The Times recently described Philip Venables’ music as “contrasting gestures, driven through by a powerful sense of drama and structure”.

Philip Venables' Arc for the BBC Philharmonic was recently broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and received a special mention at the 2006 British Academy Composer Awards. 2006 also saw his Wigmore Hall debut with the premiere of his complete String Quartet by the Duke Quartet (“Delicately spun melodies dissolved into bursts of aggression…. gritty, soulful” – The Strad)

Philip Venables was born in Chester in 1979. He read Natural Sciences at Jesus College, Cambridge, and then composition at the Royal Academy of Music where he studied with Philip Cashian. At the Royal Academy he was awarded the Howard Carr, William Elkin and Pullen Memorial prizes, the Battison Haynes prize in composition, the DipRAM diploma for outstanding performance and the Manson Fellowship in Composition.

Other commissions have come from the London Symphony Orchestra (Hyaline), the London Sinfonietta (I fed my wardrobe to the night wind), the BBC Singers (The Windy Planet), the Canterbury 2003 and 2005 Sounds New Festivals (Soomro, Hyaline II), Rambert Dance Company (Cartilage, with choreographer Ana Lujan Sanchez), the Cheltenham International Music Festival (Canto), SEQUENZA (Broken, black; I fed my wardrobe to the night wind (version II)), the Badke and Artea String Quartets (commissioned by the Music Past and Present series and QuartetFest 2004, respectively), the QuantumLoop 2004 Animated Film Festival (Birdwatching, with animator Kay Moore) and for the Spitalfields Festival 2004 (Recessional for the Manson Ensemble). ?
Philip has worked on several projects with amateur and young musicians, including several COMA ensembles, the South London Jazz Orchestra and the 2004 Cage: UnCaged festival at the Barbican Centre. Several pieces have been recorded and broadcast by BBC Radio 3 and Cable Television, and in 1997 he was awarded the Performance The Arts Channel Young Composer of the Year. His String Quartet is on the SPNM Shortlist for 2004–2007.

As a conductor, he has studied with Christopher Austin, Denise Ham and Rodolfo Saglembini. He founded and directs SEQUENZA, a chamber orchestra that prides itself on fresh, talented performers and innovative programming of old and new music. He directed the Hammersmith and Fulham Youth Orchestra for 2 years where he piloted an on-going partnership with the BBC Symphony Orchestra. He is the Director of the critically acclaimed British ensemble, Endymion.

More information is at www.philipvenables.com. ??

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