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Shara Nova

The career of Detroit-based musician Shara Nova encompasses composition, singing, and songwriting, crossing genre boundaries. Often performing her own works, she has appeared with major new music ensembles and with progressive rock musicians. Nova was born Shara Wright in El Dorado, Arkansas, on April 22, 1974. Her parents were traveling Assembly of God evangelists; her father directed choirs and played the accordion, and her mother was an organist. She also had piano lessons from her uncle, Donald Ryan. The family moved frequently, settling in the Detroit area when Nova was in her teens. Nova studied opera at the University of North Texas and lived for a year in Moscow, Russia. Returning to the U.S., Nova lived in New York and continued to study voice. She later moved to Detroit and has continued to be based there. Nova is often known as Shara Worden, her married name from 1997 to 2016; after her divorce, she adopted the surname Nova, meaning "new" in Latin. She performed with and wrote music for the band Awry, making her recording debut in 2001 on that group's self-titled album. She also made several recordings with the group My Brightest Diamond and sang background vocals on a variety of progressive rock and concert music albums. Her solo debut as a classical artist came in 2010 with Ensemble Signal on the album Sarah Kirkland Snider: Penelope. Nova's career involved both composition and performance and crossed the line between classical and popular music. Works were written for her by various classical and progressive rock composers, including Snider, David Lang, and Bryce Dessner. She has performed as a guest artist with such varied artists as alternative rocker David Byrne, experimental singer-songwriter Laurie Anderson, and gospel group The Five Blind Boys of Alabama. In turn, Nova wrote music for other performers; she contributed to Bryce and Aaron Dessner's multimedia work The Long Count, which has been widely performed. Nova's classical compositions, including an opera, You, Us, We, All, which was performed in Antwerp, Belgium, in 2013. She has written songs, a good deal of theater music, and a duet for organ and viola, From the Invisible to the Visible (2012), among other works. She has released several albums under her own name, including Hymns for Private Use, featuring the Akropolis Reed Quintet, released in 2022 on the Bright Shiny Things label.
© James Manheim /TiVo

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Discography

16 album(s) • Sorted by Bestseller

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