NOVUS

Trinity Church’s groundbreaking new-music ensemble, NOVUS, is a key player on the contemporary music scene. These “expert and versatile musicians” (The New Yorker) perform music from all corners of the repertoire, meeting “every challenge with an impressive combination of discipline and imagination” (New York Classical Review). 

NOVUS is renowned for its innovative programming that asks audiences to grapple with vital social issues. In 2023, NOVUS launched its Renewal series focused on prison reform and climate change. This season, NOVUS presents Renewal: Shelter, which explores the challenges of being unhoused in America and includes the New York premiere of Gabriel Kahane’s compelling work emergency shelter intake form.  

 At the PROTOTYPE Festival, NOVUS and Trinity Church have partnered with Beth Morrison Projects in the development of several major new works. These include Emma O’Halloran’s opera pairing Trade/Mary Motorhead; two Pulitzer Prize–winning works: Ellen Reid’s p r i s m (2019) and Du Yun’s Angel’s Bone (2017); Missy Mazzoli and Royce Vavrek’s Breaking the Waves; the East Coast premiere of Reid’s Dreams of the New World; and the world premiere of David T. Little’s revised version of Am I Born, which was recorded with NOVUS and Trinity Choir.  

NOVUS has forged strong links with many of today’s leading composers. In 2023–24, NOVUS was featured in two world premiere oratorios: Luna Pearl Woolf’s Number Our Days at the Perelman Performing Arts Center and Benedict Sheehan’s Akathist. The ensemble’s recordings include Sheehan’s Akathist, Grammy-nominated LUNA PEARL WOOLF: Fire and Flood; Prestini’s The Hubble Cantata; Du Yun’s Angel’s Bone; Trevor Weston’sChoral Works; Elena Ruehr’s Averno; Edward Thomas’s new opera Anna Christie; Ellen Reid’s p r i s m; and Philip Glass: Symphony No. 5.