“A creative chameleon with endless wells of technical skill…[with] one of the most astounding voices in all of indie rock” (Pitchfork)), SHARA WORDEN is best known as the singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist of My Brightest Diamond, a band that mixes elements of opera, cabaret, chamber music, and rock. Classically trained as a singer and composer, Shara received a BA in Classical Vocal Performance from the University of North Texas and later continued her opera training privately in New York, where she also studied composition with Padma Newsome and composed music for theater. Since 2006 My Brightest Diamond has released two studio albums, Bring Me the Workhorse and A Thousand Shark’s Teeth, to wide critical acclaim; in 2006 Shara was nominated Female Artist of the Year in the PLUG Independent Music Awards. In addition to her work as My Brightest Diamond, Shara has performed and recorded as a guest vocalist with a number of artists across a diverse array of genres including Laurie Anderson, David Byrne, the Brooklyn Philharmonic, Sufjan Stevens, the Decemberists, Bon Iver, the National, and St. Vincent, among others.
Worden is the featured vocalist on Sarah Kirkland Snider’s song cycle Penelope, which was hailed as “rapturous” (The New York Times), ”the year’s most affecting creation” (Time Out New York), and “culturally electric new music” (The Los Angeles Times). She is also the chief vocalist for multimedia project Letters to Distant Cities, produced by photographer/videographer Murat Eyubolgu, exploring the poetry of Turkish-American poet Mustafa Ziyalan. The Huffington Post claims that Worden’s vocals allow the poetry to at times “dance with warm and knowing whimsy; elsewhere, Worden emits an icy intimacy dominated by startling detachment,” and The Silent Ballet similarly claims, “while the timbre of Worden’s voice seems to embody both beauty and psychic pain.”
Worden will make her NewAm compositional debut on yMusic’s fall 2011 release, Beautiful Mechanical, where she has written the tracks “A Whistle, A Tune, A Macaroon” and “A Paper, A Pen, a Note to a Friend” for the dynamic new music ensemble.
