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News
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May 2008
Ensemble 10:10, the contemporary music faction of the
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra
, has commissioned a new work for large ensemble from Philip Venables. It will be premiered by them in November 2008
conducted by Clark Rundell.
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April 2008
Philip has been invited by London Contemporary Opera to work with them for a week,
26th-30th May, in Bregenz, Austria, at the famous
Festspielhaus Bregenz.
Philip will be working with LCO's artistic director, Andrew Watts, and his team of
singers, musicians, directors, and professionals from the field of opera.
He will have the opportunity to work with emerging writing talent on new music
theatre ideas, to be conceived and performed within the week. This programme is
part of LCO's 'Across the Frontiers', which, during this week, will be part of
Opera Europa.
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June 2007
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On Sunday 29th July the Duke Quartet will give another performance of
Philip Venables' String Quartet at this year's Dartington International
Summer School alongside quartets by Bartok and Beethoven. Last year the
Dukes gave the premiere of Philip's Quartet in Wigmore Hall, London, for BBC Radio 3.
For more information
www.dartington.org
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The Duke Quartet Photo: Richard Lloyd
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16th April 2007
Philip Venables has been invited to be a panel judge in this year's
BBC Prom - Guardian Young Composer of the Year.
He will join judges such as Errolyn Wallen, Tansy Davies, Andrew Kurowski and Colin
Matthews in selecting the best pieces by the best young composers under the age of
18. The winning pieces will be performed in a special Proms event on 17th August.
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12th April 2007
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Philip Venables will have his American debut on April 23rd when the pianist
Daniel Browell performs Philip's 'The Boy with the Moon in his Eyes' at the
Rudolph Ganz Memorial Hall in Chicago. This set of studies was written for
Daniel and was premiered by him at the South Bank Centre in January. This
American premiere of The Boy with the Moon in his Eyes will be Venables'
first performance in the USA.
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Daniel Browell
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Rudolph Ganz Memorial Hall
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24th March 2007
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Philip Venables' "What Remains" - a short opera scene - was performed last night at the
Bregenz Festspielhaus
by members of
London Contemporary Opera:
Louise Cannon (soprano), Andrew Watts (counter-tenor), Omar Ebrahim (speaker) and John Paul Gandy (piano).
Philip worked on the scene with the writer and director Adrian Osmond
at a week-long new opera-writing workshop run by London Contemporary Opera and the KAZ Festival, Bregenz.
The scene is an emotional exploration of the dying of a mother,
sung simultaneously from the mother's perspective and from the son's.
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Louise Cannon
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Andrew Watts
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March 2007
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Philip has been commissioned by the Deal Festival and the world famous
Black Dyke Brass Band
to write a piece for solo euphonium and brass band. He is working with
the band's principal euphonium player, David Thornton.
The work will be premiered at this year's
Deal Festival in Kent, on 30th June 2007.
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David Thornton
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Saturday 3rd February 2007, 11pm
BBC Radio 3 will broadcast Philip Venables' String Quartet on 3rd February.
The recording was made at the premiere of the piece that took place at
the Wigmore Hall in December. Listen also to an interview with Philip about the piece.
You can hear it at 11pm on 90-93FM, and online for 7 days after the broadcast.
More information:
www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/hearandnow
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25th Nov 2006: 'Arc' gets honourable mention at British Composer Awards
Philip Venables' orchestral piece, 'Arc', got an honourable mention
last night at the British Composer Awards Ceremony at the Hayward Gallery.
The judges praised Venables as a 'very promising young composer',
and this was the only special mention made over all awards categories.
The ceremony was presented by Steve Martland, Petroc Trelawny and Sara Mohr-Pietsch.
Highlights of the night will be broadcast in a special programme on
Performance on 3, BBC Radio 3, 90-93FM, on Monday 27th November 2006 at 7.30pm.
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WIGMORE HALL DEBUT
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Philip Venables will make his Wigmore Hall debut on 5th December 2006.
The Duke Quartet will perform the world premiere of the complete version of his String Quartet.
The Strad described the first movement of this piece as
“ Delicately spun melodies dissolved into bursts of aggression”
at its premiere during the South Bank Centre's 2004 Omaggio Berio Festival.
The Dukes are one of the finest quartets around: “Superb playing” (The Sunday Times);
“Stunning accuracy and vehemence” (The Strad);
“emotional warmth and technical finesse” (BBC Music Magazine).
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The Duke Quartet Photo: Richard Lloyd
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The Duke Quartet will perform Venables' 3-movement quartet in Edinburgh and Cardiff
following the London premiere. The String Quartet will be recorded live by BBC Radio 3
during the premiere at the Wigmore Hall on 5th December 2006. No date has been set for the broadcast
of the quartet, but details will be posted here when they are available
www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/hearandnow
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Scottish Ensemble
The Scottish Ensemble
, the critically acclaimed string ensemble, will be working with Philip Venables
over the next 3 months to create a new piece called Scio.
Philip says about the piece:
‘Scio means “in composition, shadow; a sham fight; a fight with shadows”.
‘”A fight with shadows” is exactly what this piece is about. This piece aims
to explore the difference between unison and harmony, and the same melodic line shadowing itself.
‘It’s also a fight. The style is generally aggressive, heavy-handed, violent.
There will be solo sections too, particularly featuring solo double bass and solo viola,
backed by the rest of the ensemble. The idea is to pull apart different ‘fights’
within the ensemble, each mirroring the other, but inverted, parodied, turned inside out,
using the same weapons in harmony and in opposition.’
The first performances will be on February 23rd and 26th, 2007, in Glasgow's City Hall and
The Sanctuary, Queen's Cross Church in Aberdeen, in a programme including Ravel, Elgar and Takemitsu,
and conducted by James MacMillan.
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Park Lane Group
Philip Venables is working on a new piece for the established
Park Lane Group series, for the pianist Daniel Browell. Daniel,
who is currently in Chicago and flying back especially for the
concert at the South Bank Centre, has worked with Philip for many years,
beginning with their performance of Berio's points on the curve to find...
with Sequenza in October 2003, when they were both students at the Royal Academy.
This is the first time they have worked on solo repertoire together, and both are excited at the prospect.
The new piece will be called The boy with the moon in his eyes, and will be Philip's second solo piano piece,
the first being The girl with the sun in her head for Sarah Nicolls and Kate Dixon (two different versions).
The boy with the moon in his eyes will be premiered by Daniel Browell in the Park Lane Group Series,
Monday 8th January 2007, 7.45pm, at the Purcell Room, South Bank Centre, London.
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BBC Singers
Philip Venables has been selected to write a new work for the
BBC Singers as part of an
spnm project.
The new piece will be completed in stages for workshop sessions beginning in December 2006,
and it will be performed by the BBC Singers in July 2007.
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Adopt a Composer – South London Jazz Orchestra
Philip Venables is delighted to be working closely with the
South London Jazz Orchestra for the 2006/07 season as part of
spnm's Adopt a Composer scheme. He will write several pieces for the group in various Big Band styles,
and performances of these new pieces will happen through 2007.
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Pakistan
Philip will travel to Islamabad, Pakistan in early December 2006 and stay for a month on a long artistic retreat.
While there he will work on his commissions for Ensemble 10:10 and the BBC Singers and he will develop ideas
for a new one act opera.
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