January 7, 1998

London’s Aurora Nova to Appear at Middlebury College

Center for the Arts

Concert is Part of Group’s First U.S. Tour

Aurora Nova, a women’s choir from London, will perform

on Thursday, January 22 at 7:30 p.m. in the Concert Hall at the

Middlebury College Center for the Arts on South Main Street (Rt.

30). The group will sing music from around the world and across

the ages which is written in honor of the Virgin Mary. The choir’s

program will include Brahms,

Verdi, Holst, and Duruflé. Aurora Nova’s director, Patrick

Craig, will join the vocalists during their conclusion when he

provides accompaniment on the harp in a performance of Benjamin

Britten’s “A Ceremony of Carols.” The

concert is part of the group’s first

tour in the United States.

Craig founded Aurora Nova, which means

new dawn, in 1996 to gather together what he considers “the

cream of young female vocal talent in Britain today,” and

to begin to address the lack of work opportunities for young female

singers in London compared with their male colleagues. Since

its founding, Aurora Nova was invited to become the first professional

all-female group to lead the Sunday worship in London’s St. Paul’s

Cathedral, receiving extensive media coverage on this occasion.

Various Aurora Nova vocalists are also members of

the major British choirs, including Sixteen, Polyphony, and the

BBC singers.

Along with their concert, Aurora Nova will offer

two other events at Middlebury College. On Thursday, January

22 at 4:15 p.m. in the Concert Hall in the Center for the Arts,

The Revd. Lucy Winkett, one of the group’s members, will give

a lecture entitled “In the Beginning was the Word: Theology

of the Voice.” She is a Minor Canon and Chaplain of St.

Paul’s Cathedral in London.

Aurora Nova also will lead a choral evensong on Saturday,

January 24 at 5 p.m. in Mead Chapel on Hepburn Rd. off of College

St. (Rt. 125). The lecture and the evensong are free and open

to the public.

Tickets for the concert series performance are $9.00

general admission and $7.00 for senior citizens. A pre-performance

dinner at 6:00 p.m. at the Rehearsals Cafe in the Center for the

Arts is also available. To order tickets or make dinner reservations,

please call the College box office at 802-443-6433.