ABOUT
ORA Singers is an award-winning 18-voice ensemble and world-leading commissioner of choral music. In its first six years the group has released 10 albums to critical acclaim, performed in the UK, the USA and Europe, had its music and music videos broadcast across the globe (and in every continent including Antarctica) and commissioned over 70 new choral works.
COMMISSIONING
ORA Singers continues the centuries-long living tradition of choral singing in Britain. The group is recognised for its modern approach and is one of the world’s foremost commissioners of contemporary choral music, which it often performs alongside Renaissance masterpieces in its celebrated concerts and recordings.
The group has a primary aim of 100 new commissions by 100 contemporary composers within 10 years, seeking out the world's most talented composers to write new commissions.
RECORDING
Since its description as "a musical comet", ORA Singers has continued to blaze a trail as one of the UK's leading vocal ensembles. Directed by Suzi Digby OBE, the group has been named Ensemble of the Year at the 2018 Opus Klassik awards, and has received critical acclaim both for its "unfailingly elegant" performances and its "superb and exciting" recordings. Two of their commissions have received an Ivors Composer Award in the Choral Category, and the group’s 10 album releases have made them one of the most popular artists on the harmonia mundi label.
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PERFORMING
ORA Singers performs spell-binding ‘concert experiences’ across the UK and internationally. Highlight concert performances have included a sold-out performance at Tage Alter Musik Festival, Regensburg, with recent concert appearances at Aldeburgh Festival, Canterbury Festival, Hatfield House Festival, as well as tours abroad to festivals in Malta, Ambronay, and Potsdam.
ORA creates bespoke and unique concert performances, tailored specifically to its chosen concert spaces. Musical programmes are choreographed with singer movement, lighting and specifically commissioned ‘design elements’. These have included works by Linbury Prize Winner Eleanor Bull, world-class theatre designer Nicky Shaw, and creator of the iconic ORA ‘light-boxes’, Anna Bonomelli.
EDUCATIONAL INNOVATORS
ORA Singers has launched their fifth Young Composers' scheme, a programme providing free compositional support to state-educated students. The programme sees 10 Young Composers receive one-to-one mentoring with professional composers, who help them write a new piece which ORA performs and records in concert. Additionally, 40 Apprentices are enrolled onto their own scheme of online, in depth mentoring from a professional composer.
As part of this mentoring initiative, ORA Singers also created a new digital website designed to lead an aspiring choral composer through the full compositional process. Choral Compose launched in December 2018 and includes video testimonies from many of ORA’s esteemed commissioned composers, as well as industry experts.
