Ars Nova Copenhagen

Among Scandinavia’s foremost chamber choirs stands Ars Nova Copenhagen, an ensemble devoted to Renaissance polyphony as well as contemporary vocal repertoire. The singers contributed to the 2020 album ... And ... with performances of pieces by Arvo Pärt, Julia Wolfe, and Caroline Shaw.

Bo Holten established the choir in 1979 and led it as chief conductor until 1996, when the members elected Tamás Vetö to succeed him. Vetö held the post through 2003, at which point Paul Hillier assumed the roles of chief conductor and artistic director following multiple fruitful appearances as a guest. Additional guest conductors have included Anthony Rooley, Michael Bojesen, and Andrew Lawrence-King. Ars Nova has earned recognition for its accounts of Renaissance polyphony by composers such as Desprez, Tallis, and di Lasso, for earlier unknown compositions of Pierre de la Rue, Nicolas Gombert, and Filipe de Magalhaes, and for new works written expressly for the group. Regular partnerships with other early-music ensembles encompass the Theatre of Voices and Concerto Copenhagen. The choir maintains its own concert series in Copenhagen and Aarhus, appears across Denmark, and has toured extensively in Europe and the United States, including a 2015 cultural-promotion visit to China sponsored by Danish authorities.

Recordings by Ars Nova have been issued on Kontrapunkt, Naxos, and Dacapo, among additional labels. The ensemble received a Danish Grammy in 1991 for its account of sacred music by Nicolas Gombert and won a Grammy Award in the United States for the 2009 release David Lang’s The Little Match Girl Passion. In 2020 the choir released ... And ..., containing works by Pärt, Wolfe, and Shaw together with selections from the Laude di Cortona.