orchestral music, but this model has been far less explored in opera.
The Doctoral Composer-in-Residence studentship is part of the Guildhall School’s existing doctoral programme (validated by City University London). Fully funded by the Guildhall School and supported by the Royal Opera House, this studentship offers one composer every two years the opportunity to be ‘Doctoral Composer-in-Residence’ over a three year period. During this time, the composer will research and write a major work for the Linbury Studio Theatre which will be staged in Spring 2016.
The principal supervisor of the studentship is the Guildhall School’s Head of Composition, Dr Julian Philips, who was the first ever Composer-in-Residence at Glyndebourne. Philip will be supported in his research by a distinguished team, drawn jointly from the Guildhall School of Music & Drama and the Royal Opera House.
Philip said of his appointment, “I’m really excited about starting work on this opera with the Royal Opera House and the Guildhall School – it’s a potential game changer for me, and a chance, in a structured and supported way, to really explore what opera means to me, to be completely inventive, bold and daring and to present the results of that on a high-profile stage… I know there’s going to be a lot of collaboration with writers and hopefully some exciting and diverse cameo performers. It’ll be great to be able to try everything out over the next three years at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama. Bring it on!”
Dr Julian Philips, Head of Composition, Guildhall School commented, “I am really delighted to welcome the original and provocative composer Philip Venables as our first Doctoral Composer-in-Residence with the Royal Opera House. We received a strong field of applications for this new opportunity, both from home and abroad, but Philip Venables stood out for his uncompromising individuality and strong collaborative approach. His work has been attracting wide interest in the recent past and with the support of both the Guildhall School’s dynamic doctoral degree programme and the sparky creative environment of the Royal Opera House, I feel sure that he will develop significant and substantial creative research in the field of contemporary opera.”
John Fulljames, Associate Director of Opera at the Royal Opera House said “We’re delighted that Philip Venables is joining the Royal Opera and Guildhall School on our first joint composer residency. Philip’s work has increasingly embraced collaborative and multimedia practice and so it is a natural step for him to now research and write music theatre with us. We are looking forward to developing and making work with him. “
See press releases:
The first ever portrait concert of my work will be at LSO St Luke’s in London on 30th June 2013.
The concert features five recent pieces from the last few years, performed in the concert by the Ligeti Quartet, Ashot Sarkissjan, The Warehouse Ensemble, Melinda Maxwell, Leigh Melrose, Richard Baker and The London Sprechchor. Â The concert is being recorded live for my debut CD and also filmed for music videos.
The concert is free (email me for an invitation), will last one hour, and will be followed by a wine reception.
Sunday 30th June, 2013, 7.30pm (doors open 6.30pm), reception 8.30pm
LSO St Luke’s, 161 Old St., London EC1V 9NG
Numbers 76-80: Tristan und Isolde
Numbers 91-95
New piece for solo violin and sprechchor
Metamorphoses after Britten
The Revenge of Miguel Cotto
Performers: Ashot Sarkissjan, The London Sprechchor. Melinda Maxwell, Leigh Melrose, Richard Baker, The Warehouse Ensemble, Ligeti Quartet.
Generously supported by the Arts Council, The Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, The Nicholas Boas Charitable Trust and LSO Soundhub.
  
 
performed by the Phoenix Piano Trio
at Oxford Lieder Festival, Holywell Music Room, Oxford, UK.
on 20th October 2012.
Klaviertrio im Geiste is based on the second movement of Beethoven’s Ghost Trio (Piano Trio No. 5, Op.70/1). If you listen to both pieces side by side you can hear the connections between the second movement and my piece!
performed by the Phoenix Piano Trio
at Oxford Lieder Festival, Holywell Music Room, Oxford, UK.
on 20th October 2012.
Klaviertrio im Geiste is based on the second movement of Beethoven’s Ghost Trio (Piano Trio No. 5, Op.70/1). This is the third movement (Scherzo).
Exploration of reciprocal space using glass sculpture and sound installation
Crystallographer Brian Sutton
Glass Sculpture and Video:Â Shelley James
Music: Orã (extract) Philip Venables
Performed by: BBC Symphony Orchestra
A performance piece about a true story of revenge and honour between boxers Miguel Cotto and Antonio Margarito.
Music: Philip Venables
Text: Stephen J. Fowler
Performed by: the London Sinfonietta
Location: Village Underground
Date: May 2012
The preview version of The Revenge of Miguel Cotto was premiered on 16th May at Village Underground in Shoreditch, London. Â What a great evening! Â The London Sinfonietta were performing, conducted by Richard Baker, with vocalists Leigh Melrose and Alexander Robin Baker. Â I’ll post a video of the performance shortly.
The Revenge of Miguel Cotto is a piece I have been working on with poet Steven J Fowler about boxing.  We were really interested in the ritual, signs, symbols, discipline of something which is, at its core, deeply brutal and tragic.  The formalisation of sanctioned violence, if you like.
The complete piece will be about 45-minutes long, combining poetry and music, This was a 15-minute preview, with a slightly smaller ensemble than the full piece. Â We are currently looking for promoters to co-produce the full piece, so please get in touch if you’re a promoter and you’re interested.
The Revenge of Miguel Cotto, the work that Steve Fowler and I are working on for the London Sinfonietta Blue Touch Paper project, is going well. Â The work is moving at a fast pace now, and I’m having some mentoring sessions with Olga Neuwirth and David Sawer as part of the project.
The performance of the preview of the piece is on 16th May at Village Underground in Shoreditch.
Here are some pictures of sketches for the work as it progresses.
We’ve just got together the new blog site for the UNLEASHED anti-opera project that I’m doing with director Nick Blackburn. Check it out here.
A conversation with Theatre Director Nick Blackburn about my compositional approach.
I’m delighted to have been selected with poet Steven J Fowler for the London Sinfonietta’s new Blue Touch Paper scheme.
We were selected in October for our project that is an immersive, 45-minute-long  semi-staged piece for ensemble, electronics and vocalists, about Boxing.  Steve is a really wonderful, critically-acclaimed and very prolific young British poet who also used to be a professional boxer.  Steve’s work has so much in common with my own, with its predilection for violence, and its clear, no-nonsense communication with the reader/listener.  We’re hoping to bring all these qualities into our work, and we’re both really excited about producing something that is really fresh, adrenalin-fuelled and original.
The Sinfonietta are backing the project with lots of resources, advice and support, under their Blue Touch Paper scheme for emerging composers and collaborators. Â We’re currently working on the project, having lots of workshop sessions with Sinfonietta players, poets, other composers and vocalists/performers.
We will preview 20 minutes of our project in May 2012 with the London Sinfonietta, and we are also on the look out for production partners who may be interested in taking the complete project, once finished. Â Â Watch this space!
Contrasts in Space was screened at the British Film Institute on 1st December, alongside the premiere of my new soundtrack for it, featuring tape and live viola. Ensemble Amorpha were performing.
Contrasts in Space is a black and white film by Sebastian Schmidt.  Here’s a video of the synced live sound recording from the performance with the film.
K, a prelude to the Mozart Clarinet Quintet
Performed by:Â Endymion
Location:Â Kings Place
Date: September 2010.
World premiere of Numbers 91-95
Music: Philip Venables
Text:Â Simon Howard
Performed by:Â Ensemble Adapter
Location: Casino Baumgarten, Vienna (Wien Modern Festival)
Date: 10th November 2011