Ars Nova Singers · 2026–27 Season
Confluence
Where Voices Meet
Rivers & Streams
Our 41st season begins at the source, exploring the fluid textures of water and the shimmering colors of the guitar. The program features two modern masterworks for choir and classical guitar, with guest artist Nicolò Spera.
Music Beyond Words
Ars Nova Singers is an auditioned, a cappella chamber choir based in Boulder, Colorado. Founded in 1986, this Denver Metro Area icon brings together some 40 gifted vocalists to perform music of the Renaissance alongside the boldest works of the 20th and 21st centuries. Recognized as one of the nation’s most intrepid professional choirs, Ars Nova is known for adventurous programming and a celestial, spine-tingling sound.
The Nova Buzz
- What to Listen For at Rivers & Streams
The program, in order, with four specific things to listen for — and everything we have written about the works, the composers and the poets, in one place. October 9 in Boulder, October 10 in Denver and by livestream, October 11 in Longmont. - Six Languages, One Libretto: The Poets Inside Rivers
Corrado Margutti built the libretto of Rivers the way he built its music: out of many sources that do not obviously belong together. A Portuguese modernist, a Bohemian-Austrian poet in Paris, an Italian classicist, an Orkney islander, a Carmelite nun, and a novelist from Turin. - Ten Strings, and the Four You Never Hear
Narciso Yepes conceived the ten-string classical guitar in 1963 and had it built by José Ramírez III. Four of its strings are usually never played at all. Nicolò Spera on what they do: “The note shines, but there is the Milky Way around it.” - Read Turoldo: The Poet Nicolò Spera Insisted On
Asked what an audience should read before the concert, Nicolò Spera said come unprepared — and then named one poet. David Maria Turoldo was a Servite priest, a Resistance organiser, and a man his own church sent abroad to live among emigrants. He is almost unknown in English. - Lorca, and the Title Almost Everyone Gets WrongCastelnuovo-Tedesco called his piece Romancero Gitano. Lorca wrote a famous book called Romancero gitano. The seven poems in the piece are not from that book. A note on deep song, a competition in Granada in 1922, and a grave that has never been found.
- The Composer Who Left Italy and Taught Hollywood to ScoreMario Castelnuovo-Tedesco was banned from Italian radio in 1938, arrived in New York in July 1939, and spent the next sixteen years writing film music in Los Angeles. His students included Jerry Goldsmith, André Previn and John Williams. In 1951 he wrote the first work composed specifically for choir and guitar.
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