In our last newsletter we invited you to let us know what your favorite Ars Nova recording or experience was, and we’d like to share a response from one of our former chorus members, David Rupp, who now lives in Florida:
“What I got from my participation in Ars Nova Singers was the single most incredible choral experience I’ve had, in a lifetime of otherwise good-to-really-good choral singing. Ars Nova had it all; range, complexity, versatility, gravitas, humor … and Tom. Tom, who kept coming up with piece after piece, program after program, season after season of interesting, challenging, tickling, clever, meaty repertoire, and tackled all of it with gusto. Four parts. Eight. Forty. Medieval. Classical. Jazz. Didn’t matter. Didn’t matter how messy it looked on the page either. If it was consonant, it was going to sound glorious, especially in the reverberant venues we performed in. If it was dissonant, it was going to challenge the choir and the listener until it became consonant. I can’t tell you how many pieces we sang live that ended with that priceless, breathless silence that told you the audience knew the song was over, but were reluctant to let it go just yet.
When Tom asked for “a few sentences” about “a favorite piece,” I knew I was going to be in trouble. I found myself repeatedly drawn to Morten Lauridsen’s “La Rose Complète,” from the recording All Sky. (Listen here: https://bit.ly/2WqTNla). It’s not as complicated as some, but it is a simply beautiful piece, beautifully realized by the choir, and I’m super pleased that the recording exists so I can listen and remember everything that Ars Nova has meant to me over the years.
Here’s to many more of those years. Rock on, my friends.”
We’d like to extend the invitation again!
- Identify a favorite Ars Nova Singers recording from your music library, or any track found here or here.
- Choose one and write a 1-2 paragraph (max!) review or personal reflection about the piece. It could be about the music, the composer, the text, the performance, how it makes you feel…anything! Please let us know if you’d like to remain anonymous or if you’re okay with us using your name.
- Email it to tom@arsnovasingers.org by June 1, 2020.
