Jennifer Novak Haar holds a Bachelor of Music degree in piano performance from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, where she studied with French pianist Monique Duphil. At Oberlin she also studied organ, harpsichord and fortepiano and was hired as a staff accompanist her last two years. As well as being awarded a full scholarship to Oberlin, she was named a Liberace Scholar, and her bio, photo and recording can be found at the Liberace Museum in Las Vegas. She has performed in masterclasses for Gyorgy Sebok, Jacques Rouvier and Anne Epperson and later studied accompanying and chamber music at the Cleveland Institute of Music with Anne Epperson and Russell Miller.
After attending a course titled “Bach on the Modern Piano” taught by Bach specialist Walter Blankenheim, Jennifer was invited to study further the works of Johann Sebastian Bach with Professor Blankenheim in his hometown of Saarbrücken, Germany, for five weeks in the summer of 1994. In 1997 she was awarded a Fulbright grant to study German piano music at the Hochschule für Musik in Würzburg, Germany, with Bernd Glemser and also studied chamber music with Ernest Ueckermann. She was given a year’s extension of the grant, an honor given to only a few Fulbright scholars throughout Germany.
Jennifer has concertized as a soloist and chamber musician throughout the United States and Germany; musicians with whom she has collaborated have won major international competitions and are singing at major opera houses. Highlights of the past few seasons include performing at the National Music Museum in Vermillion, South Dakota, and on Chicago’s Fourth Presbyterian Church’s concert series. She has also recently performed a series of lecture recitals titled “J. S. Bach on the Modern Piano, Part 1: Suites and Fugues and Part 2: The Goldberg Variations.” She is interested in the works of modern Hungarian composers and performed the American premieres of Pál Kadosa’s Piano Trio and Sonatina for Flute and Piano.
In Germany, Jennifer was selected to participate in Lord Yehudi Menuhin’s “Live Music Now” program, which gave her the opportunity to perform chamber music throughout Bavaria for those who would not normally be able to go to concerts, such as those in nursing homes and schools. Since then, she has still been active in promoting and bringing music to a wider audience. She founded the Nouveau Chamber Series in Omaha, Nebraska, and was its executive and artistic director for three years. She also helped to start Courtyard Jazz at Pacific Hills in Omaha and was its artistic director for the first season.
Jennifer has collaborated with many of the Omaha area’s classical and jazz musicians, including the Omaha Symphony, Opera Omaha, Lincoln Symphony, Sioux City Symphony, the Swingtones, Broadway touring productions and the Omaha Community Playhouse, the nation's largest community theater, where she has both played and conducted. She also collaborates with faculty and students at music schools throughout the Midwest and has been on the faculty at the University of Nebraska at Omaha and Nebraska Christian College. Jennifer maintains a private piano studio and is a frequent clinician and adjudicator at local and regional workshops, festivals and competitions.
After attending a course titled “Bach on the Modern Piano” taught by Bach specialist Walter Blankenheim, Jennifer was invited to study further the works of Johann Sebastian Bach with Professor Blankenheim in his hometown of Saarbrücken, Germany, for five weeks in the summer of 1994. In 1997 she was awarded a Fulbright grant to study German piano music at the Hochschule für Musik in Würzburg, Germany, with Bernd Glemser and also studied chamber music with Ernest Ueckermann. She was given a year’s extension of the grant, an honor given to only a few Fulbright scholars throughout Germany.
Jennifer has concertized as a soloist and chamber musician throughout the United States and Germany; musicians with whom she has collaborated have won major international competitions and are singing at major opera houses. Highlights of the past few seasons include performing at the National Music Museum in Vermillion, South Dakota, and on Chicago’s Fourth Presbyterian Church’s concert series. She has also recently performed a series of lecture recitals titled “J. S. Bach on the Modern Piano, Part 1: Suites and Fugues and Part 2: The Goldberg Variations.” She is interested in the works of modern Hungarian composers and performed the American premieres of Pál Kadosa’s Piano Trio and Sonatina for Flute and Piano.
In Germany, Jennifer was selected to participate in Lord Yehudi Menuhin’s “Live Music Now” program, which gave her the opportunity to perform chamber music throughout Bavaria for those who would not normally be able to go to concerts, such as those in nursing homes and schools. Since then, she has still been active in promoting and bringing music to a wider audience. She founded the Nouveau Chamber Series in Omaha, Nebraska, and was its executive and artistic director for three years. She also helped to start Courtyard Jazz at Pacific Hills in Omaha and was its artistic director for the first season.
Jennifer has collaborated with many of the Omaha area’s classical and jazz musicians, including the Omaha Symphony, Opera Omaha, Lincoln Symphony, Sioux City Symphony, the Swingtones, Broadway touring productions and the Omaha Community Playhouse, the nation's largest community theater, where she has both played and conducted. She also collaborates with faculty and students at music schools throughout the Midwest and has been on the faculty at the University of Nebraska at Omaha and Nebraska Christian College. Jennifer maintains a private piano studio and is a frequent clinician and adjudicator at local and regional workshops, festivals and competitions.
