Verity Standen’s work as a composer, director and performer explores the human voice and how it can be celebrated and transformed through live performance.

Verity’s performance pieces have been presented in theatres and concert venues, galleries and museums, dance festivals and live art programmes, castles and cafes. Wherever it is performed, music is always at the heart of Verity’s work; she creates sound worlds, often using intricate vocal techniques and rich harmony, and allows each audience member to interpret mood and narrative for themselves. She often works with community singers to develop and perform her projects.

Verity likes to play with vocal music in ways that ask us to listen differently. Her projects take a range of forms – concerts, theatre pieces, films, installations, community events – but they always start with the voice.

Verity is currently touring with Kaleider’s Arch, an entrancing installation in which a freestanding arch is built out of ice and concrete. Verity has written music for the piece, and is travelling around Europe this summer to work with singers in each location to perform in the show.

A lot of Verity’s work explores the relationship between music and intimacy. She has woven singers amongst audiences (Undersong), embraced audience members (HUG), created concerts for one person at a time (Symphony), and built an installation out of the tiny details of people’s voices (polyphony).

Often, Verity works in close partnership with individuals and communities to create projects for specific environments. She has created a series of duets with people on the Isle of Mull in Scotland (Island Duets), developed portrait films with isolated older people (Voices of Worle), filled historical sites with choirs to mark 100 years since they held conscientious objectors (Refrain), and led pop-up performances on hospital wards (Airborne).

Verity runs a weekly, drop-in choir for anyone that likes to make noises with others in Frome, Somerset. utterancechoir.com