Born and raised in Iowa, Noah Perkins is a Frankfurt-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.
Noah was selected to be the trombone fellow the 2023-2024 iteration of the renowned International Ensemble Modern Academy (IEMA) in Frankfurt, Germany. As a member of 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.
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 masterclasses for Denson Paul Pollard, Angel Subaro, Weston Sprott, Megumi Kanda, Victoria Daskalova-Garcia, Uwe Dierksen, loadbang and the American Trombone Quartet.