As a percussionist and composer, Eugene Novotney has performed and presented lectures and master classes in North America, South America, the Caribbean, Europe, Asia, and Africa. He is internationally recognized as a composer of contemporary percussion music, and his compositions are widely performed as standards of the literature. As a steelpan artist and scholar, he has been involved in the steelpan movement in the United States since 1982. In 1985, he founded the first steelband in the California State University System, the Humboldt Calypso Band, which he still leads and directs. He has performed in Trinidad’s National Panorama Competition as a member of the Phase II Pan Groove (1994, 2003, 2010, 2020) and as a member of the Hummingbird Pan Groove (1993) working with Len “Boogsie” Sharpe and Ray Holman, respectively.
He regularly serves as an adjudicator for many professional organizations, including the Trinidad & Tobago Ministry of Tourism, Culture, and the Arts, Pan Trinbago, Pan European, the Virginia International PANFest, and the Percussive Arts Society. He was a member of the adjudication panel of Trinidad’s World Steelband Festivals in 2024, 2008, 2002, 2000, and1998, all held in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad, and was also an adjudicator forthe Trinidad & Tobago World Steelband Festival (2005) held in Madison Square Garden, New York, New York. In addition, he was a member of the adjudication panel of the 2000 European Steelband Festival held in Paris, France, the adjudication panel for the 2005 Trinidad National Schools Music Festival held in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad, and an adjudicator for the 2024, 2019, 2011, and 2010 Virginia International PANFest.
In 2006, Dr. Novotney was awarded the Wang Family Excellence Award by the California State University Board of Trustees, an award that recognizes California State faculty who, through extraordinary commitment and dedication, have distinguished themselves through exemplary contributions and achievements in their academic disciplines. In 2014, Dr. Novotney was honored as the recipient of Cal Poly Humboldt’s distinguished Outstanding Professor Award, an award reserved for faculty who have made superlative contributions to the university and the community in terms of their service, their professional and creative activities, and their outstanding record of teaching excellence. And in 2017, Dr. Novotney was selected as the recipient of the Sunshine Award for Education and the Performing Arts in NYC for his lifelong dedication to the promotion of the steelpan artform worldwide.
Eugene Novotney currently serves as the Senior Editor of The Steel Times, the professional journal of the National Society of Steel Band Educators (NSSBE) and is a Distinguished Professor of Music at Cal Poly Humboldt in Arcata, California. He has also served on the Percussive Arts Society Board of Directors, Board of Advisors, the New Music Research Committee (Chair), and the World Percussion Committee (Coordinator). His recordings have been released on the Bembe, Delos, SANCH, Pogo, Rituals and Earthbeat (Rhino) labels, and his compositions and arrangements are available through Smith Publications of Sharon, Vermont and Mau Mau Music of Cleveland, Ohio. His professional artists endorsements include Black Swamp Percussion and REMO Incorporated.