Philip Venables (GB)

About

Philip Venables is a British composer whose work sits squarely at the intersection of opera, theatre, and contemporary classical music, with a strong thread of queer identity running through much of it. His operatic adaptation of Sarah Kane's 4.48 Psychosis, staged at the Lyric Hammersmith in 2016, was the first ever authorised setting of Kane's work and earned a nomination for the Olivier Award for Best New Opera Production. That kind of bold, literary source material is pretty typical of Venables, who has also collaborated with Turner Prize winner Douglas Gordon and avant garde cabaret artist David Hoyle. His catalogue spans orchestral commissions for the BBC Philharmonic and the London Symphony Orchestra, vocal works for the BBC Singers, and pieces for the London Sinfonietta. He holds a Doctoral Composer in Residence position at the Royal Opera House and Guildhall School of Music and Drama. He has picked up two Ivor Novello Award nominations at the Ivors Classical Awards, including one in 2024 for The Faggots and Their Friends Between Revolutions, which had its UK premiere at the Manchester International Festival.