Ars Nova Singers

The Ars Nova Singers is a choral ensemble based in Boulder, Colorado, USA. Founded in 1986, Ars Nova Singers is composed of about 40 selectively auditioned singers 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 (musician).[1]

Ars Nova Singers
Ars Nova Singers
GenresChoral, Classical
Years active1986–present
LabelsNew Art Recordings
To be distinguished from Ars Nova (Copenhagen), founded 1979

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, concerts of the complete Responsoria by the late-Renaissance composer Carlo Gesualdo, acclaimed performances of the a cappella masterpieces of Rachmaninoff (the Vespers and Liturgy of St. John), and the commissioning and premiering of new works.

Performances

Since its founding, the Ars Nova Singers has given more than 300 live performances of over 100 concert programs. The ensemble has been featured on radio broadcasts throughout the United States, Canada, South America, Australia, Japan, and Europe, including such National Public Radio 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 support from the Chorus Program of the National Endowment for the Arts 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; Boulder Philharmonic Orchestra; Colorado Music Festival; 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 in Coquitlam, British Columbia (2003). In 2007, the ensemble premiered a commissioned work by composer Steven Stucky, winner of the 2005 Pulitzer Prize.

Artistic Director

Thomas Edward Morgan is the founder and Artistic Director of the Ars Nova Singers. Mr. Morgan received the Bachelor of Arts degree in Music summa cum laude from Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, and the Master of Music degree in composition from the University of Colorado. Mr. Morgan studied choral and orchestral conducting with Dale Warland, Helmut Rilling, and Gioria Bernstein and has taken master classes with Eric Ericson and Herbert Blomstedt. He is acknowledged as a leading interpreter of new music and under his leadership Ars Nova Singers has become one of the country's premier choral ensembles.

From 2006 to 2008, Mr. Morgan was artist-in-residence of the Lucas Artists program at the Montvalo Center for the Arts in Saratoga, California. He collaborated with New York visual artist Lesley Dill in the production of I Heard a Voice, an extended work for a cappella chorus premiered by the Ars Nova Singers in September 2002 and performed in Vancouver in 2003. His composition Psalm 88 for orchestra and chorus received the prestigious BMI award and his choral work Four Poems of e.e. cummings was presented on the opening program of the eighth Internacional Musica Nueva festival in Mexico City. Several of his works have been performed by the Peiyang Chorus of Tianjin, China.

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)

Recordings by Bill Douglas:

  • 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
  1. 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 ...
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