Welcome to Jennifer Novak Haar's page!

Biography

Jennifer Novak Haar is an active pianist throughout the United States and beyond in a wide variety of genres.  National tours include the US tour of the Irish singing duo Fír, for whom she was their collaborative pianist, and she was the featured keyboard artist with the Mannheim Steamroller Christmas national tour.  She was invited to perform as a jazz pianist at the Kulturnacht in Braunschweig, Germany, and has played with the Irish group Ishna, the Diamonds, Il Divo, and other international artists.  She toured throughout Bavaria, Germany, through Lord Yehudi Menuhin’s “Live Music Now” program and recently returned from a concert tour in Mexico with Mujeres de Música.

Based in Omaha, Nebraska, Jennifer frequently performs with the Omaha, Lincoln, Sioux City and South Dakota Symphonies, the Omaha Chamber Music Society, Opera Omaha, the Novak Haar & Zuniga piano duo, and for other professional organizations in the area.  She also collaborates with guest artists, faculty, and students at music schools throughout the Midwest, and she was an official accompanist for the International Piccolo Symposium and the International Horn Competition of America.  

Jennifer’s debut album, A Slice of Americana: Music of the Carousel, was released in the spring of 2023, and her original single, Morning Mist, was released in the fall of 2023.  Both can be found on all major streaming platforms and on her website.  She is currently working on recording a large catalog of accompaniment tracks for Vocal Piano Tracks (vocalpianotracks.com). 

Jennifer has music directed productions at many of the Omaha area theaters, including the Omaha Community Playhouse, the largest community theater in the US, and works as a pit and rehearsal keyboardist for numerous Broadway and other touring productions.  She performs in a variety of jazz combos and with her own group, Novak & Haar, as well as with several jazz vocalists on the Nebraska Arts Council touring roster. Jennifer has served on the faculties of the University of Nebraska at Omaha and Nebraska Christian College, and she maintains a private piano studio. 

Jennifer holds a Bachelor of Music in piano performance from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, where she studied with French pianist Monique Duphil.  She was a Fulbright scholar at the Hochschule für Musik in Würzburg, Germany, and also studied collaborative piano with both an instrumental and vocal emphasis at the Cleveland Institute of Music.  She studied jazz improvisation with Gary Burton and is working towards a professional certificate in keyboard styles through Berklee’s online program.  She is currently  studying with jazz pianist Garry Dial.  Jennifer is also a photographer (jennifernovakhaar.myportfolio.com and JHNPhotoArt.etsy.com) and is married to bassist Mark Haar.