biography
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Rejecting grandiose narratives, the music of Chicago-based composer Paul Novak is driven by a love of small things: miniature forms, delicate soundscapes, and condensed ideas. His compositions, which explore the subtleties of instrumental color and draw influence from literature, art, and poetry, have been performed throughout the United States and abroad. Novak’s recent collaborators include the Austin Symphony, Orlando Symphony, Reno Philharmonic, NYO-USA, American Composers Orchestra, the Amaranth and Rosco Quartets, Nunc, Hear&Now Ensemble, Texas New Music Ensemble, LIGAMENT Duo, So Percussion, NODUS Ensemble, MotoContrario Ensemble, Tribeca New Music, Blackbox Ensemble, and Luna Nova Ensemble.
Each of Novak’s pieces immerses listeners in a shimmering and subtly crafted musical world, guided by a sensitive ear for harmony and texture and a deep sense of empathy for the performers playing his music. He has received commissions from the American Composers Orchestra, ASCAP and Society of Composers, Inc, Boston New Music Initiative, Kinetic Ensemble, and Texas New Music Ensemble, among others. His music has been selected for numerous awards, including recent honors from the ASCAP Foundation, League of Composers/ISCM, the SCI/ASCAP Commission Competition, Tribeca New Music, Webster University, the Texas Young Composer Competition, and the YoungArts Foundation. He was the recipient of the American Composers Orchestra’s 2020 Underwood Commission for a new orchestral work that the ACO will premiere in Carnegie Hall, after being named one of the six emerging composers selected to participate in the Underwood New Music Readings. |
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Novak was recently named one of six Fellows in the Copland House CULTIVATE Program, where will he be commissioned for a new work by Music at Copland House. He will spend a month in the summer of 2021 as an artist-in-residence at the I-Park Foundation. In 2018, he was a participant in the Thai Experimental Laboratory for Young Composers in Burapha, Thailand, where he collaborated with Thai musicians in a workshop setting and composed a new piece for Thai traditional instruments. In 2016, he was selected as one of two composers to participate in the first-ever National Youth Orchestra of the United States Composer Apprenticeship Program, where he had a new orchestral work performed by NYO-USA. Novak has participated in residencies and festivals across the country, including at Bowdoin Music Festival, New Music on the Point, Fresh Inc Festival, Atlantic Music Festival, and MATA Jr. Festival.
Collaboration is at the center of Novak’s creative practice, and in recent years his projects have frequently included interdisciplinary elements. In 2018, he organized Synesthesia, a project that paired 5 composers from the Shepherd School of Music with writers and poets from the Rice Literary Review and culminated in a performance of 5 new collaborative works. He has worked on interdisciplinary projects with Rice Dance Theatre, spoken word poet Ming Li Wu, poet Erica Cheung, and the Bowdoin Museum. Novak is currently working in collaboration with award-winning poet Ira Goga on reflected tides, a new song cycle commissioned by Blackbox Ensemble for their 21/22 season.
Novak’s other current and upcoming projects include chamber commissions from the Boston New Music Initiative, Kinetic Ensemble, and the Willinger Duo; an orchestral commission from the American Composers Orchestra; new works for Quince Ensemble, Left Coast Chamber Ensemble, Quatour Diotima, and Ekmeles with Sandbox Percussion; and dialogues in color, a new work for string orchestra and percussion for Rice’s Hear&Now Ensemble inspired by the artwork of Ellsworth Kelly. Originally from Reno, NV, Novak completed his undergraduate studies at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music, where he studied with Kurt Stallmann, Pierre Jalbert, Anthony Brandt, and Karim Al-Zand. He is currently a PhD student at the University of Chicago, where he studies with Sam Pluta and Augusta Read Thomas.
Collaboration is at the center of Novak’s creative practice, and in recent years his projects have frequently included interdisciplinary elements. In 2018, he organized Synesthesia, a project that paired 5 composers from the Shepherd School of Music with writers and poets from the Rice Literary Review and culminated in a performance of 5 new collaborative works. He has worked on interdisciplinary projects with Rice Dance Theatre, spoken word poet Ming Li Wu, poet Erica Cheung, and the Bowdoin Museum. Novak is currently working in collaboration with award-winning poet Ira Goga on reflected tides, a new song cycle commissioned by Blackbox Ensemble for their 21/22 season.
Novak’s other current and upcoming projects include chamber commissions from the Boston New Music Initiative, Kinetic Ensemble, and the Willinger Duo; an orchestral commission from the American Composers Orchestra; new works for Quince Ensemble, Left Coast Chamber Ensemble, Quatour Diotima, and Ekmeles with Sandbox Percussion; and dialogues in color, a new work for string orchestra and percussion for Rice’s Hear&Now Ensemble inspired by the artwork of Ellsworth Kelly. Originally from Reno, NV, Novak completed his undergraduate studies at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music, where he studied with Kurt Stallmann, Pierre Jalbert, Anthony Brandt, and Karim Al-Zand. He is currently a PhD student at the University of Chicago, where he studies with Sam Pluta and Augusta Read Thomas.