Paul Novak

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. His recent projects engage with dreams and memory, queer identity, climate change and the natural world, and psychosomatic illness.

Novak has received commissions from American Composers Orchestra, Balourdet Quartet, Orchestra of St. Luke’s, ASCAP and Society of Composers, Inc., Music from Copland House, Lynx, Quatuor Lontano, the Boston New Music Initiative, Blackbox Ensemble, and Kinetic Ensemble, among others. His recent collaborators include the Austin Symphony, Orlando Philharmonic, Reno Philharmonic, the U.S. Army Band, Civic Orchestra of Chicago, DanceWorks Chicago, Sandbox Percussion, Ekmeles, Quince Ensemble, Decoda, InfraSound Ensemble, Left Coast Chamber Ensemble, Dmitri Atapine, Quatuor Diotima, LIGAMENT Duo, and Tribeca New Music.

In 2024, Novak was selected for the top prize from both the ASCAP Morton Gould Composer Awards and the BMI Composer Awards; other recent honors include a Barlow Commission and Underwood Commission, and awards from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, SCI/ASCAP Competition, Red Note Competition, League of Composers/ISCM, Lake George Music Festival, and National Association of Composers of the USA.He has received fellowships from Aspen, Norfolk, Copland House, Millay, and I-Park, and 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." Novak’s recent projects include collaborations with poets, visual artists, dancers, choreographers, and a spoken word artist.