We're here – Singing our way to Utopia
The Courtyard, Somerset House, Strand
The UK population is overwhelmingly urban: more than 80% of us live in cities.
We're Here asked British city-dwellers to do something extraordinary together: to sing in public and in harmony with 49 other strangers. To create a fragile Utopian moment.
Boff Whalley, Sarah Punshon and Daniel Bye, in collaboration with David Green and Rachel Thomas, held workshops in five or our largest cities, asking singers about their lives, their fears, their experiences and their communities. A new piece of lyrical choral music was the result: a distillation of what it means to live in our cities today, for better and for worse.
On Saturday 27 August this national scratch choir came together for the first and only time to sing together at Somerset House - the original centre for recording the nation's population.
Team
Boff Whalley, formerly a member of the band Chumbawamba, is now a composer, writer, fell runner and designer.
Daniel Bye is an award-winning theatre-maker from the northeast of England.
Sarah Punshon is a director and curator whose work includes main stage Alan Bennett, prime time EastEnders, and live art inspired by Elvis and epigenetics.
Professor David Green is based in the Department of Geography, King’s College London.
