Noa Bursie, BA '81 & EdM '89

Finding her muse

Noa Bursie, BA'81, EDM '89, has music in her blood.  Her mother, a self-taught pianist, made sure that there was always music in their Buffalo home.  Bursie says that her mother’s eclectic tastes gave her an appreciation for a wide range of genres, including classical, jazz, rock, blues, country, and folk.  One momentous day a teenaged Bursie, the youngest of nine, snuck into her brother’s room to play his guitar.  “I remember that I just sat down and started strumming the guitar, and that was it.  I connected and had found my muse,” she says.  Bursie’s maternal grandfather had been a traveling blues musician in the south and she attributes that metaphysical connection to her passion for music and playing the guitar.  She says, “I never knew my grandfather, but we share that link – the love of organic music that has a history, a culture and generations attached to it.”  Bursie taught herself to play guitar in high school, and while at UB she began playing at coffeehouses and other venues.  She continues to take her love of music to new heights; she has been the opening act for numerous artists, including Grammy winner Shawn Colvin and her second CD, Familiar Addiction, is set for release in 2008.

A love of learning

English was the natural major choice for Bursie.  “Writing has always been close to my heart, and I have always been an avid reader,” she explains.  While there were a number of UB professors who made an impression on her, she says that Joseph Fradin and Ray Federman of English, Samuel Paley of Classics and Hebrew instructor Yael Paley were especially memorable.  “I feel that I was particularly fortunate to encounter professors who were passionate about what they did and committed to their craft.  They imparted a love of learning, and because of them I was inspired to pursue knowledge and to pursue my music, as well as to broaden my experience,” Bursie says.  After almost a decade of working, traveling, and writing and playing music, she decided to return to UB for graduate school.  A yearlong overseas experience in Israel, where she immersed herself in the Hebrew language and tutored non-native English speakers, led her to earn her master’s degree in teaching English as a second language.

Over the past year Bursie has shared the stage with several musicians she has long admired, noting, “A lot of my musical dreams seem to be materializing.”  In addition to opening for Shawn Colvin at The Tralf in Buffalo and for Richie Haven at Artpark in Lewiston, NY, in December she was the supporting artist for Los Lobos.  Bursie came somewhat full circle this past fall when she opened for Grammy winner India Arie at UB's Center for the Arts.  During her set, Arie called Bursie back to the stage and the two sang a duet to Cyndi Lauper's "True Colors," which happens to be one of Bursie’s favorite songs.  “India was so gracious and warm.  It was entirely impromptu and was one of the most special moments in my life,” Bursie says.

Currently Bursie teaches courses in IB World Literature and Theory of Knowledge at City Honors High School in Buffalo.  Her dual roles of teacher and musician often intersect.  Bursie’s first CD, TalkStory, released in 2005, takes its title from a term coined by Maxine Hong Kingston in her autobiography The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts.  Bursie says, “Talk-story refers to oral traditions, history and stories that Kingston’s mother would tell her.  I felt that was an appropriate description for what I was doing in my first CD.”  Her sophomore effort, Familiar Addiction, has an even more personal theme.  “It came out of wanting to articulate that experience of the behavioral rather than chemical addiction.  Very often we can identify behaviors that are detrimental; but, having the courage and the integrity to step out of the pattern, and challenging and overcoming the self-defeating behavior is much more difficult,” Bursie explains.  That CD will be released in February 2008 and a concert at The Tralf is scheduled.

All this and she cooks too

Bursie, who still plays regularly at her self-proclaimed home-base club Nietzsche’s, also considers herself to be an accomplished chef.  It has become something of a tradition for her to treat the crew and her fellow musicians at AudioMagic studio in Buffalo with sumptuous, gourmet delights during lengthy recording sessions.  She feels blessed to have worked with so many talented artists and technicians over the years, artists like Buffalo Music Hall of Fame percussionist, Emile Latimer, or bassist, Jerry Livingston, and she is very grateful for their contributions to her art.  “I live for my music,” Bursie says.  “I was the kid at 7 or 8 years old who had her ear glued to a little transistor radio all night long, or at least until my mother came in and told me to turn it off.  I would listen to everything – Joni Mitchell, Howlin Wolf, Led Zepplin, Emmylou Harris and Aretha Franklin – a broad spectrum of artists linked by the organic quality of their music and the unpretentious, immediate quality of their delivery.  They all resonated in me.  Music is an incredible phenomenon.  It is one of the most profoundly stirring forms of expression in the human experience.”

 

Written by Jessica Dudek, BA ’94
December 2007

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