AN ARTIST TEACHER

Rik Noyce inspires students to embrace the Whole Musician

By Mary Au, ACME Co-Chair

Altus Flutes Performing Artist Rik Noyce (Gamma Sigma, Los Angeles Alumni) has enjoyed a varied and visible career as a professional musician, university professor and certified life coach. He is also a co-founder and faculty member of Whole Musician, a team of specially-certified musicians who empower performers to realize their full artistic power and expression.

Aside from live performances, Noyce has been featured on many recordings. He is also a founding member of the award-winning flute ensemble Resonance Flute Consort. As a certified life coach of the International Coach Federation, Noyce works with all manner of clients but specializes in the performing artist. He is honored and grateful to have made a profound difference in the lives of many hundreds of people.

In great demand as a recitalist, collaborative chamber musician and clinician, Noyce is known for his rich tone, exceptionally expressive musicality and chamber collaborations with vocalists. An advocate of contemporary composition, Noyce has commissioned and premiered numerous new works featuring flute, alto flute and piccolo. He has held principal positions with numerous orchestras and wind ensembles and has performed throughout the United States, Canada, Central America and Europe.

Noyce is adjunct faculty at California State University, Dominguez Hills, as well as senior lecturer in music at Loyola Marymount University. He is also active with the National Flute Association. Currently, he serves on the Oral History and Archives Committee and as a mentor teacher for the Cultural Outreach Committee, serving students in the Los Angeles area working with the Harmony Project. Additionally, he serves on the advisory board for the Los Angeles Flute Guild.

Noyce did not always want to become a musician. “When I was growing up, I wanted to become a veterinarian,” he said.

He started as a percussionist in fourth grade. He then learned to play the saxophone and flute on his own to play in the marching band. It wasn’t until high school, after he was exposed to high levels of music at the New England Conservatory extension division, that Noyce started to think he wanted to be a musician.

“At the Conservatory, I was learning the oboe under Humbert Lucarelli,” Noyce said. “In college, I played the flute in the concert band while majoring in oboe. I learned how to play the piano and was also an active singer in the Chamber Singers. I went to USC on scholarship as an oboist but did not finish there because my first love was the flute.”

He went on to earn his master’s in flute performance at California State University, Northridge, studying with David Shostac. After CSUN, he was awarded the CSU Chancellor’s Doctoral Incentive Program grant to complete his doctorate in flute performance at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

The ability to play multiple instruments has proven to be a very valuable asset for Noyce as a college professor. It gives him the ability to not only teach flute, but also to effectively coach students of multiple instruments and voices.

Developing Whole Musicians

As an artist teacher, Noyce is a very musical performer. He teaches his students to emphasize the importance of line, color and expression. “Dr. Noyce has a way to draw out a student’s potential,” said a former student. “He is so positive that he doesn’t bring his students down nor inflict performance trauma, criticism and negativity. He believes in his students before they believe in themselves, which ultimately leads to our success.”

Noyce believes in his students long before they believe in themselves, instilling in them confidence to further themselves as career musicians. Many of his students thought it impossible to seek a career in music. Through Noyce’s encouragement and help, Natalia Kaminska-Palarczyk auditioned for a performance program. She has since graduated from that program and earned a Master of Music degree from the Hartt School at Hartford University. She now performs in various venues in Los Angeles and teaches privately. “She is an amazing student and a wonderful flutist,” says Noyce.

“I have had the privilege of taking orchestration and history with Dr. Noyce,” said Monique Nardone (Gamma Sigma). “His classes have inspired me and also contributed to furthering my skills as a whole musician. He helps all his students in elevating them to the best they can be through his life coaching and his knowledge and experience as a musician.”

Noyce’s effectiveness as a teacher and coach is lauded by his students.

“Dr. Noyce has been an inspiration to me as a music education student and as a human,” said Alan Perez (Gamma Sigma). “He has pushed me to reach my fullest potential as a musician and teacher, as well as a student. Dr. Noyce taught me to take great care in what I do. I’ve done so much better in academics and in life thanks to his words and teachings. Many of my colleagues and I have a way to keep each other in check. We tell each other ‘Don’t disappoint Dr. Noyce’ as a way to remind ourselves that if he cares that much, we should as well because we aspire to be like him when we are done with school.”

Poncho Williams, another of Noyce’s students, credits Noyce with preparing him for an incredible career in music. In 2021, Williams was appointed by the LA Philharmonic to the position of Conductor and Woodwind Teaching Artist for the Youth Orchestra of Los Angeles at the Beckman YOLA Center in Inglewood, California. Shortly after he was appointed site conductor at BYC, Williams was tasked to orchestrate a piece for the youth orchestra written by Spike Lee for the summer concert.

“I felt an extreme amount of pressure due to the size and scope of the project as well as pressure from knowing that members of the LA Phil would be attending the concert,” Williams said. “I summoned everything I learned from Dr. Noyce to orchestrate the piece including what I learned in the Whole Musician workshop to manage the pressure and stress that I was feeling. The orchestration was a huge success for me, the students, YOLA and Dr. Noyce.

