Dr. Mark Nowakowski is a scholar and composer whose music has been performed internationally and released on the Gramophone-praised Naxos Records album, "Blood, Forgotten." His writings on Catholicism, music, aesthetics, and music technology appear in numerous publications regularly, while he also maintains an active schedule as a composer and professor of music. A proud native of Chicago, he currently lives with his wife and three children in Ohio.
Author: Mark Nowakowski
Return to Lothlorien: When You’re Discouraged, Rest
There was a time before my own married and family life that a friend of mine slyly described this vocation as “a beautiful bed of roses … only that somebody forgot to de-thorn the roses.” I am told that much …
Formed by Beauty: Catholic Artists Plan the Way Forward for Our Culture
An unseasonably warm and moodily rainy November 4 in Chicago saw artists and patrons from around the nation gathering for the Second Annual Catholic Art Guild Conference and Gala. Titled “Formed by Beauty,” this event was an opportunity for artists, …
2018 Catholic Art Guild Conference: A Lay Push-Back against the Smoke of Satan
The darkness of our time often feels like a liturgical anti-incense, a dense smog that can be only temporarily fanned away before quickly returning to choke us again. This metaphor is a ripe one for Catholic lay action, because while …
The Consummation of Advent: Rediscovering Christmas Eve
Deep in the heart of winter near the longest night of the year, as a child my heart was graced annually by one of the great traditions of Christendom. It was ultimately an experience which kept me deeply tied to …
A Hidden Renaissance: The First Annual Catholic Art Guild Conference in Chicago
All photos courtesy of Ruth Durkin. On the Feast of the Christ the King, the center of the faithful Catholic world was briefly focused on the Drake Hotel in Chicago, IL, as over 200 members of the Catholic Art Guild, …
Book Review: The Signs of the Holy One
Signs of the Holy One: Liturgy, Ritual, and Expression of the Sacred Fr. Uwe Michael Lang Ignatius Press, 2015 180 pages $9.99 Kindle; $19.95 Paperback In recent years Fr. Uwe Michael Lang’s talk on sacred art, music, and aesthetics has been …
Conversion Through Art: The Music of Frank La Rocca
Saint John Paul II, in his prescient Letter to Artists, reminded us that “The Church needs art,” and that art needs the Church. While much of the Catholic world has forgotten about this document, it fell like a thunderbolt amongst …
Book Review: “Rigour of the Game”: The Literary Lives of the Inklings
“The talk might turn in any direction,” chronicled Warnie Lewis, “[always featuring] the cut and parry of prolonged, fierce, masculine argument and “the rigour of the game.” Later Warnie would chronicle that Out would come a manuscript, and we would …
An Advent Gift: An Interview with Michael O’Brien
Perhaps the most prolific living Catholic author in the English language, Michael O’Brien has been thrilling us with theologically rich and emotionally poignant works of fiction for over twenty years. He recently returned to finish one of his most popular …
The MET Gala and the Consequences of Catholic Cultural Indifference
Image: Screengrab (YouTube/Vogue) The MET Gala has long been an elitist cultural touchstone in New York City, a high profile and bedazzling gathering of Hollywood, fashion, and art elites. With the aim of raising money for the Metropolitan Museum of …
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