- Maria Schneider (musician)
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Maria Schneider, North Sea jazz festival, Rotterdam, 2008
Maria Schneider (born November 27, 1960 in Windom, Minnesota) is an American arranger, composer, and big-band leader who has won multiple awards. In 2005, her album Concert in the Garden won a Grammy for "Best Large Ensemble Album". It was the first Grammy for a work sold entirely via the internet.
Contents
Biography
She studied music theory and composition at the University of Minnesota, graduating in 1983, then earned a Masters of Music in 1985 from the Eastman School of Music, studying for one year as well at the University of Miami. Upon leaving Eastman, Gil Evans hired her as his apprentice arranger, and she collaborated with him for the next several years, producing arrangements commissioned by Sting and scoring the films The Color of Money and Absolute Beginners. Schneider went on to study with Bob Brookmeyer from 1986 to 1991, as she concurrently worked as a freelance arranger in New York.
She formed The Maria Schneider Jazz Orchestra in 1993, appearing weekly at Visiones in Greenwich Village for five years. Her orchestra has also performed at many jazz festivals and toured Europe.
Schneider was one of the first artists to use ArtistShare to produce an album.[1]
Schneider's ensemble is now[vague] titled "The Maria Schneider Orchestra". Their new album, Sky Blue, was released in July 2007, also via ArtistShare.
Schneider is an avid birdwatcher and enlisted band members to contribute bird calls on "Cerulean Skies" when recording Sky Blue
Awards
Her 2004 album, Concert in the Garden, became the first Grammy Award-winning recording sold exclusively via the Internet. It was named Jazz Album of the Year by the Jazz Journalists Association, which also named Schneider Composer of the Year and Arranger of the Year and named her group Large Jazz Ensemble of the Year.
Schneider's composition "Cerulean Skies," from Sky Blue, won a Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Composition in 2008.
Discography
- Evanescence (1994)
- Coming About (1995)
- Live At The Jazz Standard—Days Of Wine And Roses (2000)
- Allegresse (2000)
- Concert in the Garden (2004)
- Sky Blue (2007)
References
- ^ "Making fans a part of the inner circle - Los Angeles Times". Articles.latimes.com. 2008-02-10. http://articles.latimes.com/2008/feb/10/entertainment/ca-schneider10. Retrieved 2011-10-08.
External links
Categories:- 1960 births
- Living people
- American jazz composers
- American music arrangers
- Grammy Award winners
- Jazz bandleaders
- Jazz composers
- People from Cottonwood County, Minnesota
- University of Miami alumni
- Women in jazz
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