Chora Nova 

Chora Nova, a lively addition to the East Bay's classical music scene, is a dynamic community of auditioned singers dedicated to sharing the joy of vocal music. Founded in July 2006, Chora Nova's singers are drawn from the East Bay, San Francisco, and Marin.
Under the artistic direction of Dr. Paul Flight, Chora Nova rehearses to a high standard of performance to present choral works, modern and ancient, a capella and accompanied. The 2006-2007 inaugural season included performances of little-known and rarely performed works by Michael Haydn, the lesser known brother of famed Franz Josef Haydn, a concert of part songs and love songs by eighteenth and nineteenth century composers, and Mozart's Solemn Vespers.

Dr. Paul Flight, Artistic Director

Noted conductor and countertenor Paul Flight has been Artistic Director of Chora Nova since its inception in 2006. He is in his eighth season as principal conductor of the Madison Early Music Festival (Wisconsin), where he has directed masterworks by Bach, Telemann, Vivaldi, Purcell, and Francisco Guerrero. Paul has twice been a Visiting Associate Professor at the University of California at Berkeley, directing the University's top choral ensembles.  He conducted the operatic double-bill production of Gustav Holst’s Savitri and Darius Milhaud’s Les malheurs d'Orphèe at Mills College, and he has conducted productions of Telemann's Der geduldige Socrate and Handel's Acis and Galatea for the San Francisco Early Music Society.  He is Artistic Director of two additional Bay Area ensembles: the California Bach Society which specializes in historically informed performances of Baroque and Renaissance music, and The Haydn Singers, a chamber choir he founded in 2005 dedicated to the performance of music by Haydn, Mozart, and their contemporaries. Paul received his doctorate from Indiana University, where he studied conducting with Robert Porco. His research focused on the Venetian composer Giovanni Croce (1557-1609) and he has recorded a program featuring the music of Croce for Harmonia, a nationally syndicated radio show.  An articulate musician, Paul recently appeared as a guest on KALW radio’s performing arts program, “My Favorite Things,” and has lectured on music history and musical form as a visiting professor at Mills College. 

An accomplished countertenor, Paul performs opera and oratorio internationally. He made his Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra debut under Esa-Pekka Salonen in December 2005 in John Adams' oratorio El Niño, and has since sung two of the three countertenor roles for, variously, the Norwegian State Opera (Oslo), the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and at the Ravinia Festival (Chicago).  In May 2008, Paul will again perform the work at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC.  Closer to home, his portrayal of Philip Glass’ Egyptian pharaoh Akhnaten received glowing reviews from the San Francisco Chronicle. In May 2006 he returned to Los Angeles to sing the US premiere of Unsuk Chin's Cantatrix Sopranica with the Philharmonic, which he performed in the Bay Area under Kent Nagano last spring.  In April of 2008 he will make his debut with The Cleveland Orchestra singing the beautiful countertenor solo in Bernstein's Chichester Psalms.
 
Flight's interpretations of 18th-century operatic and concert repertoire have also been critically acclaimed: he has sung the title role in Handel's Solomon, the role of Montezuma in Karl Heinrich Graun's Montezuma and Dardano in Handel's Amadigi di Gaula. He performed the Stabat Mater of Vivaldi with the Sacramento Baroque Soloists, and has been a soloist for American Bach Soloists and The San Francisco Bach Choir. A versatile singer, Paul performed with Sting in his "Songs from the Labyrinth" concerts at Los Angeles' Disney Hall in January 2007. He sings in many outstanding professional ensembles including Theatre of Voices, The New York Collegium, Aguavà New Music Studio, Piffaro, The Waverly Consort, The Folger Consort, Pomerium Musices, and The Concord Ensemble, an award-winning male sextet. Paul has recorded for the Dorian, Harmonia Mundi, and Glissando labels. 

Paul Flight photo: Carol Handelman