Ben Novotny
Custom Silver Heavy Wall with Soldered Toneholes, Offset G,, C# Trill Key, 14K P Cut Headjoint, 18k White Gold Riser
purchased at FLUTISTRY, BOSTON
Ben Novotny is a Chicago-based flutist, scholar, and arts leader whose work spans performance, research, curation, arranging, and composition. His performance interests include avant-garde and experimental music, auxiliary flutes, and study of the traverso.
Ben currently performs as a flutist with Nu Deco Ensemble, a genre-bending contemporary chamber orchestra based in Miami. His orchestral engagements also include performances with Symphony of the Americas and the Northern Lights Music Festival, where he appeared as Second Flute/Piccolo. He has performed under conductors including Gerard Schwarz, JoAnn Falletta, and Francesco Milioto. In the summer of 2026, Ben presented the world premiere of Wyatt Knutson’s ...shift(b) for solo flute, a work written for and dedicated to him, inspired by the astronomical phenomena of “redshift” and “blueshift”, related to wavelengths of displacement of a light spectrum. Also in 2026, he received Third Prize in the Florida Flute Association College Young Artist Competition. He was a fellow at the Mostly Modern Festival in 2025 and toured Germany and Austria with the Frost Double Wind Quintet in 2024.
Ben is the founder, Co-Artistic Director, and flutist of no comfort in the waiting room (NCWR), a Pittsburgh-based new music ensemble he leads alongside clarinetist and Co-Artistic Director Haley Harrison and Executive Director Veronica Brocato. He manages artistic programming, as well as commissions, music librarianship, and equipment management. In its inaugural season, NCWR brought together nine emerging professional musicians from across the country to present six programs throughout Pittsburgh, spanning pay-what-you-can community performances, educational outreach, and mainstage concerts. The ensemble champions contemporary works by composers including George Lewis, Alyssa Mercedes Mena, and Mark Mellits, with an emphasis on BIPOC, LGBTQ+, and other historically underrepresented composers. Through performance, programming, and community engagement, NCWR works to reduce barriers to contemporary music and remind us all that art is a necessity rather than a luxury.
As an arranger, he has written extensively for flute ensemble. His arrangement of Lili Boulanger’s D’un matin de printemps was premiered in 2024 and is published by ALRY Publications. At the 2026 National Flute Association Convention in Portland, Oregon, his arrangements of Boulanger’s D’un soir triste and Florence Price’s Adoration received their world premieres. He is also developing his compositional practice and is currently working on a sonatine for piccolo and piano.
Ben earned his Bachelor of Music in Instrumental Performance, with a minor in Music Industry, from the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami, graduating summa cum laude under the tutelage of Dr. Jennifer Grim. He was named a Theodore Presser Scholar, recognized as the Outstanding Student of the Frost School of Music Class of 2026, and awarded Outstanding Student in the Department of Instrumental Performance. At Frost, he founded the Carnochan Wind Society in memory of former Director of Bands Dr. Robert Carnochan, expanding educational opportunities through guest artist masterclasses and clinics. He also founded the Music Instrumental Performance Advisory Council (MIPAC) to advocate for performance majors and also served as Chair of the Frost Undergraduate Student Council. He is currently pursuing a Master of Music in Flute Performance at DePaul University, where he studies with Aaron Goldman of the National Symphony Orchestra.
Ben’s academic work explores contemporary music and interdisciplinary performance practices. In 2026, he presented his lecture recital, Duality of the Voice: The Role of Prose in Contemporary Flute Repertoire, at the University of Miami Research, Creativity, and Innovation Forum. His paper, “‘A Dream You Don’t Recall’: Sound, Reality, and Spatial Distortion in Christopher Cerrone’s Liminal Highway,” is forthcoming in the Spring 2026 issue of the University of California, Los Angeles, MUSE Journal.
Across performance, scholarship, and arts leadership, Ben is committed to expanding the possibilities of contemporary music, championing underrepresented composers, and fostering collaborative musical communities. Other principal teachers and mentors include Rhian Kenny, Jennifer Steele, Megan Ensor, Lindsey Goodman, Chelsea Tanner, and Claire Gunsbury.
Ben would like to thank the William S. Haynes Company for its support of the next generation of musicians. He is honored and grateful to be named a Haynes Young Artist.