Candy Verney
Choir Leader & Trainer – Singing Holidays
– Retreat Centre – Song Books
Candy is a choir director and trainer, who for the last 25 years has been building communities through song, facilitating thousands to find their voice. She is also a Song Book author having published her own song books and collaborated works for both choirs and children.
Choir Leader and Trainer
Candy draws on over 35 years experience of teaching in a wide range of settings. Candy has been running community choir leadership trainings for 13 years. Many previous participants have gone on to make this their full time profession. Click here to see a list of available trainings and resources.
Testimonials
"I found the course intense and very challenging, but so very rewarding. We learned so much material in the teaching days, it will take a while for it to sink in. The practical sessions were very supportive, great considering various levels of skills in our group. We were told to challenge ourselves and most of us did just that- I did my first arrangement and my first improvising!" Graham from Belfast The Song House 2016, now running a school community choir
"Beyond my expectations! I have found this is what I want to do, to help others find joy in singing" Nieves from Spain The Song House 2019, now running her own choir near Madrid
"Hugely useful week. I now know WHAT I need to prepare- timing, beginnings, endings, staffing notes etc. Excellent- well planned and thorough. Good balance between input from Candy and our own experienced learning. Great to have the notes. INTENSIVE- there is a lot- but that’s what we’ve come for. We’ve worked hard but it has been so worth it. Peer learning as well as candy’s wealth of experience" Abigail from Ireland The Song House 2019, now running her own choir in Cork
Since 2014, Candy has fulfilled a dream of a lifetime, renovating and developing an inspirational retreat centre in the wilds of Co Donegal, Ireland. She runs Singing on the Wild Side singing holidays, and Community Choir Leadership Trainings there, as well as a programme of other life enhancing and cultural events.
Song Books
The Pan-European Choir
Candys choir, The Pan European Choir, consists of members from Ireland, Northern Ireland, England, Germany, Switzerland and Spain. They meet every 6 months in each other’s countries for 3 days of glorious singing. Here is The Pan- European Choir singing St Rita’s Church in Berlin on 1st November 2019. Candy’s Pan-European Choir includes singers from Germany, Ireland, UK and Spain.
Cór an Chroí
This lovely choir based at the Song House, Falcarragh, Co Donegal has been goingsince 2017. We sing weekly on Tuesday evenings, and perform at local festivals and events. Repertoire- all sorts, with an emphasis on Irish songs in Irish and English.
We specialise in songs arranged by Candy, also arrangements of songs created by local singer songwriters.
Soul Soundings
Soul Soundings takes place in some of the world’s most ancient and sacred buildings- Wells Cathedral and Bath Abbey for example. Participants are invited to explore the resonance, connecting us to those who have worshiped and sung there over hundreds of years. We move around the building, experiment with different tones, use echoes, drones and free singing to deeply experience the resonance within the fabric of the building.
Over ten years we raised over £3400 for the Barenboim Said Foundation, and Oxfam Syrian Refugee Crisis Appeal.
Candy created and ran Soul Soundings for ten years from 2010. She passed on the event to Jane Harris – songways.co.uk – from 2021.
The Trowbridge Song Project
From 2013 – 2015 Candy developed The Trowbridge Song Project, with two aims: one was collecting and archiving for posterity stories of migration from people who have arrived to live in Trowbridge from diverse shores, but now call this Wiltshire town home. You can hear short audios from these stories on Soundcloud. The entire oral history collection is also archived at The Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre.
The other was building friendship and community between people from many countries, by sharing their songs. We had 3 big concerts, with acts from Africa, Eastern Europe, Turkey, Jamaica, Tibet, Poland, Guyana, and massed choirs involving hundreds of singers. You can see videos on YouTube.
Tacaithe go Bródúil ag
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