Shara Nova
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]
Shara Nova
1997–present
Life[edit]
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]