About
Dr. Jason Noble is a conductor, teacher-educator and researcher. He serves as Associate Professor at CUNY - Lehman College and conductor of the Columbia University Wind Ensemble. He holds the Doctor of Education degree in College/Higher Education and the Teaching of Music from Teachers College, Columbia University, where he was a Florence K. Geffen Endowed Fellow. He also holds degrees from New York University (M.A.) and the Frost School of Music, University of Miami (B.M., cum laude).
Teaching and Conducting
At Lehman College, Dr. Noble teaches graduate conducting and teacher education for future New York State music teachers. He has chaired numerous committees, national searches for tenure-track faculty, and has undertaken the revision and expansion of several courses in the Master of Arts in Teaching program. Before his tenure at Lehman, he served as Director of Bands at Scarsdale High School for more than fifteen years, where he built a "Democracy in Band" curriculum, tripled enrollment in the band program, led the students to six full-length performances at Carnegie Hall, and was honored with an endowed music fund in his honor. Under Dr. Noble's direction, the Columbia University Wind Ensemble returned to Carnegie Hall for three full-length concerts, their first performances since 1965. He also serves as a guest faculty member at the Manhattan School of Music and as a conducting instructor at Teachers College, Columbia University.
Research
He founded the PRISM Arts Education Research Initiative, inspired by his mentor, Maxine Greene.
New Music
His first commission, Mark Camphouse's Yosemite Autumn, came in 2004.
Commissions since then include:
Speaking and Consulting
Dr. Noble frequently serves as a guest conductor and consultant for P-12 schools, universities and arts organizations. He grew up in rural Georgia, began his teaching career at an urban high school in Miami and spent more than 20 years in P-12 classrooms before he moved to higher education. His work draws on a 25-year career of student-centered teaching.
He gives keynotes and workshops across the United States and abroad, including keynotes on leadership, teaching and creating in the arts, trust and empathic discourse in organizations, and disability and neurodivergence in music. His research and praxis focus on paradigm shifts in music education, philosophies of music education, neurodivergence and disability, LGBTQIA+ studies in music, and interdisciplinarity. Sessions range from a single keynote to multi-day residencies with faculty, conductors and students.
Conducting
He has conducted bands and orchestras in China, Australia, Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Finland and Spain. Recent engagements include Tsinghua University in Beijing, the Royal Australian Navy Band in Sydney, the Queensland Conservatorium in Brisbane, the Deakin Edge in Melbourne, the Helix in Dublin, Cork City Hall and Ulster Hall in Belfast. At Ulster Hall the Scarsdale High School Wind Ensemble closed its 2019 tour with the world premieres of Michael Martin's The Bridge that Hangs from the Sky and Julie Giroux's Always, written in memory of his late mother, Janet Brown Noble.
He brings a long and colorful history of building bands and musical and creative bridges. As Director of Bands at Scarsdale High School for fifteen years, he led the Wind Ensemble through an unprecedented era of growth. He tripled the size of the band program and kept students in it; numerous graduates continued their music studies in college and beyond. He also implemented a progressive, student-led Democracy in Band curriculum inspired by Maxine Greene and John Dewey. The Wind Ensemble performed at Carnegie Hall in 2010, 2012, 2014, 2016, 2018 and 2022 and toured Spain, Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, England, Australia and Ireland. Alongside his work in schools, he maintained a part-time college teaching career for more than 20 years. He served as Visiting Assistant Professor and Director of Bands at Hofstra University in 2012-13. From 2013 he led the Columbia University Wind Ensemble to its first full-length Carnegie Hall concerts since 1965, in 2016, 2017 and 2019. The 2019 concert gave the world premiere of Catherine Likhuta's Home Away from Home. After COVID-19 he rebranded and relaunched the NYU Wind Symphony. Its debut concert, A New York Renaissance, took place on December 8, 2021, at Eisner & Lubin Auditorium. In April 2022 at the Skirball Center the ensemble gave the world premiere of Townscaping by student composer Noah Horowitz and performed John Mackey's The Frozen Cathedral. Through the Aurora Tapestry Collective's Let's Play consortium he then commissioned four works by Harrison J. Collins, Kevin Day, Katahj Copley and Josh Trentadue. The ensemble gave all four world premieres at the Let's Play concert on December 10, 2022. When he moved into the next chapter of his career to become a full-time professor, collegiate Director of Bands and teacher educator, Friends of Music and the Arts in Scarsdale Schools established the Dr. Jason Noble Music Fund to honor his 15-year legacy. Programs that seek advice on student-led, student-voiced, non-competitive and forward-thinking models of music education can draw on that history and energy.
Dr. Noble led commissions from Mark Camphouse (Yosemite Autumn), Brandon Scott Rumsey (Wanderlust), Julie Giroux (Always), Patrick Burns (My Love Is Fairer Than Any), Michael Martin (The Bridge that Hangs from the Sky), Catherine Likhuta (Home Away from Home and The Last Flight Out), Kevin Day (Deep Blue and River Memoria), Harrison J. Collins (Dark Convictions), Josh Trentadue (Hilltop Run), Katahj Copley (Uptilt) and Michael Markowski (Processional).