“The feelings of overcoming and transcending are palpable to me. From Muddy Waters to John Coltrane, there is ample proof that it is possible to touch those feelings through sound, and that is why I make music.” – Noah Baerman

Jazz pianist, composer, educator, and activist Noah Baerman’s tenacity and his cutting edge yet soulful music have made him an inspiring figure to a growing legion of admirers. Noah Baerman is a jazz pianist, composer, educator, and activist who has recorded sixteen acclaimed albums under his own name and several more as a co-leader of cooperative ensembles including Trio 149, Envisage Collective, and Playdate, earning praise from. Over twenty years after nearly walking away from the piano due to his struggles with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS), an incurable connective tissue disorder with which he was born, Noah is going strong and has released seven albums this decade, including the trio album Live at the Side Door, the duo project Alter Ego, documenting 20 years of collaboration with bassist Henry Lugo, the double-album Love Right, a tribute to his friend and former student Claire Randall that involved the participation of 100 musicians, and the recent four-volume Right Now series.

A disciple of Kenny Barron’s while earning Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Jazz Studies from Rutgers University in the 1990s (“Mr. Baerman is very creative and imaginative and has the technical wherewithal to bring his creative ideas to fruition.” – Kenny Barron), Baerman first earned national recognition for his 2003 release Patch Kit, conceived around his struggles with EDS and featuring jazz legends Ron Carter and Ben Riley. (“Much more than just a commendable exercise in education and humanitarianism, this is a wonderful and inspiring musical journey that’s a testament to the power of jazz, humor and positive energy to turn a challenging situation into one of joy and hope.” – Joel Roberts, All About Jazz – New York) Patch Kit raised awareness and funds for EDS and led to an invitation from Marian McPartland to be a guest on her long-running NPR program Piano Jazz in 2005. Subsequent works included Soul Force, a tribute to the life and message of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Know Thyself, an emotionally sweeping 65 minute suite made possible by a “New Jazz Works” grant from Chamber Music America/Doris Duke Foundation, and the wide-ranging Ripples. (“With its heady mix of transcendence, activism, deep lyrical expression and soulful sense of swing, pianist/composer Noah Baerman’s triumphant new CD, Ripples, is one of the best and the brightest releases to grace our region in quite some time.” – Owen McNally, WNPR Jazz Corridor) Baerman’s albums have received coverage from publications including Downbeat, Jazz Times, Jazziz, the NYC Jazz Record, the Village Voice, and the Hartford Courant, as well as an hour-long examination of his album The Rock and the Redemption on WNPR’s Colin McEnroe Show.

Since 1998 he has lived with his wife, visual artist Kate Ten Eyck, in Middletown, Connecticut, where July 10, 2020 was declared “Noah Baerman Day” by the city’s mayor and the Middletown Commission on the Arts in recognition of his 2020 Arts Advocacy award. He has directed the Wesleyan University Jazz Ensemble since 2007, is the university’s instructor of jazz piano, and has taught numerous classes through other Wesleyan programs including the Allbritton Center for Public Life, Center for Prison Education, and Graduate Liberal Studies Program, as well as spending eighteen summers working with teenaged musicians through the Center for Creative Youth. His teaching concepts have been codified through ten well-regarded instructional books published by the Alfred Publishing Company. (“I wish these books had existed when I was first getting into jazz.” – Tom Brislin, Keyboard)

In 2012 he became Artistic Director of Resonant Motion, Inc., an organization that seeks to explore and deepen connections between music and positive changes. Through RMI he has overseen numerous educational workshops on the methodology behind socially conscious art, founded the musically diverse imprint RMI Records, and fostered and participated in interdisciplinary work. Since 2015 he has curated and hosted RMI’s interactive guest artist series, Jazz Up Close, and he been one of the primary architects of RMI’s initiative, Claire’s Continuum a commissioning program in the memory of Claire Randall, one of RMI’s charter team members. Early in the COVID-19 pandemic he was awarded an Artists Respond grant from the CT Office of the Arts and he recently completed the multi-year Musician-Aid Requests project, for which he recorded forty videos, many of them with socially distanced collaborators, of songs requested by fans who donated to support musicians financially impacted by the pandemic.

“It is an amazing gift to have a musical future in spite of adversity. I hope to create things of sufficient beauty that I can give that gift back many times over.” – Noah Baerman