300px, Ars Nova Singers The Ars Nova Singers is a choral ensemble based in

Boulder, Colorado Boulder is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Home rule municipality, home rule city in Boulder County, Colorado, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 108,250 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the most ...

. Founded in 1986, Ars Nova Singers is composed of about 40 singers who were selected through auditions from the Boulder / Denver metropolitan area. Ars Nova has achieved significant national recognition, recording ten critically acclaimed solo recordings as well as performing on seven recordings with Boulder composer and instrumentalist, Bill Douglas.Insiders' Guide to Boulder and Rocky Mountain National Park - Page 192 Ann Alexander Leggett - 2009 "MUSIC ARS NOVA SINGERS (303)499-3165 www.arsnovasingers.org The ensemble specializes in ''a cappella'' music of the Renaissance and 20th and 21 st centuries, including works by Colorado's finest composers, and performs in churches in ... Ars Nova performs a variety of music but specializes in ''a cappella'' works of Renaissance masters and contemporary works by 20th and 21st century composers. The ensemble's musical accomplishments include performances of the music of

Hildegard of Bingen Hildegard of Bingen Benedictines, OSB (, ; ; 17 September 1179), also known as the Sibyl of the Rhine, was a German Benedictines, Benedictine abbess and polymath active as a writer, composer, philosopher, Christian mysticism, mystic, visiona ...

, concerts of the complete ''Responsoria'' by the late-Renaissance composer

Carlo Gesualdo Carlo Gesualdo da Venosa (between 8 March 1566 and 30 March 1566 – 8 September 1613) was an Italian nobleman and composer. Though both the Prince of Venosa and Count of Conza, he is better known for writing madrigals and pieces of sacred ...

, acclaimed performances of the ''a cappella'' works of

Rachmaninoff Sergei Vasilyevich Rachmaninoff; in Russian pre-revolutionary script. (28 March 1943) was a Russian composer, virtuoso pianist, and conductor. Rachmaninoff is widely considered one of the finest pianists of his day and, as a composer, one of ...

(the ''Vespers'' and ''Liturgy of St. John''), and the commissioning and premiering of new works.

Performances

Since their founding, the Ars Nova Singers has done over 300 live performances of over 100 concert programs. The group has been featured on radio broadcasts throughout North and South America, Australia, Japan, and Europe, including such

National Public Radio National Public Radio (NPR) is an American public broadcasting organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It serves as a national Radio syndication, syndicator to a network of more ...

programs as ''The First Art'', ''Music from the Hearts of Space'', and locally on Colorado Public Radio's ''Colorado Matters'' and ''Colorado Spotlight'' programs. Honors include an invitation-only performance on National Public Radio in Washington, D.C. (2006); performances at the national conventions of Chorus America (2002); and The American Guild of Organists (1998); and with world renowned vocal group VOCES8 (2023); and support from the Chorus Program of the

National Endowment for the Arts The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the feder ...

and the Performing Ensembles program of the Aaron Copland Fund for Music.

Collaborations

Ars Nova has collaborated with other musicians and arts organizations in the Rocky Mountain region, including: the

Kronos Quartet The Kronos Quartet is an American string quartet based in San Francisco. It has been in existence with a rotating membership of musicians for 50 years. The quartet covers a very broad range of musical genres, including contemporary classical musi ...

;

Boulder Philharmonic Orchestra The Boulder Philharmonic Orchestra, founded in 1958, is a professional symphony orchestra based in Boulder, Colorado. It is led by Music Director Michael Butterman. The Boulder Philharmonic's season at Macky Auditorium on the University of Color ...

;

Colorado Music Festival The Colorado Music Festival is a classical music festival in Boulder, Colorado. It was founded in 1976 by the Vienna-born conductor and violinist, Giora Bernstein and presents an annual summer season of concerts in Boulder's Chautauqua Auditori ...

; Colorado MahlerFest; Frequent Flyers Dance Company; St. Martin’s Chamber Choir; Denver Chamber Orchestra; Colorado Mormon Chorale; Pro Musica Colorado, and the Sphere Ensemble. The choir has participated in commissioning/new music projects, performing new works by Libby Larsen, Stephen Paulus, Luis Jorge González, Jan Gilbert, R. Anthony Lee, and Terry Schlenker. In September 2002 the ensemble premiered ''I Heard a Voice'', a major new work composed by Thomas Edward Morgan and New York visual artist Lesley Dill and subsequently performed internationally at the

Evergreen Cultural Centre The Evergreen Cultural Centre is a community gathering place for performing and visual arts activities in Coquitlam, British Columbia, opened in October 1996 by former Coquitlam Mayor Lou Sekora. The design team was headed by Thom Weeks of Archit ...

Coquitlam Coquitlam ( ) is a city in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia, Canada. Mainly suburban, Coquitlam is the List of cities in British Columbia, sixth-largest city in the province, with an estimated population of 174,248 in 2024, and one of th ...

British Columbia British Columbia is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Situated in the Pacific Northwest between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains, the province has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that ...

(2003). In 2007, the ensemble premiered a commissioned work by composer

Steven Stucky Steven Edward Stucky (November 7, 1949 − February 14, 2016) was a Pulitzer Prize-winning American composer. Life and career Steven Stucky was born in Hutchinson, Kansas. At age 9, he moved with his family to Abilene, Texas, where, as a teenager ...

, winner of the 2005 Pulitzer Prize.

Discography

Solo Recordings

* ''A Floweret Bright: Christmas Music of the Renaissance and the 20th Century'' (1993) * ''Soundscapes'' (1995) * ''A Shadow and a Dream'' (1997) * ''Midwinter: Carols in Concert'' (2000) * ''All Sky'' (2000) * ''I Heard a Voice'' (2002) * ''Luminescence'' (2004) * ''Rachmaninoff Vespers'' (2005) * ''Blue True Dream'' (2006) * ''Yuletide (2009)

Featured on

Recordings by

Bill Douglas William Gerald Douglas (17 April 1934 – 18 June 1991) was a Scottish film director best known for the trilogy of films about his early life. Biography Born in Newcraighall, a mining village on the outskirts of Edinburgh. He was brought up ...

: * ''Circle of Moons'' (1995) * ''Deep Peace'' (1996) * ''Songs of Earth & Sky'' (1998) * ''Earth Prayer'' (1999) * ''Eternity's Sunrise'' (2000) * ''A Place Called Morning'' (2001) * ''Homeland: A Prayer for Peace'' (2002) * ''Sky'' (2005)

References

External links

* Official Website
Ars Nova Singers

Rebirth – Ars Nova Singers Spring Equinox Concert, 2021
on YouTube {{DEFAULTSORT:Ars Nova Singers Choirs in Colorado A cappella musical groups

Choirs A choir ( ), also known as a chorale or chorus (from Latin ''chorus'', meaning 'a dance in a circle') is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform or in other words ...

Musical groups established in 1986 Culture of Boulder, Colorado 1986 establishments in Colorado