Naomi Moon Siegel

Biography

“Her uncommonly appealing writing has a subtle emotional depth that engages across genres and projects a rich, spacious sound.”

–      All About Jazz

SHORT BIO

Trombonist and composer Naomi Moon Siegel has “crafted a truly unique aesthetic, combining elements of straightahead, fusion and modern jazz with world-music flavors in a way that sounds entirely of the 21st century” (JAZZIZ). A recipient of the Montana Arts Council Artist Innovation Award and Earshot Jazz Golden Ear Award, she has released two albums as a bandleader to critical acclaim. Siegel is a member of Syrinx Effect and Wayne Horvitz’s ensembles.

As an educator she facilitates workshops on improvisation and social justice in music, aiming to build awareness around toxic norms in jazz while working towards systemic shifts in our music culture. 

LONG BIO

Trombonist, composer, and educator Naomi Moon Siegel creates work geared towards authentic expression and honest connection. A winner of an Earshot Jazz Golden Ear Award for Emerging Artist of the Year, her expressive trombone playing is changing the way the trombone is heard and viewed. Fusing folk melodies with fantastical soundscapes and tight grooves, she plays her own style of indie-folk/pop/jazz that transcends genre. Her music is introspective and celebratory, intimate and full.

In June 2016 she released her debut album Shoebox View, which received widespread acclaim, dubbed as “marvelous,” “captivating” and “seductive” by press outlets such as Downbeat Magazine, Jazziz, and All About Jazz. She performs as a soloist using loops and electronics, and with bands consisting of Seattle’s finest original voices such as Sean Woolstenhulme and Wayne Horvitz. Her band has performed at the Upstream Music Festival and Earshot Jazz Festival.

Naomi is one half of the folk/punk/jazz duo Syrinx Effect with Seattle saxophonist Kate Olson. In 2016, Syrinx Effect received funding from 4Culture to release their LP A Sky You Could Strike a Match On which comes out in early 2018. She is a member of Wayne Horvitz’s Royal Room Collective Music Ensemble and an active collaborator in the Northwest music scene, recording and performing regionally and internationally. She has performed with such luminaries as Skerik, Stuart Dempster, March Fourth Marching Band, Das Racist, Allison Miller, Rene Hart, Terry Riley, Julian Priester, and Tata Dindin and The Salaam Band.

Naomi is a dedicated advocate for intersectional gender justice in jazz and music settings, especially educational institutions. She leads workshops and gives presentations around the country to build awareness around toxic gender norms in jazz, using an intersectional approach to work towards systemic shifts in our music culture. She has lead workshops at the Stanford Jazz Workshop, Cornish College of the Arts, Seattle JazzEd, University of North Carolina School of the Arts, and Goucher College.

As a music educator, she teaches privately and in workshop and ensemble settings working with students to develop their own sound, improvisation skills and compositional voice. She has been a guest artist at several schools and institutions including Whitman College, the University of Montana, Garfield High School, and Jazz Night School.

In 2016 she moved to Missoula to be more integrated with nature and family. The following year she launched Lakebottom Sound, an organization that enlivens Missoula’s creative music scene through concerts (Lakebottom Sound Series), workshops, and jam sessions (The FreeSessions). 

After moving to Seattle in 2008, Siegel quickly became a mainstay of the world, experimental and jazz scenes. She has collaborated with many ensembles including The Jefferson Rose Band, Thione Diop’s Afro Groove, Picoso, Ahamefule J. Oluo’s Now I’m Fine, Daniel Barry’s Two Hemispheres and many of Wayne Horvitz’s projects. She has made appearances in the Earshot Jazz Festival, Sasquatch! and Bumbershoot. Living in Seattle’s rich musical climate supported her to develop her own musical voice rather than trying to fit into somebody else’s idea of how she should sound. She will always consider Seattle to be her musical home.

In 2012 she committed to a practice involving composing new material every day for a designated period of time. To flee the Seattle grey, she created her own musical retreats in Costa Rica, Senegal and The Gambia to slow down, absorb environmental sounds and just compose. This practice has resulted in a rich library of pieces that she then arranges for different ensembles, including her own groups Sunchasers and The ODAT Band – both featured in The Earshot Jazz Festival. Her debut album Shoebox View also features pieces composed in this way.

While an Oakland, CA resident from 2006-2008, she performed at the Stanford Jazz Festival, San Jose Jazz Festival, Monterrey Blues Festival and made appearances with the Naomi Siegel Quartet, Edgardo Y Su Candela, Realistic Orchestra, Joyfull Noise Brass Band, Ms. Taylor P. Collins and the Contemporary Jazz Orchestra. As an educator, she was a faculty member at The Jazz School (now the California Jazz Conservatory) and The Stanford Jazz Workshop.

In addition to her work as a musician, Siegel also produces Resonance Sound Collages. Resonance Sound Collages are long-lasting gifts that mash up voicemails spoken for the recipient. Usually given in honor of special occasions like weddings and graduations, Resonance Sound Collages are evocative, celebratory archives featuring a community of voices that leaves the recipient feeling showered with love.

She holds a Bachelor of Music degree in jazz trombone performance from Oberlin Conservatory where she studied with Robin Eubanks, Jim DeSano and Wendell Logan. During that time she also participated in a mind-expanding workshop at the School for Improvised Music, studying with some of New York’s finest improvisers such as Ralph Alessi, Mark Helias and Ravi Coltrane. Attending Milton Academy gave her the opportunity to have transformative music-making experiences in South Africa at the age of 16.

She was born in western Massachusetts, spent many formative years playing in the woods of western North Carolina with a community of friends, and was raised outside Chicago. Inspired by the natural world, her music creates an auditory landscape, providing a space for performers and listeners to be with their own feelings while connecting with the surrounding ecosystem.