The
Grammy-winning composer Maria Schneider and her Orchestra perform Tuesday,
November 25 – Sunday, November 30, 2014 at The Jazz Standard, 116 East 27th
Street, NYC. Sets nightly at 7:30 and 10 p.m. with an 11:45 p.m. set on Friday
and Saturday.
In
addition to composing for and recording The Thompson Fields, the first CD in
seven years from the Maria Schneider Orchestra (to be released April 21, 2015
via ArtistShare), Schneider has been involved in a myriad of activities. In the
spring, she was approached by David Bowie to collaborate on a new work. The
resulting song, “Sue (Or In A Season Of Crime),” will be released on a 10-inch
Bowie record on November 17, as well as on his new greatest hits 3-CD and 2-CD
compilations as the only new song. As
Maria says: “I am thrilled with the results.”
In addition,
she testified before Congress about music creators’ rights and the need for
change in copyright laws. “It's now or never time for music creators to make
our voices heard,” says Schneider. “Free music is a relatively new concept, and
it's just so ridiculous, almost as ridiculous as everyone being convinced they
should pay for water in plastic bottles. I say, let’s pay for music as we
always did, and drink water for free from the tap, just like we used to.”
Maria
Schneider’s music has been hailed by critics as “evocative, majestic, magical,
heart-stoppingly gorgeous, and beyond categorization.” She and her orchestra
became widely known starting in 1994 when they released their first recording,
'Evanescence.' With that recording, Schneider began to develop her personal way
of writing for her 17-member collective, made up of many of the finest
musicians in jazz today, tailoring her compositions to distinctly highlight the
uniquely creative voices of the group. Subsequently, the Maria Schneider Orchestra
has performed at festivals and concert halls worldwide. She herself has
received numerous commissions and guest conducting invites, working with over
85 groups from over 30 countries spanning Europe, South America, Australia,
Asia and North America.
Schneider’s
music blurs the lines between genres and she is on a very short list of those
who have received GRAMMY Awards in both "jazz" and "classical.”
Her long list of commissioners are quite varied and range from the Carnegie
Hall Jazz Orchestra, to Peter Sellars' New Crowned Hope Festival (Vienna’s
Mozart Festival), Jazz at Lincoln Center, Los Angeles Philharmonic Association,
The American Dance Festival, Kronos Quartet, The Metropole Orchestra, the
Danish Radio Orchestra, The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra and most recently, the
Ojai Festival, the Australian Chamber Orchestra and Cal Performances ('Winter
Morning Walks'), featuring soprano, Dawn Upshaw, and three musicians long
associated with Schneider: pianist, Frank Kimbrough, bassist, Jay Anderson, and
multi-instrumentalist, Scott Robinson.
Schneider's
latest fan-funded recording with Dawn Upshaw ('Winter Morning Walks') earned
three 2014 GRAMMY Awards: Best Contemporary Classical Composition ('Winter
Morning Walks'), Best Classical Vocal Performance (Dawn Upshaw), and Best
Engineered Recording/Classical (David Frost, Brian Losch, Tim Martyn).
Schneider
and her orchestra have a distinguished recording career bringing her a total of
ten GRAMMY nominations and three GRAMMY awards. Unique funding of projects has
become a hallmark for Schneider through the trend-setting company,
ArtistShare®. For these projects, she documents her creative process for
participating fans, who "fan-fund" her recordings through pre-orders.
She's now composed four works for her own orchestra with the participation of
commissioners coming directly from her ArtistShare® website fan base. Her
album, 'Concert in the Garden' (2004)
became historic as the first recording to win a GRAMMY with Internet-only
sales. Even more significantly, it blazed the "fan-funding" trail as
ArtistShare's® first release. In 2012, her alma mater, the University of
Minnesota, awarded Schneider an honorary doctorate.
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