Collaborators
We’ve turned to many creative collaborators over the years to join with us in navigating both new and well-traveled musical territory.
From performing inside a planetarium to performing below a high-flying group of aerial dancers, we’re always on the hunt for new locales and new artistic voices to meet the moment and make our music sing. Here are some of our recent favorites.
Highlights
Joel Thompson
Ars Nova Singers will join choral groups from Grinnell College, Macalester College, St. Thomas University, and Harvard University for a simultaneous nation-wide premiere of an extraordinary new work by the Emmy-winning Thompson, composer of the gripping Seven Last Words of the Unarmed, written in response to the onslaught of killings of unarmed black men that borrows the text structure of Haydn’s Seven Last Words of Christ. Performance details forthcoming.
3rd Law Dance/Theater, Elision Project Vol. 3
Ars Nova Singers joined the dancers of 3rd Law and musicians Bonnie Paine (Elephant Revival), Enion Pelta (Taarka), Janet Feder (Watch: Feder’s Tiny Desk Concert), and Colin Bricker (Mighty Fine Productions) in concert at Boulder’s Dairy Arts Center (2019).
Frequent Flyers Aerial Dance, Inspire/Respire: Music in the Air
We brought works by Thomas Jennefelt, Gustav Mahler, Steven Stucky, Paul Fowler, John Boggs, Knut Nystedt, and Bruce Stark to the Dairy Arts Center stage while Frequent Flyers filled the air above with brilliant, graceful aerial artistry (2016).
CU-Boulder Fiske Planetarium, Out of This World: A Choral Odyssey (2015) and Stellar Voices (2016)
Ars Nova Singers lined the circumference of Fiske’s stunning domed theater, lending divine, astral vocals to the true star of the night: our wide and wondrous universe.
Jerry Granelli/Peter-Anthony Togni, Warrior Songs
Ars Nova Singers performed the world premiere of this epic, five-movement concerto for improvised percussion and choir, a collaborative composition between Canadian composer Togni and legendary jazz percussionist Granelli (2014).
Sphere Ensemble, Salve Regina
Ars Nova Singers performed the U.S. premiere of Estonian composer Arvo Pärt’s setting of a devotional Latin hymn, in collaboration with Sphere, a professional regional string ensemble (2013).
Steven Stucky, Eyesight
Ars Nova Singers premiered and co-commissioned (along with Kansas City Chorale, Phoenix Chorale, and VocalEssence in support of Chorus America) this new work from the Pulitzer Prize-winning composer, featuring text by poet A.R. Ammons, a favorite of Stucky’s (2007).
Lesley Dill, I Heard a Voice
Ars Nova Singers premiered this collaborative, visionary composition by Dill and Artistic Director Thomas Edward Morgan, which included the new performance piece I Dismantle. We subsequently performed this work internationally at the Evergreen Cultural Centre in Coquitlam, British Columbia.
Additional Collaborators
Other collaborators have included Bill Douglas, Edward Dusinberre, Paul Fowler, Nicolò Spera, Kronos Quartet, Boulder Chamber Orchestra, Boulder Philharmonic, Boulder Sinfonia, Colorado Mahlerfest, Colorado Mormon Chorale, Colorado Music Festival, Colorado Saxophone Quartet, Pro Musica, St. Martin’s Chamber Choir, and Stratus Chamber Orchestra.
Commissions & Premieres
In addition to premiering many new works by Artistic Director Thomas Edward Morgan, Ars Nova Singers has participated in commissioning projects with, or premiered works by, Steven Stucky, Peter-Anthony Togni, Libby Larsen, Stephen Paulus, Luis Jorge González, Paul Fowler, Jeffrey Nycht, Leanna Kirchoff, Daniel Kellogg, Jan Gilbert, R. Anthony Lee, and Terry Schlenker.
Music is the social act of communication among people, a gesture of friendship, the strongest there is.
Malcolm Arnold English Composer (1921–2006)
Shared Visions
Ars Nova Singer’s Shared Visions Program unites Colorado visual artists, writers, and composers in reciprocal art-making, culminating in an interdisciplinary celebration of inspiration and community:
- Colorado visual artists submit work to a digital gallery on our website.
- Colorado writers create new poetry inspired by one or more of the visual pieces, and their poems are assembled in an anthology.
- Colorado composers are commissioned to use the anthology and related artwork as the basis for a new vocal composition.
- Ars Nova collaborates with composers to rehearse and prepare each new vocal piece for a closing Shared Visions performance, and voila! New music and new creative connections are born, right here in Colorado.
Our first rounds of Shared Visions were held during the 2015–2016 and 2018–2019 seasons, and we eagerly await our next opportunity to bring diverse creative voices together (and to truly put the nova in our name!). Interested in staying in-the-know about Shared Visions? Have a project or possible collaboration you’d like to run by us?