Yvette Staelens

Biography

Yvette Staelens, is a natural voice practitioner and currently musical director of three choirs in Somerset who tour annually in Europe annually under the name of Voice of the People. She works internationally and has recently returned from Australia where she was invited to work with five choirs in Sydney. She has also led workshops across the UK in many settings from  Festivals to Womens’ Institutes, and internationally in Los Angeles, France, Ireland etc. During her professional music career, she formed an acoustic band, Roots Quartet performing, co-writing and arranging many of their songs. You can find their music on Spotify, YouTube, CDbaby, and all the usual platforms.

Yvette also works part-time at Bournemouth University Faculty of Science and Technology as a Senior Teaching Fellow, where her research focuses upon museums, collections and intangible cultural heritage, specifically English folk song. She is a Fellow of the Museums Association and a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries. Her recent work is in the domain of heritage and mental health, as co-ordinator for the Human Henge project which explored the role of historic landscapes, specifically Stonehenge and Avebury, in mental-wellbeing, (see Darvill, T, Barrass, K, Drysdale, L, Heaslip, V and Staelens, Y, 2019, Historic Landscapes and Mental Well-being, Archaeopress).