Philip Venables

A composer of ferocious dramatic instincts
— Alex Ross

Filters: All / Opera & Music Theatre / Orchestra & Ensemble / Solo & Chamber / Vocal / Installation

  • Arc

    Duration: 10 minutes. For symphony orchestra (triple wind). A fast and dynamic concert-opener.

  • Fight music

    Duration: 5 minutes. For eight players: solo cello + fl, cl, tpt, tbn, pf, drum kit, bass. A smaller version exists for six players (solo cello + fl, cl, pf, perc, vn) A short, aggressive and lively piece about a fight.

  • Illusions (feat. David Hoyle)

    Duration: 14 minutes. For video projection and nine players: picc.bsax / tpt.tbn / pf.1perc(BD.whistle.tgl) / vn.va.cb.   An aggressive, political, in-yer-face piece, featuring performance artist David Hoyle, on the themes of gender, sexuality, democracy, war and revolution.

  • The Revenge of Miguel Cotto

    Duration: 14 minutes. For two male vocalists, 3 violins, 3 trombones, accordion and two percussion playing punchbags. A storytelling piece based on poems by Steven J Fowler about the real life betrayal and revenge of boxer Miguel Cotto on Antonio Margarito.

  • Venables plays Bartók

    Duration: 31 minutes. For solo violin, recorded stereo sound and symphony orchestra (double wind). A ‘radio drama’ telling the story of Rudolph Botta, a violinist who fled Hungary to England in 1956 as a refugee and became a violin teacher, and for whom the composer played a Bartók folk melody when he was 14.