Ian Venables

Ian Venables was born in Liverpool in 1955 and was educated at Liverpool Collegiate Grammar School. He studied music with Professor Richard Arnell at Trinity College of Music, London and later with Andrew Downes, John Mayer and John Joubert at the Birmingham Conservatoire of Music. Since 1986 he has lived in Worcester. His compositions encompass many genres, and in particular he has added significantly to the canon of English art song. Described as …’Britain’s greatest living composer of art songs…’ (Musical Opinion) and ‘…a song composer as fine as Finzi and Gurney…’ (BBC Music Magazine), he has written over 60 works in this genre, which includes eight song-cycles – Venetian Songs – Love’s Voice Op.22 (1995); Invite to Eternity Op.31 (1997) for tenor, string quartet; Songs of Eternity and Sorrow Op.36 (2004) for tenor, string quartet, piano; On the Wings of Love Op.38 (2006) for tenor, clarinet, piano; The Pine Boughs Past Music Op.39 (2010) for baritone and piano; Remember This Op.40 (2011) – Cantata for soprano, tenor, string quartet, piano, The Song of The Severn Op.43 (2012) for baritone, string quartet, piano and Canzonetta Op. 44 (2013) for Clarinet and String Quartet, Through These Pale Cold Days Op.46 (2016) for tenor, viola and piano. Other songs for solo voice and piano include, Two Songs Op.28 (1997) and Six Songs Op.33 (1999-2003) as well as ‘A Dramatic Scena’ for counter-tenor and piano – At the Court of the poisoned Rose Op. 20 (1994). His songs and chamber music has been performed by national and internationally acclaimed artists that include: Andrew Kennedy, Patricia Rozario, Roderick Williams, Ian Partridge, Howard Wong, Nathan Vale, Daniel Norman, Mary Plazas, Michael Lampard, Brian Thorsett, Allan Clayton, Peter Savidge, Peter Wilman, Elizabeth Atherton, Nicholas Mulroy, Kevin McLean Mair, Helen Massey, Keira Lyness, Susan Anne-Jenkins, Der-shin Hwang, Helen Meyerhoff, Sally Porter Munro, Caroline MacPhie, Benjamin Hulett, Geraldine McGreevy, Lucy Hall, Alessandro Fisher, Matteo Placidi and Kristian Sorensen, Duke Quartet, Chilingirian Quartet, Tippett Quartet, Goldfield Ensemble, Chamber Domaine, Cicardian Quartet, Dante Quartet, Elias Quartet, Sacconi Quartet, Benyounes Quartet, Barbirolli Quartet, Emerald Ensemble, Carducci Quartet, Cavaleri Quartet, Coull Quartet, The Hollywell Ensemble, Mark Bebbington, Iain Burnside, Simon Crawford-Phillips,Benjamin Frith, Graham.J Lloyd, Paul Plummer, Simon Lepper, William Vann, Susie Allan, Gary Matthewman, Richard Sisson, Michael Jones, Rhodri Clarke, Michael Pollock, Graham Fitch, Tom Poster, Andrew West, Patrick Hemmerle, Gavin Roberts, Christopher Gould, Scott Mitchell, Greg kostraba, Nigel Clayton, Jennifer Partridge, Richard Hosford, Natalie Parker, Max Welford, Timothy Orpen, Matthew Scott, Richard Jenkinson, Nick Roberts, Ashok Klouda, Bernard Gregor-Smith, Roger Coull, Michael Bochmann, Carol Hubel, Suzanne Bona, Adrian Lucas, Ian Tracey, Ashley Grote, Andrew Fletcher, Adrian Partington, Simon Vivian, Daniel Phillps. His many chamber works include a Piano Quintet Op.27 (1995) – described by Roderic Dunnett in the Independent as ‘…lending a new late 20th Century dimension to the English pastoral…’ and a String Quartet Op.32 (1998), as well as smaller pieces for solo instruments and piano. He has also written works for choir – Awake, awake, the world is young Op.34 – organ – Rhapsody Op.25 (1996), brass and solo piano. He is an acknowledged expert on the 19th century poet and literary critic John Addington Symonds, and apart from having set five of his poems for voice and piano, he has contributed a significant essay to the book John Addington Symonds – Culture and the Demon Desire (Macmillan Press Ltd, 2000). He is President of The Arthur Bliss Society, Vice-President of the Gloucester Music Society and a former chairman of the Ivor Gurney Society. His continuing work on the music of Ivor Gurney has led to orchestrations of two of his songs (2003) – counterparts to the two that were orchestrated by Herbert Howells – and newly edited versions of Gurney’s War Elegy (1919) and A Gloucestershire Rhapsody (1921), with Dr Philip Lancaster. His music has been recorded on Somm, Signum, Regent, EM Records, and Naxos labels and is published by Novello and Company Ltd (Music Sales International)