In his 40-year career, two-time Juno-nominee, Canadian bassist, composer, music producer, author, educator, and innovator, Paul Novotny has performed with international artists Kenny Wheeler, Geoff Keezer, Cedar Walton, David Clayton Thomas, and Roger Whitaker.
In 1993, he performed with the Holy Cole Trio at the Japanese Grand Prix Golden Disc Awards when the Trio won awards for Best New Artist and Best Jazz Album. In 1995, he produced jazz singer Carol Welsman’s Juno award nominated recording Lucky to Be Me, which led to a performance at Club Blue Note in Jakarta, Indonesia. In 1996 he produced Joe Sealy’s Juno Award winning Africville Suite. In 2004 and 2009, he co-wrote songs with singer/songwriters Dan Hill and Molly Johnson. In 2012, he produced, performed on, and released Barbra Lica’s first album That’s What I Do, which debuted at Number 1 on the Canadian iTunes Jazz Chart and was released in Japan by Universal Music.
As a composer and performer, Novotny has created music and sound design for commercials, feature films, and television franchises including: The Canadian Broadcasting Company’s The National (2001) and The Hour with George Stroumboulopoulos (2004), Newsworld’s News Now (2005). He performed on the soundtrack for the internationally acclaimed, multiplatinum award winning Cuphead video game (2017).
His most recent 2022 jazz recording, Summertime in Leith, was recorded and performed live with Oscar Peterson protégé Robi Botos. It received a 5-out-of-5 rating from 78 international media outlets in 18 countries, and was released in the Dolby Atmos Music format.
In 2016, Novotny became a certified Apple Digital Music mastering engineer and earned his MA in music composition from York University the following year. Now he is finishing a PhD in musicology.
Novotny is on the faculty of Centennial College, Toronto, and the pedagogical educational advisory committees for The Les Paul Foundation, Neumann, Eventide, OekSound, Bettermaker, and Sonarworks.
With graduate level study of Cultural Policy at the Schulich School of Business (York University) Paul has been an effective 2-term board member for the Screen Composers Guild of Canada. He testified as an expert witness at the departments of Heritage, and Industry Science and Technology, Government of Canada standing committees, advising on fair music copyright remuneration models for 21st-century media streaming.
Courses:
- Audio Mastering
- Advanced Music Business