Mission Statement:
Noah’s Room is a nonprofit venture devoted to providing a performance venue for emerging musicians and composers, thereby creating community and connection and fighting the depression and isolation that is often experienced by creative people.
Guiding Principles:
➢ Many composers and musicians work alone, in their own rooms, their work never reaching an audience.
➢ There is a link – although perhaps anecdotal – between musical creativity and mental illness including depression, bi-polar disorder, risk-taking behavior and suicide or early death.
➢ The realities of the music industry prevent many talented individuals from finding an audience for their work and sharing their talent.
➢ In this society of standardized testing and the relentless pursuit of a narrow definition of “success,” we instead embrace the artistic process as an end in and of itself – a process that requires experimentation and perhaps some failures along the way.
➢ Every individual musician has a unique voice, worthy of being heard without judgment.
Goals:
➢ Noah’s Room seeks to raise public awareness as to the importance of music as a creative process, which can fight the stigma of depression, suicide, and mental illness when it is given a voice. Our desire is to educate musicians and the public to the fact that suicide is not a solution to any problem.
➢ Noah’s Room is devoted to fighting isolation and depression by offering engagement in a life-affirming, supportive, musical community in order to re-find joy and celebrate life by performing their new work in front of an audience.
➢ We aim to provide a venue for musicians to find a supportive community to create music and/or noise of any kind: classical, experimental, rock, folk, hip hop, etc.
➢ We will seek out and engage groups at-risk of mental illness, depression, or suicide, along with suicide survivors, in the creation of music and musical performance in a non-competitive, cathartic forum.
Specific Objectives:
➢ Noah’s Room will produce an annual music event entitled Noisefest. This full-day event will give musicians an opportunity to bring out their music to an audience and achieve a measure of recognition for their work and talent. Noisefest will provide a fully equipped soundstage in a New York City location.
➢ Noah’s Room will conduct outreach and recruitment to select participating performers and composers.
➢ Noisefest will be staffed by professional producers/event planners and technical assistants, perhaps working as volunteers or for small stipends. Noisefest may also engage a music therapist and/or music professors to work with participants before and during the event.
➢ Noah’s Room will market the event through schools, entertainment venues, community groups, and other channels in order to ensure the house is filled with a supportive and engaged audience.
➢ Noah’s Room will seek appropriate charitable donations and sponsorships to cover the costs of the annual event. Participation will be free of charge to performers, composers, and audience members.
➢ Any surplus revenues will go back into producing and expanding the next Noisefest, as well as exploring the potential of more frequent, smaller venues for at-risk and isolated artists.
History:
Noah's Room is dedicated to the memory of Noah Lior Simring (1985-2006). Noah took his own life on his twenty-first birthday. Music epitomized Noah's life. He composed ceaselessly, and wrote songs and lyrics every spare minute. He listened to music on his several turntables with their tube amps, vinyl preferably, but sometimes caving to CDs. He taped his music on reel-to-reel tape recorders using tube microphones, and always tried to produce "pure sound" even when it was raucous and reverberating noise. He liked music that was fresh, spontaneous, and not over-rehearsed. He worked tirelessly in the isolation of his own room, never really able to bring his music to the light of performance opportunities. Noah’s family and friends would like to memorialize him and counter the silence of his death by promoting the sounds of creative musicians who, like Noah, have difficulties with social maneuvering. We want to bring them out of their isolation to join together in a new community. Come play with us in Noah's Room.
