Composer Noam Faingold (b. 1984) is committed to composing and collaborating across traditional, multidisciplinary, and cross-genre projects. His music has been described as “lyrical,” “exhilarating,” and “a tour-de-force of jazz melded with classical” by The New York Times, The BBC, and Downbeat Magazine, among others.
Recent highlights include works written for Leilehua Lanzelotti (Pulitzer Prize finalist), cellist Inbal Segev (Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center), oboist Rob Botti (New York Philharmonic), violinists Domenic Salerni (Attacca Quartet), Jesse Mills (Horszowski Trio), and Itamar Zorman (Lysander Trio), as well as for the Appalachian Chamber Music Festival. His music has been performed by the Argus Quartet, PubliQUARTET, Fidelio Trio, pianists Michael Brown (CMS) and Peter Dugan (host of NPR’s From the Top), and featured in arrangements for the London Symphony Orchestra, OK Mozart, and Pentatone Records.
Faingold thrives on multi-stakeholder collaborations and special projects. Current work includes a new piece for Washington, D.C.’s Sumner Museum in celebration of its 150th anniversary in partnership with students and faculty of the Duke Ellington School of the Arts. His “A Prayer for Those Who Look Away,” written for Inbal Segev, became a video collaboration with YouTuber The Cello Doll and later an installation at the Sumner Museum. “The Defiant Poet: Elegy in Memory of Yevgeny Yevtushenko” united the late poet’s family with orchestras and Navona Records to honor his legacy. “We Persist”—one of the earliest original virtual orchestra projects—was produced with the George Kaiser Family Foundation and the Tulsa Symphony and has been viewed over 50,000 times across platforms. Faingold’s work also appears in the Sphinx catalogue of Latin American Cello Works and in the Latin Orchestral Music catalogue.
Equally dedicated to education and mentorship, Faingold creates opportunities for young artists to compose and engage with new music. In 2023, the U.S. Navy Band performed a piece he co-composed with nine D.C. Public Schools students, and he mentored a student composer’s first orchestral work for the district’s 100-plus member Honor Ensemble. He serves as composer-in-residence with Washington Musica Viva and with Oklahoma State University’s Community Music School and Cellofest, and as an arts mentor with the Mid-America Arts Alliance and the Music Teachers National Association. Previous roles include Visiting Artist in Composition at the University of Tulsa and founder/director of the composition programs at Tulsa Community College and The bART.
Faingold has received fellowships from the Salzburg Global Seminar, the Bowdoin International Music Festival, the Atlantic Music Festival, and the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation, which supported his Ph.D. in Music Composition at King’s College London.
Where Our Voices Hide When We Must Speak
Where Our Voices Hide When We Must Speak was written in response to the feeling of needing to speak up for vulnerable people but staying muted. I Imagine a hidden place where our voice goes. The piece attempts to create a rendering of the invisible tensions present in situations that make us feel that it is unwise or even advantageous to stay silent.