Recognized and Commended by the United States Congress, Maria Newman (b. Los
Angeles, CA, January 18, 1962) is an award-winning composer, violinist, violist
and pianist. Newman has become a major symbol in modern classical music and makes
her living from commissions and performance. Newman’s scintillating and highly discussed works represent a range
of genres, from orchestral to chamber, and from choral and vocal to restored classic silent film.
Hailed by NPR’s Jim Svejda ("The Record Shelf Guide to the Classical Repertoire") as "hugely musical, bewitching, profound
and playful with an instantly recognizable and unusually appealing musical
personality,” Newman’s music enjoys an active musical life performed regularly by some
of the world’s most fascinating musicians. Newman’s extensive original library
has been commissioned and performed by such organizations as the Brevard
Symphony Orchestra, Solisti New York, the Colburn Orchestra da Camera, the
Malibu Coast Chamber Orchestra, the Los Angeles Mozart Orchestra, the San Jose
Chamber Orchestra, the Olympia Chamber Orchestra, the University of Southern California, the Wichita Symphony
Orchestra, the New West Symphony, the Icicle Creek Chamber Orchestra, the Omaha
Conservatory Symphony Orchestras at the University of Nebraska, the Sierra Symphony
Orchestra, the Cortes Festival Orchestra, the YMF Debut Orchestra, the St.
Matthew’s Chamber Orchestra, the Azusa Pacific Symphony, the Southern California
Viola Choir, Pacific Serenades, the Central Washington University Symphony
Orchestra, the Gold Coast Chamber Orchestra, the Santa Monica Symphony,
Occidental-Caltech Symphony Orchestra, the Los Angeles Jewish Symphony, Brigham
Young University, the Shenandoah Valley Bach Festival Orchestra, Chamber Music
Palisades, Martha’s Vineyard Chamber Music Society, the Dorian Festival Chamber
Orchestra, the International Harp, Cello Viola and Brass Congresses, the Mary
Pickford Foundation, Turner Classic Movies, and many others. Newman's Concerti
have been performed and recorded by such esteemed artists as cellist
Andrew Shulman, violist Paul Coletti, double bassist Nico Abondolo,
pianists Delores Stevens, Peter Longworth and Bryan Pezzone, flutist Hal
Ott, musical artist Randy Newman and Los Angeles Opera tenor George
Sterne.
Newman has been honored with numerous musical commendations and recognitions
from the United States Congress, the California State Senate, the California
State Assembly, the County of Los Angeles, the City of Malibu, and the Malibu
Times periodical, and has appeared in subject spotlight articles by many of
this nation’s most noted and esteemed newspapers and magazines. She has
received two Malibu Music Awards for “Classical Artist of the Year”, a “Variety
Composer Legend” Award, a “Debut Award” from the Los Angeles “Young Musicians’
Foundation,” the California Arts Commission, the Utah Performing Arts Tour, and
has been honored by ASCAP and many other organizations. Newman’s works are featured regularly on private and
public radio, as well as on Turner Broadcasting.
Maria Newman has been a Featured Composer and Composer-in-Residence at music festivals
including the Brevard Center for the Arts (2003), Icicle Creek Chamber Music
Festival (1995-2004), Songfest (2003 and 2004), the Martha’s Vineyard Chamber
Music Society (1995, 2006), the Kairos Festival and Lyceum (2005-2007, the
Azusa Pacific Grand Orchestra Festival (2000), the Malibu Coast Music Festival
(2005-2010), the Gold Coast Chamber Music Festival (2000-2003), the Dorian
Festival at Luther College (2003-present), the Old Pasadena Film Festival
(2009-present), the Malibu Film Society (2009-present), Sundays Live at LACMA, the Malibu
Celebration of Film Festival (2003), Rancho Camulos Ramona Days Festival
(2009-present), Cinecon Festival Hollywood (2000), and Chamber Music Unbound
(2009-present), She has served as long term Composer-in-Residence with the Malibu
Coast Chamber Orchestra (2005-present), the Sierra Chamber Orchestra (2004-present),
the Icicle Creek Festival Orchestra (2000-04) and the Omaha Conservatory Festival
Orchestra at the University of Nebraska (2009-present).
Maria Newman is honored with numerous performances annually of her works.
Her violin concerto, Lux Aeterna, commissioned
by the Icicle Creek Music Center in honor of the late great violinist, Elise Christiansen,
has been performed regularly around the globe to great audience and critical
acclaim, and has just been released on the Montgomery Arts House Masterworks
Recordings label featuring the imminent violinist, Carrie Rekopf.
Newman’s works have been recorded copiously. Currently Newman enjoys seven recent
CDs released in 2009 and 2010 dedicated to collections of her own works. MARIA
NEWMAN: Pennipotenti (Hal Ott, Flute); MARIA NEWMAN: A Scented Garden of Music,
Book I; MARIA NEWMAN: The Art of the Chamber Orchestra, Book I (Malibu Coast
Chamber Orchestra; Andrew Shulman, cello); MARIA NEWMAN: The Art of the Chamber
Orchestra, Book II (Malibu Coast Chamber Orchestra, Carrie Rehkopf, violin;
George Sterne, tenor); MARIA NEWMAN: Music for Piano, Book I (Delores Stevens,
Bryan Pezzone, Wendy Prober, piano); SPOOKY SONORITIES: Music of Maria Newman (Malibu
Coast Chamber Orchestra and Chorale with Soloists); A HOLIDAY FESTIVAL OF MUSIC
AND LIGHT: Music of Maria Newman (Malibu Coast Chamber Orchestra and Chorale
with Soloists). Several more are due for release this 2011 calendar year.
Newman
was born into one of the most famous and influential musical families
in Hollywood. She is the youngest daughter of nine-time Academy
Award-winning film composer, Alfred Newman (1900-1970), who was the
celebrated conductor of the original Hollywood Bowl Orchestra. Maria
Newman was educated at the Eastman School of Music and Yale University,
where she graduated Magna cum Laude, and was awarded membership into the
American Academic Honor Society, Pi Kappa Lambda.
A bold and versatile performer, Newman’s compositions and performances
of both her own highly regarded works and works of the great masters,
are consistently programmed in concert halls and heard regularly on
radio broadcasts worldwide. In her role as violinist, violist and
pianist, Maria Newman has concertized around the world as a soloist,
recitalist, and as a member of the Malibu Coast String Quartet and the
Viklarbo Chamber Ensemble. As a concert soloist, Newman has premiered
many new works for violin, as well as for viola (including many of her
own) in some of the United States’ and Europe’s most celebrated concert
halls, and was the critically acclaimed viola soloist for the Grammy
Award-winning album, Symphonic Hollywood, in a performance of Miklos Rozsa’s Viola Concerto with the Nuremberg Symphony.
As
Composer-in-Residence at the Montgomery Arts House for Music and
Architecture (MAHMA), a modern craftsman venue in Malibu, California,
designed by Eric Lloyd Wright of the Frank Lloyd Wright family of
architects, Newman participates in approximately forty concerts annually
in this venue alone, collaborating with many of the world’s most
celebrated musicians, architects and speakers.
Newman
is the mother of five highly artistic children: Martha (14), Isabella
(12), Samuel “Sonny” (10), Noah (5) and Joaquin (2).
Ms.
Newman currently holds the Louis and Annette Kaufman Composition Chair
at the Montgomery Arts House for Music and Architecture in Malibu,
California.