Shara Nova | |
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Background information | |
Born | El Dorado, Arkansas | April 22, 1974
Genres | indie rock, experimental |
Occupation(s) | Singer, songwriter, producer, musician |
Instrument(s) | Vocals, guitar, piano, ukulele, kalimba |
Years active | 1997–present |
Labels | Asthmatic Kitty |
Website | mybrightestdiamond.com |
Shara Nova (previously Worden) is the lead singer and songwriter for My Brightest Diamond. As a composer she is most recognized for her choral compositions and the baroque chamber opera "You Us We All". New music composers Sarah Kirkland Snider, David Lang, Steve Mackey and Bryce Dessner have composed pieces for Nova's voice. She has recorded as a guest vocalist with David Byrne, Laurie Anderson, The Decemberists, Sufjan Stevens, Jedi Mind Tricks, The Blind Boys of Alabama and Stateless as well as extensive collaborations with visual artists Matthew Ritchie and Matthew Barney. She was formerly the frontwoman of AwRY. On March 3, 2016, Shara legally changed her last name from Worden to Nova after divorcing her husband, to whom she had been married most of her adult life. [1] [2]
Nova was born in El Dorado, Arkansas. Her father was an accordion player and choir director and her mother was an organist for their Pentecostal church. Nova's uncle Donald Ryan, a classical and jazz pianist and arranger, taught her piano lessons as a child. Nova's family moved to many different states when she was a child, including significant time in Sapulpa, Oklahoma, and Ypsilanti, Michigan. [3]
Nova graduated from the University of North Texas with a BA in vocal performance. [4] After college, she lived in Moscow, Russia, for a year where she studied Russian and wrote songs, producing a self-released, limited edition EP, Session I. She moved to New York City, where she continued to study opera with Josephine Mongiardo. In 2009 Nova moved to Detroit, Michigan.
She married in 1997 and divorced in 2016, legally changing her name from Worden (her ex-husband's surname) to Nova. With her ex-husband she has one child, Constantine Jamesson Worden, born in 2010. [2]
In 2001, Nova self-released two albums in collaboration with guitarist Shane Yarbrough under the moniker AwRY, The Orange Album and Quiet B Sides. A short tour followed the release of the albums, after which the band dissolved. In 2002 and 2003, Nova wrote music for Adam Rapp's play Trueblinka (directed by Simon Hammerstein) and subsequently for Hammerstein's production of Jean-Paul Sartre's Men Without Shadows (Morts sans sépulture). She began studying composition with Padma Newsome during this time. Then in 2004 she began touring in Sufjan Stevens' band to support his album "Michigan". In 2006, she released the album "Bring Me The Workhorse" on Asthmatic Kitty Records under the moniker My Brightest Diamond and was nominated for Female Artist of the Year in the PLUG Independent Music Awards. The My Brightest Diamond albums "A Thousand Shark's Teeth" (2008), "All Things Will Unwind" (2011), and "This Is My Hand" (2014) were also released on Asthmatic Kitty Records. Nova became a Kresge performing arts fellow in 2012.
Nova made significant contributions to the Sufjan Stevens' album Illinois in 2005, [5] and toured with Stevens in support of the album in 2006. [6] She made a guest appearance on the Jedi Mind Tricks album Servants in Heaven, Kings in Hell in 2006 and on the Vinnie Paz album Season of the Assassin in 2010. In 2008 Nova sang as a background vocalist for Laurie Anderson during five performances at The Rose Theater for the show Homeland . She performed guest vocals on "The Wanting Comes in Waves/Repaid" and "The Queen's Rebuke/The Crossing" from the 2009 album by The Decemberists, The Hazards of Love , singing vocals for the part of "The Queen". She also performed with The Decemberists on their "A Short Fazed Hovel Tour" along with Becky Stark from Lavender Diamond. Nova performed in and wrote the song "Nine" for Bryce and Aaron Dessner's multi-media performance The Long Count with texts and images by Matthew Ritchie. The Long Count was performed at the Krannert Center (2009), BAM (2009), the Holland Festival (2012) and the Barbican Centre (2012).
