Philip Venables studied at the University of Cambridge, then at the Royal Academy of Music with Philip Cashian and David Sawer, where he earned a Recital Diploma and the Manson Fellowship in composition. Venables then obtained an Arts and Humanities Research Council scholarship for doctoral research on speech, violence, and music at the Royal Academy of Music from 2012 to 2013. During the same period, he was associate composer at the London Symphony Orchestra St Luke’s Soundhub. From 2013 to 2016, he was doctoral composer-in-residence at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama and at the Royal Opera House where he followed the teachings of Julian Philips and James Weeks. In 2016, the Royal Academy of Music conferred associate honors (ARAM) to Venables for his significant contribution to composition. He is also director of the agency Bright Ivy Ltd., founder of the Sequenza ensemble, and artistic director of the Endymion ensemble.

Through his music, Venables treats contemporary societal topics such as politics, sexuality, gender, and violence. These themes are presented in various formats, often using multimedia, such as opera for adults or children, musical theater, in situ sound installation, concertos, and chamber music with or without vocals.

Philip’s music has been performed and played internationally. Among those who have played and commissioned it are the Royal Opera, BBC Philharmonic, BBC Symphony Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Wigmore Hall, London Contemporary Opera, London Sinfonietta, Ensemble Endymion, Ensemble EXAUDI, Black Dyke Brass Band, Rambert Dance Company, HAU Hebbel am Ufer in Berlin, Kampnagel Theater Hamburg, and Theater Basel. In 2021, Philip Venables was featured at the Festival d’Automne in Paris. In 2022, his work was programmed at the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival and the November Music Festival in the Netherlands.

Venables regularly works with American director and librettist Ted Huffman, with whom he created several award-winning works, such as the opera 4.48 Psychosis, which is the first authorized adaptation of a play by British playwright Sarah Kane. It won the 2016 UK Theatre Award for Best Opera, the 2017 Royal Philharmonic Society Award for Best Large Scale Composition, and the 2017 British Composer Award for Best Stage Work, and was nominated for an Olivier Award and a South Bank Sky Arts Award.

Venables lives between London and Berlin. His works are published by Ricordi.