VENT is a work for choir and electronics, co-created by composer Benjamin Oliver and theatre maker Rachel Warr. The piece was commissioned and created/for with the amazing MUSARC in 2024. The choir material is challenging but aimed at non-professional singers. The piece was shortlisted for a 2025 Novello Classical Award in the Best Community and Participation Composition category.

The title, VENT, references both giving free expression to strong emotions and the abbreviated term for ventriloquism, the practice of speaking without moving your lips thus making it appear is if your voice is coming from another source.

The work explores protest and freedom of speech. The libretto draws on phonetics terminology that describe how the voice produces and articulates sound, specifically the sounds that are particularly challenging to produce while employing ventriloquism.

The following score video gives a sense of the piece. It combines the score, video and audio from MUSARC’s premiere performance in December 2024 and a professional 8-singer recording made in summer 2025.

Please do reach out to me if you would be interesting in performing the piece: benolivermusic@gmail.com