Philip Venables
Composer
Collaborative composer Philip Venables is described as “an arrestingly original musical personality” by Alex Ross in The New Yorker and as “one of the finest composers around” by The Guardian. Philip’s work is often about storytelling.
Philip’s previous music-theatre works, 4.48 Psychosis (2016, text: Kane), Denis & Katya (2019, text: Huffman), The Faggots and their Friends Between Revolutions (2023, text: Huffman after Mitchell) and We Are The Lucky Ones (2025, text: Huffman & Segal) have been performed by leading companies in London, New York City, Paris, Amsterdam, Strasbourg, Manchester, Aix-en-Provence, Dresden, Philadelphia, Hannover and Montpellier. The operas have won the Fedora Prize, an RPS Award, and an Ivor Novello Award, as well as shortlisted nominations for an Olivier Award and Sky Arts South Bank Award. The Times branded 4.48 Psychosis “a new brand of opera”, Opera Today said Denis & Katya “challenges the ear, the eye, and the soul to accept a wholly new hybrid form of operatic expression” and The New York Times called We Are The Lucky Ones “an opera as compact and overwhelming as Wozzeck.”
Concert works include Answer Machine Tape, 1987, based on archive material from David Wojnarowicz; My Favourite Piece is the Goldberg Variations (Text: Ted Huffman); a series of pieces based on Numbers by poet Simon Howard; several pieces with drag/performance artist David Hoyle (Illusions, Canal Street); and Venables plays Bartók with violinist Pekka Kuusisto for the BBC Proms. Philip’s debut album Below the Belt was released on NMC in 2018: “unmissable… music of forensic clarity and visceral force – but also great tenderness and generosity” (BBC Music Magazine).
Philip has been a fellow at Yaddo and MacDowell, doctoral composer in residence with the Royal Opera and the Guildhall School of Music & Drama in 2014–2016, and elected Associate of the Royal Academy of Music in 2016.
Philip is represented by OWL Artist Management and published by Opera Edition and Ricordi Berlin.
