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
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 …
Music for Catholics: Arvo Pärt’s “Musica Selecta.”
“I could compare my music to white light which contains all colours. Only a prism can divide the colours and make them appear; this prism could be the spirit of the listener.” -Arvo Pärt Every person intent on a joyous …
Against the Zeitgeist: The Role of Independent Catholic Voices
In every age of darkness, there is always present the Spirit of the Church, facing down the worldly spirit of the times. In seeking to understand the conflicts of our own times, we may turn allegorically to the mythical world …
Book Review: The Noonday Devil
There are times where an important spiritual concept is lost in the marketplace of religious ideas, subdued and modified by pop psychologists and religionists seeking simple solutions rather than lasting challenges. The concept of “acedia,” if mentioned at all, is …
Chaput, Romeri and the Battle Over Music in Philadelphia
Most Catholics in our world seem to take a flippant attitude towards liturgical music. It is all-too-frequently deemed something suitable for competent amateurs, of lesser concern and of secondary importance – until, of course, it isn’t. The news this week …