“I am truly grateful that Dr. Noyce helped me to understand that the music world was bigger than a single genre. In this understanding, I was able to go far beyond my preconceived limitations. I not only performed at Carnegie Hall in October of 2022 representing YOLA but I also gave a presentation in conjunction with Gustavo Dudamel, music director at the LA Philharmonic, that same evening. I am so proud to say that I am thriving in my passion, and this is largely due to professors like Dr. Rik Noyce having a say so in my music education and being a wonderful mentor.”

Memorable Performances

“I feel very blessed every time I walk on that stage,” Noyce said. “To have the ability to bring a beautiful piece of music, a gift from God, to share with my audiences is a dream come true.” Here are some of Noyce’s memorable performances:

Faces of Eve

A program featuring music for flute and piano by all women composers including Adrienne Albert (Phi Nu, Los Angles Alumni), Lili Boulanger, Cécile Chaminade, Jennifer Higdon, Deon Nielsen Price (Gamma, Los Angeles Alumni) and Gwyneth van Anden Walker.

Nevertheless, She Said

A concert of works for flute, voice and piano by women composers Adrienne Albert, Ann Bauer, Cecile Chaminade, Eva del’ Acqua, Jennifer Higdon, Catherine McMichael and Barbara Strozzi.

Come into the Light

Come into the Light is a symposium conceived by Noyce and Dawn Brooks, supervisor of vocal and choral studies at CSU Dominguez Hills, as a celebration of the significant artistic contribution of the LGBTQ+ community.

Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5 (1938/45)

Noyce has performed his own arrangement of Villa Lobos’ best known work for flute and guitar orchestra with the guitar ensemble at CSU Dominguez Hills. This piece was originally scored for soprano and cello orchestra and later arranged for solo soprano and guitar orchestra by Lobos.

HBO House of the Dragon

Noyce played the traverso flute for a promotion at ComicCon San Diego for House of the Dragon, an HBO drama that garnered 10 million viewers during its premiere — the highest viewership for an HBO premiere ever.

Front Lawn performance

During the pandemic, most performances were cancelled. Not one to sit still, Noyce gave a front lawn concert for his neighbors and friends. His hope was to offer his music to help others gain a moment of solace from the stress of living with COVID.

Major Influences

Two woodwind teachers had the largest impact on Noyce’s musicianship: Humbert Lucarelli, who taught him oboe and encouraged him to pursue his love of the flute; and the legendary flutist David Shostac who helped him refine his flute skills.

“Rik is innately gifted musically, and his progress was outstanding,” Shostac said. “In addition to being a fine flutist, Rik is noteworthy for his skills as a teacher and instructor.”

Noyce has the most beautiful and unique sound when he plays the flute. Because he has played multiple instruments, he is able to garner different nuances into his flute playing thus producing a unique experience for his listeners. He owes his life success to his parents, his family — including his Whole Musicians family — and to his students.

“My parents have instilled in me a desire for knowledge, justice and to pay forward what has been so generously shared with me,” Noyce said.

He enjoys attending family dinners featuring tamales, plum pudding and cranberry pie (his family’s traditional dish) for Christmas. Though he’s firmly planted in Los Angeles, he does retain some nostalgia for his Bostonian/New England roots.

Q&A with Rik Noyce

Why did you become a life coach?

Many of my students do not believe in their own abilities to succeed. As their professor, I see the importance of bringing the paradigm of life coaching to higher education. That’s a big reason why I took it to the next level by getting my life coaching certification. Aside from teaching my students basic music fundamentals, technique, history, theory, orchestration and performance practice, I want to teach them to focus on what’s possible in the world, how to concentrate on the positive rather than the negative. In time, they are able to succeed in accomplishing what they themselves do not think is possible and become whole musicians.

What is your mission?

My mission is to help others achieve their life’s goals. I would like to be an inspiration for others, a stand for greatness and passionate expression in people’s lives. I use my life coaching skills as support to help me accomplish my mission.

Aside from teaching, what are you passionate about?

Aside from teaching, I am passionate about commissioning and premiering new works, making arrangements of music for flute choir, and coaching musicians to help them believe in themselves and accomplishing their aspirations to the best of their fullest potential.

How would you like to be remembered?

I would like to be remembered as someone who not only inspires and believes in his friends and students and their ability to achieve what they want out of life.

About Whole Musician

Noyce is co-founder of Whole Musician, a collaboration of four uniquely experienced flutists who offer unparalleled intensive university residencies and workshops addressing the mental, physical and musical demands placed on the 21st century performer. Topics covered include life coaching, performance anxiety, rehearsal technique, trust and constructive criticism, yoga, whole body fitness, interpretation, the ins and out of recording, music from a theoretical perspective and vocal techniques for tone enhancement. Visit www.wholemusician.net for more information.

‘Passages:’ For All Those Lost

Noyce is a staunch supporter of new music and has premiered countless pieces written for the flute by contemporary composers. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he commissioned a piece by composer Adrienne Albert (Phi Nu, Los Angeles Alumni) about the pandemic experience. Passages speaks to the stages of grief that so very many have experienced while also looking to a brighter future ahead. The piece premiered at the Mid-Atlantic Flute Convention in February 2022, hosted by the Flute Society of Washington, D.C.

Baker Man

Noyce loves to cook and bake. He makes kumquat marmalade using the fruits from the kumquat tree in his garden. To celebrate Memorial Day, he baked a killer pine-apple lush cake.