She performed vocals on Sufjan Stevens' 2010 album The Age of Adz , notably taking the lead during a section of "Impossible Soul". In January 2012 Nova performed the premiere of the song cycle Death Speaks by David Lang with pianist Nico Muhly, violinist Owen Pallett and guitarist Bryce Dessner. In 2015, Nova provided vocals for Sarah Kirkland Snider's Unremembered , [7] and debuted her opera (co-written with Andrew Ondrejcak), You Us We All, in the United States. [8]
In 2023–2024, Nova performed in Illinoise , the stage adaptation of Sufjan Stevens' Illinois; Nova performed as the "moth" Barsine, playing guitar and providing vocals. [5]
Year | Album artist name | Album title |
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1998 | Shara | Word |
2004 | Shara Worden | Shara Worden Live at Schubas 11/18/2004 |
Year | Artist | Album title | Vocals: lead/co-lead/backing |
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1997 | Mingo Fishtrap | Succotash | Co-Lead |
2003 | Bogs Visionary Orchestra | Recession Special | Backing |
2005 | Sufjan Stevens | Illinois [11] | Backing |
2005/2006 | Sufjan Stevens | Songs for Christmas, Vol. 3: Ding! Dong! | Backing |
2006 | Sufjan Stevens | The Avalanche | Backing |
2008 | Ready Fire Aim | This Changes Nothing | Backing |
2009 | Bifrost Arts | Come, O Spirit! | Lead |
2009 | DM Stith | Heavy Ghost | Backing |
2009 | Clare and The Reasons | Arrow | Backing |
2010 | Sufjan Stevens | Age Of Adz | Backing; co-lead ("Impossible Soul") [12] [13] |
2010 | Clogs | The Creatures In The Garden Of Lady Walton | Lead (select songs) |
2010 | Sarah Kirkland Snider | Penelope | Lead |
2011 | (Collaboration) | Letters to Distant Cities | Lead; spoken word |
2013 | David Lang | Death Speaks | Lead |
2015 | Sarah Kirkland Snider | Unremembered | Co-Lead |
2016 | Gabriel Kahane | The Fiction Issue | Co-Lead |
Year | Artist | Album title | Song title | Vocals: Lead/co-lead/backing |
---|---|---|---|---|
2005 | Todd Agnew | Grace Like Rain | "Kindness" | Backing |
2005 | Garden of Souls | Wake Up EP | "Runes (Diamond Mix)" | Co-Lead |
2006 | Jedi Mind Tricks | Servants In Heaven, Kings In Hell | "When All Light Dies" | Co-Lead |
2006 | Jedi Mind Tricks | Servants In Heaven, Kings In Hell | "Razorblade Salvation" | Co-Lead |
2006 | Pedestrian | Ghostly Life | "Overwhelmed" | Backing |
2008 | Pedestrian | sidegeist | "shape of a pocket" | Backing |
2009 | (Bifrost Arts Compilation Album) | Come O Spirit! | "Kyrie" | Co-Lead |
2009 | The Decemberists | The Hazards of Love | "The Wanting Comes in Waves/Repaid" | Co-Lead |
2009 | The Decemberists | The Hazards of Love | "The Queen's Rebuke" | Lead |
2009 | 900X | Music For Lubbock, 1980 | "Lands" | Lead |
2010 | Vinnie Paz | Season Of The Assassin | "Keep Moving' On" | Co-Lead |
2010 | David Byrne & Fatboy Slim | Here Lies Love | "Seven Years" | Co-Lead |
2011 | Owen Pallett | Export(demo) | "The Great Elsewhere" | Lead |
2011 | Prefuse 73 | Only She Chapters | "The Only Hand to Hold" | Lead |
2011 | Uphill Racer | How It Feels To Find There's More | "Overfrail" | Lead |
2011 | Colin Stetson | New History Warfare 2: Judges | "Lord I Just Can't Keep From Crying Sometimes" | Lead |
2011 | Colin Stetson | New History Warfare 2: Judges | "Fear Of The Unknown And The Blazing Sun" | Lead |
2011 | Stateless | Matilda | "I'm On Fire" | Co-Lead |
2011 | Son Lux | We Are Rising | "Rebuild" | Backing |
2011 | The Revival Hour | "Hold Back/Run Away" (7" Single) | "Hold Back" | Backing |
2012 | S / S / S | Beak & Claw | "If This Is Real" | Backing (Chorus) |
2012 | Loop 2.4.3 | American Dreamland | "Sakura (we must love)" | Co-Lead |
2012 | Loop 2.4.3 | American Dreamland | I Knew (we shouldn't) | Backing |
2012 | The Universal Thump | All Things Must Pass | "Beware of Darkness" | Lead |
2012 | Recoil | Spirit of Talk Talk (Compilation) | "Dum Dum Girl" | Lead |
2012 | Mal'akh | Néctar | "Dimanche" | Lead |
2013 | Dog & Panther | Our Bodies | "I Want Love" | Backing |
2014 | Brooklyn Rider | The Brooklyn Rider Almanac | "Exit" | Lead |
2014 | Meshell Ndegeocello | Comet Come To Me | "Comet Come to Me" | Backing |
Year | Album title | Album type |
---|---|---|
