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Richard Novak, tenor
Dr. Richard Novak is an active performer has performed across the United States, Italy, Germany, Poland, & Mexico. Among Novak’s operatic credits are Rodolfo (La Bohème), Pinkerton (Madama Butterfly), Alfredo (La Traviata), Don José (Carmen), Nemorino (L’Elisir d’Amor), Ernesto (Don Pasquale), Werther (Werther), Eisenstein (Die Fledermaus), Tamino (Die Zauberflöte), and Roméo (Roméo et Juliette). Training programs included Chautauqua Opera, Des Moines Metro Opera, Wichita Grand Opera, the Wesley Balk Institute, and the Evelyn Lear/Thomas Stewart Emerging Singers Program. In 2005 & 2006, Novak won the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions (Tulsa District). Dr. Novak holds a B.M. & M.M. in Vocal Performance from Stephen F. Austin State University and a D.M.A. in Vocal Performance from the University of North Texas. Dr. Novak is an Associate Professor of Voice at the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor (UMHB) where he teaches applied voice, opera, & lyric diction. Prior to UMHB, Novak taught at Texas State University, the University of the Incarnate Word, George Mason University, Oklahoma State University, the University of Louisiana-Monroe, & Angelina College. He was also on the faculty of the Sulzbach-Rosenberg International Music Festival in Germany in 2018 & 2019. In 2019, Novak made his Carnegie Hall debut singing a recital of songs by Jewish composer, James Simon (Simon was murdered at Auschwitz in 1944, and his music was recently rediscovered). Novak has been honored to premiere new music in recent years. He was the driving force behind the commission/creation of Kevin Salfen’s song cycle Stations of Mychal in 2021 (sung in NYC for the 20th Anniversary of 9/11) and premiered the role of Dr. Mengele in Thomas Yee’s Holocaust Remembrance Opera Eva and the Angel of Death in 2022. In addition to his singing and teaching, Dr. Novak is an active church musician. Novak has led choirs at Catholic, Lutheran, Presbyterian, & Methodist churches across the United States.