Donemus Webwinkel — Venegas, Saskia

Saskia Venegas was born in Guecho in Spain in 1983 and has the Spanish and Belgian nationality.
Venegas studied violin at Codarts, Rotterdam with Christiaan Bor, Benzion Shamir and Gordan Nikolitch. After obtaining her bachelor degree she studied New Music Theatre master with, Michel Van der Aa, Arlon Luijten, Marcel Sijm, Titus Muizelaar and Rob de Graaf amongst others. She broadened her musical studies at the the Royal Conservatoire of Antwerp where she studied composition with Wim Henderickx , Luc Van Hove and Alain Craens obtaining her bachelor degree in 2016 and her master degree in 2018 with the highest distinction.
Venegas is profoundly interested in portraying and reflecting upon human social and political behaviour in her creations. Compositions like At the Aegean Shores performed by the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra, was a narration of the horrors she witnessed while working in a refugee camp in Lesbos. Her ensemble piece A veces el silencio es la peor mentira (Sometimes silence is the biggest lie), performed by Hermes Ensemble, is a reflection on the open wounds of her country and critique on the existence of the “Valley of the fallen”, a Catholic basilica and a monumental memorial where Spanish dictator Franco was buried (until Oct 2019). This work made her go further and investigate compositions of oppressed composers of the Spanish dictatorship. Her search of their lost names, biographies and missing works gave birth to her project Spain’s silenced voices presented by Ensemble Oihua, an ensemble that she herself founded while being its artistic director. The performances were acted out in several Spanish theaters with the support of the Spanish ministry of justice.
Her world view connected her with the famous Swiss theater director, journalist, essayist and lecturer Milo Rau, working as a composer in his last two theatre productions “Orestes in Mosul” (2019) and “Family” (2020).