Philip Venables has made a name as a brilliant iconoclast in contemporary music. Reflecting his split life between Berlin and London, this programme focuses on the questions of memory and identity at the heart of his vision.

The intense focus of Venable’s music is juxtaposed with Lee Hyla’s raucous We Speak Etruscan, a piece that imagines a new (fake) language, spoken by a heavily amplified bass clarinet and baritone sax, and Helga Arias Parra’s meditative Incipit, derived from a quote of Pergolesi which only emerges in its dying moments. Sarah Nemstov’s Central Park sits alongside Venable’s Illusions and numbers 91-95.

Led by a core group of sixteen musicians, The Riot Ensemble collaborate with an array of other musicians and artists in concerts they plan and produce themselves. They are one of the few emerging ensembles in the UK to regularly commission and perform music by international emerging composers, presenting the young composers they commission alongside exciting and established music from Bach to Birtwistle.

Pre-concert talk: Philip Venables in conversation

Join us for a free pre-concert talk with Philip Venables in conversation with Tim Rutherford-Johnson, author of Music after the Fall: Modern Composition and Culture Since 1989.

The talk is free, but a ticket is required. 

This event is part of Luminate, the new contemporary music series at Kings Place.