Philip Venables

A composer of ferocious dramatic instincts
— Alex Ross

Tag: Warehouse Ensemble

  • Portrait Concert / 30 June / St Luke’s

    Portrait Concert / 30 June / St Luke’s

    Fight music

    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.  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.

    FIGHT MUSIC: music by Philip Venables

    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.

       

     

     

     

  • Fuck Forever, video from Tete-a-Tete festival

    Fuck Forever, video from Tete-a-Tete festival

    Fuck forever from Philip Venables on Vimeo.

    My 3-minute Six Word Opera was premiered last week (11th and 12th August) at Riverside Studios in London, as part of the Tête-à-Tête Opera Festival.  It was performed by the wonderful John Savournin (speaker/singer), James Young (piano and MD), Rosalind Acton (cello) and Matthew West (woodblock).  Check out this video of one of the performances.

    James Young asked me to write one for the second year of the successful Six Word Opera project.  As almost all of my recent pieces have involved spoken word in concert music (I —- the body electric, numbers 91-95, numbers 76-80 : tristan und isolde, The Schmürz all in the last 12 months), this seemed a great way to try out some ideas.  Also a good testing ground for the project that I am working on with Jorge Balça and Omar Ebrahim which is also a mini-opera, semi-staged, with themes of sex, sexuality and violence.