2001 | AwRY (a.k.a. "The Orange Album") | Full-length studio release |
2001 | Quiet B Sides | Full-length studio release |
2003 | Remix 1 (a.k.a. "The Remixes") | 6-song remix EP |
Year | Album title | Album type |
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2006 | Bring Me The Workhorse | Full-length studio release |
2006 | Disappear | EP (5 songs) |
2007 | Tear It Down | Full-length studio release / Remixes (initial iTunes release included 3 or 5 bonus songs, no longer available) |
2008 | Shark Demos | EP (6 songs, alternate versions) |
2008 | A Thousand Shark's Teeth | Full-length studio release |
2008 | From The Top Of The World | EP (4 songs) |
2008 | Inside A Boy | Single (4 songs) |
2008 | Shark Remixes Vol 1: Alfred Brown | Remix EP |
2008 | The Black Sessions | Limited-edition CD of live show at Studio 106, Paris |
2009 | Shark Remixes Vol 2: Son Lux | Remix EP |
2009 | Shark Remixes Vol 3: Roberto C. Lange | Remix EP |
2010 | Shark Remixes Vol 4: DM Stith | Remix EP |
2010 | Shark Remixes | Limited-edition signed compilation of all previous Shark Remix Volumes 1–4 (1,500 hand-numbered copies) |
2011 | All Things Will Unwind | Full-length studio release |
2011 | Be Brave | Single (3 song versions) |
2012 | I Have Never Loved Someone | 7" single, alternate version, with "Bird on a Wire" B-side, limited edition 1,000 hand-numbered copies |
2014 | None More Than You | EP (5 songs) |
2014 | This Is My Hand | Full-length studio release; multiple vinyl versions, including limited edition version with hand-made art slipcover (300 copies) |
2015 | I Had Grown Wild | EP (6 songs) |
2018 | Champagne | EP (5 songs) |
2018 | A Million and One | Full-length studio release |
Year | Artists (or publisher) | Album title | Song title | Additional information |
---|---|---|---|---|
2006 | (Asthmatic Kitty Records) | Mews Too | "Riding Horses" | MBD recording of a song originally published by AwRY |
2007 | (Stereogum) | OKX: A Tribute to OK Computer | "Lucky" | MBD remake of Radiohead song |
2007 | (family records) | Cross-Pollination: The Mixtape Vol. 1 | "Hi, Remember Me?" | |
2008 | (Engine Room Recordings) | Guilt By Association Vol. 2 | "Tainted Love" | MBD remake of Gloria Jones/Soft Cell song |
2008 | (Animal World) | I'll Stay 'Til After Christmas | "Nature Boy" | MBD remake of eden ahbez/Nat King Cole song |
2008 | (Mojo Magazine) | The White Album Recovered No. 2 | "Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey" | MBD remake of Beatles song |
2009 | (4AD Records) | Dark Was The Night | "Feeling Good" | MBD remake of Nina Simone song |
2009 | (Biggest Label Ever) | (released as single, digital download) | "The Honey Bee" | MBD contribution to support the Invisible Children charity |
2010 | My Brightest Diamond/Dayna Kurtz | "Gone Away"/"Postcards From Downtown" | "Postcards From Downtown" | Split single, each artist covers a song from the other; 7" release limited to 1,000 numbered copies |
2011 | Liz Janes | Time & Space | "Bitty Thing" | Shara Worden vocals, credited as My Brightest Diamond |
2012 | (Mojo Magazine) | The Songs of Leonard Cohen Covered | "Bird On A Wire" | MBD remake of Leonard Cohen song, with Marc Ribot |
2022 | Rachel Grimes, Angélica Negrón, Shara Nova, Caroline Shaw, Sarah Kirkland Snider, A Far Cry | The Blue Hour | all | A song cycle written collaboratively by five female composers, lyrics excerpted from the poem “On Earth” from the book Blue Hour by Carolyn Forché |
Sufjan Stevens is an American singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist. He has released ten solo studio albums and multiple collaborative albums with other artists. Stevens has received Grammy and Academy Award nominations.
Illinois is a 2005 concept album by American singer-songwriter Sufjan Stevens. His fifth studio album, it features songs referencing places, events, and persons related to the U.S. state of Illinois. Illinois is Stevens' second based on a U.S. state—part of a planned series of fifty that began with the 2003 album Michigan and that Stevens has since acknowledged was a joke. It was adapted into a musical, Illinoise, in 2023 and, after playing smaller venues, opened at the St. James Theatre on Broadway in April 2024.
