Ian Venables
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Ian Venables (born 1955) is a British composer of songs and chamber music.
[edit] Music
Ian Venables began formal composition lessons with at Trinity College of Music and at the Birmingham Conservatoire. After moving from Dorset in 1986 he has settled in Worcester. Currently he also works at RGS Worcester and The Alice Ottley School as a teacher of economics and British and American politics. At the RGSAO, one of his pieces was performed by fellow teacher John Wilderspin, as part of one year's RGS Worcester Organ Recital Series
He has written music for piano, organ, brass and choir. His many chamber works are performed regularly - in particular, his String Quartet Op. 32 and Piano Quintet Op. 27. His compositions have been played on BBC Radio 3 and Classic FM. Gramophone Magazine recorded in a 2000 review that "...at his best, as in the cycle, Invite, to Eternity, Venables impresses as a songwriter in the line of, say Gerald Finzi..."
His compositions encompass many genres, and in particular he has added significantly to the canon of English art-song. Most notable are his four Song Cycles: Venetian Songs Op.22 - Love’s Voice (1995); Invite to Eternity Op.31 (1997) for tenor and string quartet; Songs of Eternity and Sorrow Op.36 (2004) for tenor, string quartet and piano, and On the Wings of Love Op.38 (2006) for tenor, clarinet and piano. Other songs for solo voice and piano include Two Songs Op.28 (1997) and Six Songs Op.33 (1999) as well as ‘A Dramatic Scena’ for counter-tenor and piano – At the Court of the Poisoned Rose Op. 20 (1994). His many chamber works include a Piano Quintet Op.27 (1995) and a String Quartet Op.32 (1997) 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 (Three Choirs Festival, Worcester 2001) – organ – Rhapsody Op.25 (1996), brass and solo piano.
[edit] Ivor Gurney
Ian Venables is chairman of the Ivor Gurney Society and is currently working to achieve the publication of some previously unpublished works by Gurney. (Source- see below)
