Ian Venables was born in Liverpool in 1955 and 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 Royal 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 80 works in this genre, which includes eleven song-cycles; Love’s Voice Op.22 (1995), Invite to Eternity Op.31 (1997), Songs of Eternity and Sorrow Op.36 (2004), On the Wings of Love Op.38 (2006), The Pine Boughs Past Music Op.39 (2010), Remember This Op.40 (2011), The Song of The Severn Op.43 (2013), Through These Pale Cold Days Op.46 (2016), The Last Invocation Op.50 (2019), Portraits of a Mind Op.54 (2022), and Out of the Shadows Op.55 (2023) , 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 instrumental music has been performed by national and internationally acclaimed artists that include: Andrew Kennedy, Patricia Rozario, Roderick Williams, Ian Partridge, Mary Bevan, Howard Wong, Nathan Vale, Daniel Norman, Mary Plazas, Michael Lampard, Brian Thorsett, Allan Clayton, Nicky Spence, Peter Savidge, Peter Wilman, Elizabeth Atherton, Nicholas Mulroy, Kevin McLean-Mair, Helen Massey, Keira Lyness, Susan Bickley, Susan Anne-Jenkins, Der-shin Hwang, Helen Meyerhoff, Sally Porter Munro, Caroline MacPhie, Benjamin Hulett, Dame Sarah Connolly, Marcus Farnsworth, Geraldine McGreevy, Gareth Brymnor John, Anando Mukerjee, Lucy Hall, Alessandro Fisher, Matteo Placidi, Christopher Willoughby, April Fredrick, Kristian Sorensen, Milly Forrest, Nicholas Pritchard, Ellen Leslie, Benjamin Appl, James Gilchrist, Ciara Hendrick, Mark Wilde, Gareth Brymnor John, 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, Navarra Quartet, The Hollywell Ensemble, Divertimento, Pheonix Piano Trio, Goldfield Ensemble, Mark Bebbington, Iain Burnside, Patrick Hemmerle, Alan MacLean, Simon Crawford-Phillips, Pavel Timofeyevsky, Benjamin Frith, Libby Burgess, Graham.J Lloyd, Paul Plummer, Simon Lepper, William Vann, David Owen Norris, Susie Allan, Gary Matthewman, Sholto Kynoch, Richard Sisson, Michael Jones, Rhodri Clarke, Michael Pollock, Graham Fitch, Tom Poster, Kenneth Woods, Matthew Shellhorn, Andrew West, Gavin Roberts, James Baillieu, Christopher Gould, Michael Blackmore, Judith Carey, Scott Mitchell, Greg Kostraba, Alexander Roszhdesvensky, Nigel Clayton, Jennifer Partridge, Richard Hosford, Natalie Parker, Max Welford, Timothy Orpen, Matthew Scott, Richard Jenkinson, Nick Roberts, Roger Coull, Louise Williams, Timothy Ridout, Ashok Klouda, Josiane Marfurt, Bernard Gregor-Smith, Robert Plane, Roger Coull, Michael Bochmann, Alexey Popov, Carol Hubel-Allen, Suzanne Bona, Adrian Lucas, Ian Tracey, John Wilderspin, Ashley Grote, Samuel Hudson, Benjamin Nicholas, Jonathan Clinch, Andrew Fletcher, Adrian Partington, James Vivian, Jonathan Hope, Piers Maxim, Daniel Phillips, David Bednall, Eric McElroy, George Rowley, Eric Choate, Simon Berry, Piers Maxim, Michael Poll. 

His many chamber works include a Piano Quintet Op.27 (1995) – described by Roderic Dunnett in the Independent as ‘…lending a new late 20^th 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 (2000), Requiem Op.48 (2019) and 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, a Vice-President of the Gloucester Music Society, 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 is broadcast  on BBC Radio 3, and he is a regular guest on ‘In Tune’

Ian Venables’ music has been recorded on SOMM, SIGNUM, REGENT, NAXOS, EM RECORDS, DELPHIAN and is published by Novello (Wise Music Group)

© Graham J. Lloyd