Servants in Heaven, Kings in Hell is the fifth studio album by hip hop group Jedi Mind Tricks. It was released September 19, 2006 through Babygrande Records. The first single, "Heavy Metal Kings", featuring Ill Bill of La Coka Nostra, was released in early August through iTunes and a limited edition vinyl pressing. Additional guest appearances on the album are provided by Shara Worden of My Brightest Diamond, Sean Price, R.A. the Rugged Man, Block McCloud and Army of the Pharaohs members Chief Kamachi and Reef the Lost Cauze.
My Brightest Diamond is the project of singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Shara Nova. The band has released five studio albums and a remix album, five studio EPs and four remix EPs, and made several tours across the United States.
Bring Me the Workhorse is the debut studio album from the American rock group My Brightest Diamond.
Tear It Down is the first remix album from the American rock group My Brightest Diamond.
The Hazards of Love is the fifth album by the American indie rock band The Decemberists, released through Capitol Records and Rough Trade in 2009. The album was inspired by an Anne Briggs EP titled The Hazards of Love. According to the band, frontman Colin Meloy had set out to write a song with the album's title, which eventually developed into an entire album. Becky Stark, Shara Nova, and Jim James provide guest vocals throughout the album, while Robyn Hitchcock makes a cameo guitar appearance on "An Interlude".
Dark Was the Night is the twentieth compilation release benefiting the Red Hot Organization, an international charity dedicated to raising funds and awareness for HIV and AIDS. Featuring exclusive recordings by a number of independent artists and production by Aaron and Bryce Dessner of the National, the compilation was released on 16 February 2009 (UK) and 17 February (US) as a double CD, three vinyl LPs, and as a digital download. John Carlin, the founder of the Red Hot Organization, was the executive producer for the album. The title is derived from the Blind Willie Johnson song "Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground", which is covered on this collection by the Kronos Quartet.
Bryce David Dessner is an American composer and guitarist based in Paris, and a member of the rock band the National. Dessner's twin brother, Aaron is also a member of the group. Together, they write the music in collaboration with lead singer and lyricist Matt Berninger.
David Michael Stith is a singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist who released his first album Heavy Ghost in 2009 on the Asthmatic Kitty label. He currently resides in Rochester, New York.
MusicNOW is a contemporary music and arts festival founded in 2006 in Cincinnati, Ohio, by Chamber Music Cincinnati. President Audrey Luna and guitarist and composer Bryce Dessner curated this inaugural season. It was originally held at the Contemporary Arts Center and later moved to Memorial Hall, a small historic theater located in the city's historic Over-the-Rhine district. Festival performers have included contemporary music advocates Bang on a Can All-Stars and Kronos Quartet as well as indie rock groups such as Grizzly Bear, Dirty Projectors and The National. Two annual elements of the festival have been the inclusion of visual art, including installations by Karl Jensen, and new music commissions.
The Creatures in the Garden of Lady Walton is an album by Clogs, released in March 2010. This is their first non-instrumental album, featuring several guest singers, including Shara Worden, singer and songwriter of the indie rock band My Brightest Diamond, Matt Berninger, lead singer of Clogs' sister band the National and Sufjan Stevens, a prominent indie folk singer/songwriter.
The Age of Adz is the sixth studio album by American singer/songwriter Sufjan Stevens, released on October 12, 2010 by Asthmatic Kitty. It was Stevens' first song-based full-length album in five years, since the release of Illinois in 2005.
Sarah Kirkland Snider is an American composer. She has received critical acclaim for her chamber, orchestral, song cycle, choral, and ballet works.
All Things Will Unwind is the third studio album from the American rock group My Brightest Diamond.
This Is My Hand is the fourth studio album from the American rock group My Brightest Diamond.
Unremembered is an album composed by Sarah Kirkland Snider which "sets poetry by New-York-based poet/writer Nathaniel Bellows, recalling strange and beautiful happenings experienced during a childhood in rural Massachusetts."
A Million and One is the fifth studio album from the American group My Brightest Diamond.
Rob Moose is an American multi-instrumentalist, arranger, producer, conductor, and orchestrator. He primarily plays the violin, viola, and guitar.
Javelin is the tenth studio album by American musician Sufjan Stevens. It was released on October 6, 2023, through Asthmatic Kitty. It received widespread critical acclaim on release.
Sufjan Stevens: Age of Adz background vocals throughout album & solo on "Impossible Soul"