Saturday, October 17, 2026 12:00-1:00
Smith Reading Room, Olin Library 114
252 Church Street, Middletown, CT
Noah Baerman, Director of the Wesleyan University Jazz Ensemble, celebrates the release of “Independent Declarations” with a discussion of how it came together. A collaboration with alumni of Wesleyan and of the Center for Creative Youth, the album reflects the Declaration of Independence both thematically and in its generative process.
Baerman’s talk opens the media exhibition Independent Declarations (on view in Olin Library through December 18th) and marks the October 16th release of the album of the same name. Independent Declarations, by Noah Baerman and Friends, is a collaborative musical project serving both as celebration of the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence and the document’s ongoing relevance. Baerman, pianist, Wesleyan faculty member, and Artistic Director of the nonprofit Resonant Motion, enlisted fifteen musicians, ranging in age from early twenties to late forties, who had studied with him at Wesleyan University or at the longstanding summer program Center for Creative Youth (CCY). Nine of Baerman’s former students from these programs, with diverse musical practice and philosophy, were commissioned to compose new works reflecting on the present-day relevance and impact of the Declaration of Independence as a jumping off point. Though geographically far-flung, the format of submitting compositions for others to perform allowed Baerman to work with Kwaku Darko (Boston), Joe Newman ’09 (San Francisco), Johnnie Gilmore ’18 (Los Angeles), David Hanlon ’01 (Washington, D.C.), Sean Clapis (Madrid), and a cadre of transplanted New Yorkers, Chad Selph, Rachel Housle, Anne Boccato, and Sam Friedman ’13. To bring these compositions to life, Baerman brought together two ensembles, also made up of former students from these programs. To perform the vocal material, Baerman was joined by Connecticut based vocalist Erica Tracy, Massachusetts based drummer Nate Mondschein ’12 (Best Mann), and New York based vocalist, producer, and multi-instrumentalist Spencer Hattendorf ’12 (Spencer H) for a one day session in West Springfield, MA at Ghost Hit Recording. The instrumental pieces were fleshed out in an afternoon at Firehouse 12 in New Haven, CT by Connecticut based drummer, percussionist, and bandleader Jocelyn Pleasant MA ’20, PhD candidate, New York based bassist Tim Norton, and Chicago based guitarist Alex Tripp ’21. Collectively these works encompass both straight-ahead and experimental jazz, R&B, blues, folk, Latin music, and various hybrids thereof.
This was a novel experience for Baerman in the sense that, while ostensibly serving as the bandleader and producer, he let go of his standard practice of arranging and organizing the musical interpretations of the material, instead letting that process unfold communally in the recording sessions with an underlying trust in each performer in terms of preparedness, humility, and musical understanding. According to him “the experience of bringing these compositions to life was such a moving example of how collective action can result in a whole greater than the sum of the parts. So often in both musical collaboration and governmental democracy, the representation of different voices does not actually result in a truly openhearted sharing of ideas. I was heartened that, in spite of the potential sense of hierarchy since I was once their teacher, these musicians all brought their full selves to the table and made the music into something I could never have fully conceived on my own.”
In addition to the artistic stimulation of working with these creatively potent musicians, it was inseparable from the overall ethos of viewing the impact of a document once it leaves the hands of whoever formulated it. In Baerman’s words, “in the same vein that modern-day citizens and governments must contend with how to embody the Declaration of Independence in a manner that is at once faithful and relevant to the present moment, the composers involved in this process had to contend with the process being out of their hands once they passed the compositions along, and the performers had to contend with doing justice to that music while also being true to their own musical values and sensibilities.” The focus on Baerman’s former students as composers and performers serves as a further representation of the intergenerational alliances and torch-passing that we hope to see in society writ large.
This project was made possible by a Semiquincentennial grant from the Middletown Commission on the Arts and by the generosity of Resonant Motion’s donors. This WESeminar and accompanying media installations are sponsored by Wesleyan’s World Music Archives & Music Library, with additional support from the Allbritton Center for Public Life’s Democracy250 initiative. Email wma@wesleyan.edu for more information.
Speaker Bio
Pianist/composer Noah Baerman has released 17 albums under his own name and several more as co-leader of cooperative ensembles including the jazz groups Envisage Collective, Playdate, and Trio 149, and the folk-blues duo Stankeye Jones and the Vagabond Librarians with his wife, visual artist and Wesleyan faculty member Kate Ten Eyck. Highlights from his discography include Patch Kit (illuminating his lifelong challenges with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome alongside bassist Ron Carter and drummer Ben Riley), the Martin Luther King tribute album Soul Force (from which he performed several selections as a guest on Marian McPartland’s Piano Jazz), and the concert-length works Know Thyself (the result of a Chamber Music America New Jazz Works grant) and The Rock and the Redemption. He has directed the Wesleyan University Jazz Ensemble since 2007, serves as Wesleyan’s Jazz Piano instructor, and has taught other courses through the Music Department, Graduate Liberal Studies program, Center for Prison Education, and Allbritton Center for the Study of Public Life. He is the author of 10 published instructional books, and in 2012 founded Resonant Motion, Inc. (RMI), a nonprofit committed to exploring the intersection of music and positive change. His service through RMI led to his receiving the Middletown Arts Advocacy award, with July 10, 2020 declared “Noah Baerman Day” by the mayor and the Middletown Commission on the Arts.