Maria Schneider (musician) facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Maria Schneider
|
|
|---|---|
Schneider at the North Sea Jazz Festival, Rotterdam, 2008
|
|
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Maria Lynn Schneider |
| Born | November 27, 1960 Windom, Minnesota, U.S. |
| Genres | Jazz, big band, avant-garde, contemporary classical |
| Occupation(s) | Composer, bandleader, musician |
| Instruments | Piano |
| Years active | 1980s–present |
| Labels | Enja, ArtistShare |
Maria Schneider (born November 27, 1960) is an amazing American composer. She leads her own jazz orchestra and has won many Grammy Awards for her music!
Contents
About Maria Schneider
Maria Schneider was born in Windom, Minnesota. She loved music from a young age. She studied music at the University of Minnesota and the Eastman School of Music. She also spent a year at the University of Miami.
After finishing her studies, Maria worked with a famous jazz musician named Gil Evans. She was his assistant and helped him write music. She even helped him with music for a tour with the singer Sting. She also helped him score the movie The Color of Money.
Forming Her Orchestra
In 1992, Maria started her own group, the Maria Schneider Jazz Orchestra. They played every week at a club called Visiones in Greenwich Village, New York City. This continued from 1993 until the club closed in 1998. Since 2000, her group has been known as the Maria Schneider Orchestra.
From 2005 to 2019, the orchestra played a special week-long show every Thanksgiving at the Jazz Standard in New York City. They have also performed at big jazz festivals and concert halls all over the world. Maria has worked with over 80 groups in more than 30 countries. She also teaches music at universities. In 2013, she received an honorary degree from the University of Minnesota.
Award-Winning Music
Maria Schneider's album Concert in the Garden (2004) was very special. It was the first album to win a Grammy Award that was produced by ArtistShare. ArtistShare is a cool platform where fans help fund the music. This means fans contribute money to help artists create their albums.
Her orchestra has won more Grammy Awards for albums like The Thompson Fields and Data Lords. Maria herself has won Grammys for individual songs on albums like Sky Blue and Data Lords. In November 2024, her orchestra celebrated 30 years since their first album, Evanescence, with a special concert in New York City.
Maria also created a unique album called Winter Morning Walks (2013). This album featured a singer named Dawn Upshaw and two orchestras. It was inspired by poems from U.S. Poet Laureate Ted Kooser. This album won Maria a Grammy for Best Classical Contemporary Composition.
Helping Musicians
Maria Schneider is a strong supporter of musicians' rights. She believes artists should be paid fairly for their music. She has spoken to the government and participated in discussions about copyright laws.
She has also spoken out about how some online streaming services, like YouTube, affect musicians. She believes that smaller artists should have the same tools as big companies to protect their music online. She has written letters and papers to share her ideas.
Maria's concerns about big data companies and their impact on music have even inspired some of her songs. These include "Data Lords," "Don't Be Evil," and "Sputnik," which appeared on her 2020 album Data Lords.
Protecting Music Online
In 2020, Maria Schneider filed a lawsuit against YouTube. She argued that smaller artists couldn't easily use YouTube's system to protect their music. This system, called Content ID, helps artists find and manage their copyrighted material online. Maria felt that smaller artists were left to find their own stolen music or ignore it. The case was dismissed in 2023.
Maria's Hobbies
Maria Schneider loves watching birds! She even asked members of her orchestra to make bird calls for her song "Cerulean Skies" on her album Sky Blue. Other songs inspired by birds include "Waxwing," "Bird Count," and "Arbiters of Evolution."
Awards and Honors
- Best Composer, Best Arranger, Best Big Band, DownBeat magazine Annual Critics' Poll, 2006–2012; 2016
- Jazz Album of the Year, Composer of the Year, Arranger of the Year, Large Jazz Ensemble of the Year, Jazz Journalists Association, 2005
- Grammy Award for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album, Concert in the Garden, 2004
- Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Composition, "Cerulean Skies", 2007
- Grammy Award for Best Classical Contemporary Composition, Winter Morning Walks, 2013
- Grammy Award for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album, The Thompson Fields, 2015
- Grammy Award for Best Arrangement, Instrumental and Vocals, "Sue (Or in a Season of Crime)" (David Bowie) from Nothing Has Changed 2015
- 2019 NEA Jazz Masters Fellowship
- Concert in the Garden was added to the National Recording Registry in 2019
- Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Composition, "Sputnik", 2020
- Grammy Award for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album, Data Lords, 2020
- Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Music for Data Lords, 2021
- Elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, 2023
Discography
- Evanescence (Enja, 1994)
- Coming About (Enja, 1996)
- Days of Wine and Roses - Live at the Jazz Standard (ArtistShare, 2000 [limited edition], 2005 [regular release])
- Allégresse (Enja, 2000)
- Concert in the Garden (ArtistShare, 2004)
- Sky Blue (ArtistShare, 2007)
- Winter Morning Walks (ArtistShare, 2013)
- The Thompson Fields (ArtistShare, 2015)
- Data Lords (ArtistShare, 2020)
- Decades (ArtistShare, 2024, three vinyl LP discs)
Images for kids
-
Maria Schneider at the TD Canada Trust Toronto Jazz Festival, 2009
