Jacqueline Nova Sondag (1935âÂÂ1975) was a Colombian musician, author, and composer. She is often cited as having initiated Colombia's electroacoustic musical practices. Nora's professional life encompassed composing, performing, radio production, and cultural leadership, predominantly within a male-led industry where she stood out as an openly lesbian artist. Her work was shaped by Colombia's turbulent La Violencia period, as well as by themes related to women's rights and Indigenous concerns. In 1970, she established the New Music Group to support contemporary Latin American composers and hosted the radio program Asymmetries, which showcased experimental music. She also worked across artistic disciplines, including dance, theatre, and film, blending visual and auditory elements in her projects.
Jacqueline Nova Sondag was born on 6 January 1935 in Ghent, Belgium. Her father was visiting Belgium from Bucaramanga, Colombia, to study to be an engineer, where he met Jacqueline's mother. Upon his finishing his studies, Nova's family moved back to Bucaramanga, where she spent her childhood. In 1955, she moved to Bogotá. Nova's mid-high social class in 20th-century Colombia traditionally prescribed that women learn to play either piano, guitar, or sing to be considered respectable ladies. Nova began learning piano when she was seven.
In 1958 was admitted to the National Conservatory of Music at the National University for piano. She appeared in performances at the Conservatory as a soloist and accompanist. She studied under Fabio González Zuleta and with Blas Emilio Atehortua for contemporary music. In 1967, she was the first woman composer to graduate with a Master's from the conservatory.
She then traveled to Buenos Aires on a scholarship from the Instituto Torcuato Di Tella for further studies in composition at . There she studied with Luigi Nono, Alberto Ginastera, Gerardo Gandini, Francisco Kröpfl, Francisco Zumaque and others.
Nova died on 13 June 1975 in Bogotá from bone cancer.
After studying at CLAEM, Nova became interested in interdisciplinary experimentation with unaccompanied tape. Collaborations with other fields, such as visual arts, theatre, and cinema led to a large amount of experimental and graphic elements in her scores. Here she composed her first electroacoustic composition, called Opposition-Fusion (1968).
Nova's work has been played by orchestras such as the Venezuela Symphony Orchestra, the Symphony Orchestra of Colombia, and the Washington National Symphony Orchestra at venues such as the Latin American Music Festival and the Third Annual Symposium of American Music in Virginia, USA. Her works have been performed in Venezuela, Panama, Spain, Brazil, the United States, Argentina, Uruguay, the Dominican Republic, France, Germany, and Austria.
Nova's work has been issued through media including radio, books, periodicals, film, conferences, and concerts. In 1970, she gave a lecture and concert for the Conference on Electronic Music at the Instituto Colombo-Alemán (Colombia-German Institute) as well as the V Music Festival in MedellÃÂn. She wrote "The Wonderful World of Machinery" for the magazine Bogota Nova No. 4 in 1966, and "Reasonable Orders Conscious and Unconscious" (1967) and "An Aberrant Phenomenon" (1969) for the newspaper El Espectador.
Between 1969 and 1970, Nova directed AsimetrÃÂas, a Radiodifusora Nacional radio series which presented 22 sessions of new music works and analysis. In 1970, she established the New Music Group to perform works by living composers, with special emphasis on Latin America, but because of her health, the ensemble had limited engagements.
Nova composed for multiple genres, including orchestra, chamber ensembles, and solo instruments. She also wrote works for popular theater and film soundtracks, including Machu Picchu and Francisco Norden's film The Guerrilla Priest Camilo. She also composed for Son et lumière projects. Selected works include:
In 2019, the Blaffer Art Museum at the University of Houston presented an exhibition around Nova's 1972 work Creación de la Tierra.