James Noyes

“A monumental force of ideas and energy” (Saxophone Journal), James Noyes has performed with the Long Island Philharmonic, Juilliard Symphony Orchestra, Manhattan Chamber Sinfonia, Susquehanna Symphony, Disney’s All-American College Orchestra, Argento New Music Project, New York Arts Ensemble, David Amram, Rosemary Clooney, Toni Tennille, Sam “Soul Man” Moore, Soul Gypsys, and the Doobie Brothers. He led the SURGE Saxophone Quartet to a first prize at the 28th Artists International Chamber Music Competition, where they presented a recital of works written for the quartet at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall. In his live performances, Noyes is renowned for a sound that is both “entrancing in its dreamy melancholy” (New York Concert Review) and a “shape-shifting mass of pure expression” (I Care if You Listen). His studio recordings include Shadowcatcher, with Eric Ewazen and the Juilliard Wind Ensemble (New World Records), and Imaginings (self-produced), which features solo works written for him by Eric Nathan, Steve Cohen, Michael Patterson, Richard Miller, and Rich Shemaria. An avid scholar of saxophone history and the music of Claude Debussy, his articles appear in Musical Quarterly, Saxophone Symposium, Saxophone Journal, and Journal of the American Musical Instrument Society. He was also a featured columnist in Saxophone Today, an online magazine.

Formerly on the faculty of the Pennsylvania State School of Music (theory, jazz history, saxophone), Dr. Noyes presently serves on the faculties of William Paterson University (saxophone) and the Manhattan School of Music Precollege Division (theory/ear training, chamber music, and saxophone), where he is the former Chair of the Theory Department. He is also Artistic Director of MOSA (Music at Our Saviour’s Atonement), a concert series in upper Manhattan. He is the composer of over fifty works, including Songs of Equinox Liturgy (2006), The Way of Ascension (2013), and Festival of Light (2014). He earned the Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Manhattan School of Music, where he was the recipient of the Helen Cohn Award for outstanding doctoral student. His teachers were Paul Cohen (saxophone), Nils Vigeland (theory), and Kenneth Cooper (performance practice).

Manhattan School of Music Precollege faculty since 2001.