Percussionist Evelyn Glennie will perform the world premiere of Venus, composed for her by Francesco Antonioni, during a recital she will be giving at the Teatro Olimpico in Rome on May 5 as part of the Accademia Filarmonica Romana concert season.
 
Fascinated by Evelyn Glennie’s virtuosity and stage presence, Antonioni explains the title of the work: "…seeing and hearing Evelyn Glennie play her instruments, you understand that… through percussion it’s possible to put into gentle movement membranes, resonances, to make the air vibrate and produce sonorous waves capable of radiating wide and far, in their ethereal and rarefied, yet always malleable and concrete dimension. Hence the image of Venus, as she rises up from the depths of the sea, converses with aquatic creatures, gracefully touches and instils life into every object, and sets in motion the resonances of bodies."

Venus was commissioned by the Accademia Filarmonica Romana.