Cellist, songwriter, and producer Noah Hoffeld came from a classical background, but playing classical was never everything to him. Before graduating Juilliard, he began bringing alternative music, improvised and written, to the cello. Music has always been his way of connecting, expressing, and exploring the world, and alongside this journey, meditation and spiritual practice have become an important part of his life, shaping how he listens, performs, and approaches creativity.

Noah played on the Grammy-winning Best Jazz Album Finding Gabriel by Brad Mehldau, bringing the strings together for the recording. He’s performed solos for Pete Seeger, Natalie Merchant, and Renee Fleming. He’s recorded for films such as A Walk in the Woods with Robert Redford, was featured in the score of The Skeleton Twins with Kristin Wiig and Bill Hader, and has tracked remotely for television including the 2023 BAFTA-winning Mood on BBC and Show Me a Hero on HBO. In 2024, Noah was a featured soloist on the Billboard #1 Classical Crossover Album Piano Piano 2 by Jeremiah Fraites of The Lumineers.

Noah plays regularly for Grammy-nominated artist Krishna Das, the “rock star of the yoga world.” Recently, he performed on his third album by Krishna Das—Home in the Heart—and wrote the string arrangement for the song Amitabha Mantra. He has toured with Tibetan nun and singer Ani Choying Drolma, and he produced Anubhav, the second album by renowned chant artist Nina Rao.

He records, arranges, produces, and mixes for composers and songwriters, sacred and secular, around the world.

As a personal student of Ram Dass, Noah learned about loving awareness—the essence of what we all are. He now teaches meditation, integrating insights from his time with Ram Dass.

When playing the cello couldn’t fully convey words of care for people and the planet, Noah was propelled to write songs. His album Mobile Home, co-produced with Mark Plati (Bowie, The Cure, Prince), is out everywhere. The single “Born For America” contrasts faith in the nation’s promise with today’s division and inequality, charting on Americana radio, receiving international airplay, and being added by thousands of listeners to personal playlists.

Essentially Pop UK writes, “His vocals strong and rich, with a hint of Tom Petty, John Lennon, or even Bob Dylan. His lyrics certainly evoke the latter.” Indie Band Guru calls him, “A one-man wrecking crew on the microphone….If ‘Born For America’ is a sampling of what Hoffeld is planning on shelling out, we’re about to hear some of the best indie pop/rock to come from a piano-clad vocalist in a long time.”

In 2021, Bodhiheart: Love Rules, Meditations for Cello and Piano, with pianist-collaborator Wells Hanley, was released, featuring Mark Egan (Pat Metheny, Sting) on fretless bass and Arjun Bruggeman (Krishna Das, John Densmore) on tablas. New Age Spain writes, “Bodhiheart improvises one of the best albums of year’s end.” Love Rules was featured on Echoes Radio, syndicated across 120 stations nationwide, and continues in rotation on SXM.

Noah plays a classical English cello, tours with a Ricci Soloist carbon instrument, and plays a 5-string NS electric with pedals of all sorts. He takes to heart Gandhi's saying, “Be the change you wish to see in the world,” viewing music as a vehicle for that change. Alongside performing, recording, and teaching, he enjoys meditation, the outdoors, and staring at the sky.

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All photos by Gretchen Robinette, except Noah at the piano (above) by Piotr Redlinski.