biography

The "spellbinding" (Washington Post) music of Chicago-based composer Paul Novak immerses listeners in shimmering and subtly crafted musical worlds full of color, motion, light, and magic. Rejecting grandiose narratives, his work is driven by a love of small things - miniature forms, delicate soundscapes, and condensed ideas - and guided by a sense of empathy for the performers playing his music. 

Novak was the recipient of a 2023 Barlow Endowment Commission for a new work for Balourdet Quartet, and of the 2020 American Composers Orchestra Underwood Commission for a new orchestral work that the ACO will premiere in Carnegie Hall; he has also received commissions from ASCAP and Society of Composers, Inc., Music from Copland House, Lynx, Quatuor Lontano, the Boston New Music Initiative, Blackbox Ensemble, and Kinetic Ensemble. He was selected for a 2022 Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and has received other recent honors from the ASCAP Foundation, Red Note Competition, League of Composers/ISCM, Lake George Music Festival, and National Association of Composers of the USA, among others. Novak was featured in the Washington Post's "23 for '23: Composers and Performers to Watch this Year," where he was praised for his "impressive range and restless energy" in a catalog spanning "lithe, elastic vocal pieces...vibrant orchestral works...and evocative etudes for string quartet." Other recent collaborators include the Austin Symphony, Orlando Philharmonic, Reno Philharmonic, Civic Orchestra of Chicago, DanceWorks Chicago, Sandbox Percussion, Ekmeles, Quince Ensemble, Decoda, Left Coast Chamber Ensemble, Quatuor Diotima, LIGAMENT Duo, and Tribeca New Music. Upcoming projects include commissioned works for InfraSound Ensemble, Quatuor Lontano, American Composers Orchestra, and a micro-concerto for cellist Dmitri Atapine. 

Collaboration and interdisciplinarity are at the center of Novak's creative practice, and his recent work has been driven by a passion for working with text, an attunement to the embodied experiences of musicians, and a fascination with collective, social aspects of performance. His work draws inspiration from literature, visual art, dance, and poetry, from biological and astronomical phenomena, and from history and myth. His recent projects have included collaborations with poets, visual artists, dancers, choreographers, and a spoken word artist.
 
Originally from Reno, NV, he completed his undergraduate studies at Rice University, and is currently a PhD student at the University of Chicago, where he studies with Augusta Read Thomas.

Novak's full CV is available here (updated August 2023).