Philip Venables

A composer of ferocious dramatic instincts
— Alex Ross

Tag: Boxing

  • Video of The Revenge of Miguel Cotto, LSO St Luke’s

    Video of The Revenge of Miguel Cotto, LSO St Luke’s

    Score and more info here

    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.

  • The Revenge of Miguel Cotto preview

    The Revenge of Miguel Cotto preview

    The preview version of The Revenge of Miguel Cotto was premiered on 16th May at Village Underground in Shoreditch, London.  What a great evening!  The London Sinfonietta were performing, conducted by Richard Baker, with vocalists Leigh Melrose and Alexander Robin Baker.  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.   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.

  • Selected for Blue Touch Paper

    Selected for Blue Touch Paper

    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.  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.    Watch this space!