The ensemble Vocal Group Ars Nova, consisting of twelve singers, is one of Scandinavia’s leading chamber Choirs in the field of polyphonic Renaissance choral music and experimental vocal music of our own period. Ars Nova has recorded many internationally acclaimed CD’s and has given more than a thousand concerts in Europe, Israel, Japan, Africa, South America and USA. Ars Nova was started in 1979 by a group of singers and the conductor Bo Holten. Since 1996 Hungarian-born Tamás Vetö has been the principal conductor of the choir. Ars Nova has worked with prominent conductors like Peter Philips (The Tallis Scholars), Bruno Turner (Pro Cantione Antiqua) and Paul Hillier (The Hilliard Ensemble, Theatre of Voices), the regular guest conductor of the ensemble since 1997. Ars Nova has been among the pioneers in work on polyphonic Renaissance choral music, with highly acclaimed performances of the masterpieces of the period, by composers like des Prez, Tallis, di Lasso, Palestrina and Taverner; the choir has also rediscovered neglected masters like Pierre de la Rue, Nicolas Gombert, Philipe de Magalhaes, Giaches de Wert, Alonso and Duante Lobo, Manuel Cardoso and Jacob Obrecht, to whom Ars Nova and Paul Hillier have devoted a whole CD. In avant-garde music Ars Nova focuses on music after 1968 and in this connection has worked closely with Nordic composers like Per Nørgård, Ib Nørholm, Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen, Sven-David Sandstrøm, Poul Ruders and Hans Abrahamsen, all of whom have written works for the
Ars Nova was awarded the Danish Music Critics’ Artist’s Prize in 1998, a Danish Grammy in 1991 for the recording of sacred music by Nicolas Gombert, and a Diapason d’Or (France) for their CD of works by Josquin des Prez.
