Our online listening club is held monthly from 7.30-8.30pm on the last Tuesday of the month, and is a chance to come together regularly to listen to new music and find out more about a selection of contemporary composers.
We will invite a variety of different guest hosts who will explore the music of a new contemporary composer each session. You'll be invited to spend some time listening to one of the composer's works before we meet, but there will also be an opportunity to listen to the work during the session if you don't get around to it beforehand.
Like a book club but with less homework!
For this month's listening club we'll be exploring Philip Venables 'My Favourite Piece is the Goldberg Variations'
My Favourite Piece is the Goldberg Variations was commissioned and first performed by Andreas Borregaard, with support from the Norwegian Academy of Music. The first ‘performance’ was at Borealis Festival 2021, and, owing to Covid-19 restrictions, took the form of a music video made by Pierre Martin using found footage, Andreas’ family footage, and footage of him performing the piece.
Duration: 23 minutes
Set-up: Solo accordion who also speaks and sings. Amplification of the accordion and the voice is usually required.
'My Favourite Piece is the Goldberg Variations is based on interviews with Susanne Borregaard (mother of accordionist Andreas Borregaard) conducted during the summer lockdown of 2020.
Andreas approached me about writing a piece involving extended performativity beyond simply playing the accordion. I was drawn to the idea of the accordionist as storyteller, almost in the troubadour sense. We met with writer Ted Huffman in Berlin to speak about Andreas’ own life and work, which in turn led to interviews with his mother over Skype.
My work with Ted often uses verbatim text and this piece continues our exploration of queer histories. From this interview material, we formed twelve snapshots of a life over seven decades.
The piece is dedicated to Susanne Borregaard with great appreciation for her contribution.'
You can listen to the piece here:
Biography
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) and The Faggots and their Friends Between Revolutions (2023, text: Huffman after Mitchell) , 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” and The New York Times Denis & Katya as “an intimate, haunting triumph.” Philip’s fourth opera, We Are The Lucky Ones (text: Huffman / Segal) will premiere at Dutch National Opera in March 2025.
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.
Please register in advance by clicking BOOK on the right hand side. After registering you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the session.
You can join the session on Zoom via an internet browser on your computer or mobile device or you can phone in on either a mobile or landline to listen using the Dial by your location number.
Zoom's closed captions feature will be enabled if you require any further information or if you need to contact us about access requirements please email info@sound-scotland.co.uk
