By: Henry Nickerson | Co-Editor
Since the class of 2018 graduated, the noticeable lack of psychedelic, thrift store-bought button downs, and loop-heavy folk music has weighed heavy on the student population, at least it has for those who knew Noah Denzer.
If you have had the pleasure of attending one of the music department’s monthly open mics within the past four years, you are sure to have encountered him- guitar in hand, a hat with the word “Art” sloppily doodled, and a welcoming countenance that befriended many overwhelmed underclassmen. Since Denzer’s departure from Salve, he has taught music to every age group from kindergarten to undergraduate, began pursuing a masters degree in composition, and recorded more than 45 original songs. At Salve and beyond, Denzer has been a model of liberal arts education and the ability to pursue one’s passions alongside a career.
The main characteristic of Noah Denzer’s time at Salve was his commitment to the music department and his own compositions. Denzer participated in a number of musical ensembles, including Jazz, Chamber Choir, and Mixtapes Acapella to name a few, all the while releasing three full records: In The Storm (2015), On My Mind (2017), and Diminuendo in Purple and Orange (2017). Having already released six albums in high school, Denzer was intent on continuing to release music throughout college despite his busy schedule. Although often bogged down in work from his Music Education degree, Denzer found the time to release three incredibly rich and musically diverse albums alongside his annual Christmas album, of which there are seven:
“I’d do a lot of it really late at night. I would do a lot of it during the summers as well… [Music is] my work, my self-expression, it’s what I enjoy, so I make the time to do it.”
Denzer took his work ethic for music into his first teaching job as the director of music education at Block Island School. Teaching 120 students aged 3 to 18, Denzer took over the challenge following his graduation:
“Most people coming out of a music ed. degree would have really struggled at that job. And it was hard, but it was pretty effortless for me at the same time because Salve prepared me for it.”
With more leisure time living on the secluded island, Denzer took the opportunity to release more music. Between his graduation in May of 2018 and September of 2019, Denzer recorded over 45 songs and released three albums: Waveland (2018), Zebraland (2019), and Once Around the Block (2019).
After his departure from Block Island School, Noah procured a job at URI teaching music theory to undergraduates alongside a masters degree in music composition. Denzer hopes to teach music and music education at a small liberal arts college such as Salve in the future but also entertains the idea of focusing on his own compositions:
“The way I like to look at things in terms of my music and teaching career is that I’m trying to set myself up to be able to do whatever I want to do at any point in my life. I know what interests me know, which is mess around and make music…I want to make sure that whatever it is that I want to do, I am able to. Because I don’t know what the future holds… If it became I viable thing for me to do, I’d do it.”
Many of Denzer’s albums mirror where he is at in his own life. One sees an autobiography emerge from Noah’s sonically diverse and thematically complex discography that portrays the thoughts of a young musician in a liberal arts environment. Each project reflects some of the inspiration Denzer drew from his romantic life, Newport, or Block Island. Albums like Diminuendo in Purple and Orange explore Noah’s personal life and romantic past, while a record like Around the Block seems nothing short of a Naturalist ode to New England scenery.
Like Denzer’s experiences, his music is unique. It can go from trance-inducing one moment, with crunched-up reverb and repetitive guitar licks, to simple and charming, with tongue-and-cheek lyrics and intelligent songwriting. Denzer’s music has had a consistent folk foundation; however, more influences of jazz, chamber music, and psychedelia have worked their way into it:
“I have many teachers at Salve like Peter Davis and Donald St. Jean to name a few, to thank for almost every aspect of my musicality as it currently is. One of the challenging things about Salve is that the music department is so small. However, it forces you to do and learn things a typical music ed major might not typically learn. Before I came to Salve, I had all of these ideas [for my music], but I didn’t know how to make them happen. Now I have he music vocabulary and theory to express those ideas.”
Denzer’s welcoming attitude and wide-ranging interests embody what it is to be a graduate of a liberal arts school: well-rounded, open-minded, and driven. Whether he is making his own music, teaching, or documenting weather patterns on his cloud-based instagram, Noah Denzer is always learning and progressing:
“I’ve gotten better as a writer, player, singer and producer over the past few years… so what I’m doing now is my best work. That’s always been the case, and I hope it continues to be the case.”
Check out Noah Denzer’s latest singles, ‘Swans’ and ‘Witness’, promoting his upcoming album here: https://noahdenzer.bandcamp.com/
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