Noah Perkins, Musician
About Me
Born and raised in Iowa, Noah Perkins is a Washington DC-based trombonist and improviser. Raised by a family of musicians, he can recall waking up in the morning to the sound of Remington scale exercises played on tuba and euphonium by his father and stepmother. These sounds are what inspired him to take up viola before realizing his mistake, and picking up the trombone one year later.
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Currently in Washington DC, Noah is a sought-after trombonist in the classical and chamber music scene, performing with the Washington Opera Society and Hollywood Film Music Orchestra. He is also the trombone instructor at the Washington Conservatory of Music where he teaches lessons and is a mentor with both the Accord Symphony and the Washington Conservatory Orchestra. In the summer of 2025 Noah was selected to be part of the inaugural soloist intensive at the DC Trombone Workshop where he received intensive coaching from renown soloists Christian Lindberg and Brittany Lasch, and chamber music coachings from Corey Sansolo of Axiom Brass. Noah was selected to be the trombone fellow for the '23-'24 iteration of the renowned International Ensemble Modern Academy (IEMA) in Frankfurt, Germany. As a soloist and chamber musician with this ensemble, he had the opportunity to perform contemporary all around Germany as well as the Netherlands, Finland, Lithuania, and Switzerland. Through this ensemble he premiered more than a dozen new works on top of many programs of other contemporary pieces. As a member of IEMA he was either part of an ensemble-in-residence or a headline performance at the Into the Open Festival in Berlin; Time of Music Festival in Viitasaari, Finland; Kintai Music Festival in Kintai, Lithuania; Gaudeamus in Utrecht, Netherlands; and the Lucerne Festival in Lucerne, Switzerland; alongside numerous other concert performances. Noah has had the opportunity to perform with several acclaimed ensembles including as chamber-soloist with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony on Gerard Grisey's Les Espaces Acoustiques, and as appearances with the Frankfurt Chamber Opera. He has performed in several seminars and festivals including an invitation to participate in the Carsten Svanberg trombone seminar in Boston; multiple appearances at Divergent Studio in Boston; and mutiple appearances in the prestigious Lucerne Festival Contemporary Orchestra in Switzerland playing principal, section, and chamber orchestra trombone as well as bass trumpet. He has since been invited back to Lucerne twice in November of 2024 and 2025 as a performer in their highly selective Festival Forward.
Noah's performance career started early when, as an undergraduate student, he was the featured trombone soloist for the Colts Drum and Bugle Corps, and through those acclaimed performances, was subsequently cast in the touring show Blast!. With this show, he toured extensively in Japan throughout 2019 where he performed in nearly all 47 prefectures including an extended stay in the Tokyu Orb theater in Shibuya, Tokyo. In his time in Boston Noah could be heard in the New England Philharmonic, New Philharmonia Orchestra, Eureka! Ensemble, and DuBois Orchestra. He is also a founding member of the contemporary music trio nexbloom which collaborates with composers on new works as well as adapting older pieces for modern nontraditional performances. As a soloist, Noah was the first non-pianist or violinist to win the Iowa City Music Study Club Recital Scholarship and the first-ever trombonist to be named a finalist in the Brookline Concerto Competition.
Noah completed his Bachelor's of Music at the University of Iowa studying with Jonathan Allen and his Master’s of Music in trombone performance at the Longy School of Music of Bard College in Boston studying with William Lang. Noah has performed in lessons and masterclasses for Christian Lindberg, Brittany Lasch, Miles Blakemore, Corey Sansolo, Denson Paul Pollard, Angel Subaro, Weston Sprott, Megumi Kanda, Victoria Daskalova-Garcia, Uwe Dierksen, loadbang and the American Trombone Quartet.
Let's talk philosophy.
Artist
Statement
I am a trombonist and performer frustrated by impersonal detachment between people in the world. As a person whose thoughts tend toward anxiety, I find comfort and peace in expression and connection. I use nontraditional sounds, ensembles, and environments to encourage audiences to open their minds to the wider world. To let their guard down and embrace the chaotic nuances of being a human. My performance seeks to facilitate audience members to make connections with themselves and others. My workseeks to facilitate audience members havingan honest and vulnerable dialogue with themselves and others. The future is uncertain,but one certainty is we have each other, and my greatest mission as an artist is to be part of building that connection
My top priority as a teacher and mentor is to be a conduit through which my students can not only express themselves artistically, but also experience the joy of competency. Students should expect to learn their craft, but to also do some of the challenging nonmusical work of building self-trust and self-esteem. I set very high (but achievable) standards for all students that are tailored to that student’s needs and current abilities. I fully reject the “old school” methods of shame and character assassination and choose to embrace curiosity and support. I seek to help build my student’s self-assuredness so they can enforce their own expectations. I aim to help mold great players, great artists, and great human beings.
Teaching Statement
Diversity
Statement
Equity is one of the centerpieces of any effective learning environment. Serving the needs of students in a way that recognizes their humanity first is foundational to good teaching, and positive educational outcomes. Ever since I was a young child seeing my mother’s special education classroom, I’ve seen that a measured and practical approach to addressing diverse needs, in her case with a focus on neurodivergent students, is the only way to work effectively. I’ve taught in schools with majority free or reduced lunch students, schools designed to serve immigrant families,and religious schools, among others. As a music teacher I have found that understanding the community that I am joining in every school is paramount. Using that understanding I can adjust content delivery, classroom procedure, and any number of other elements to try to better suit the students in that community. Equitable instruction is not only a facet of good instruction, but they are one and the same and should be treated with similar weight and respect.