Maria Schneider with The Humber Faculty Big Band: Humber College, Toronto (14/10/2011)
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, tailoring her compositions to distinctly highlight the unique 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 as a result, her long list of commissioners have slowly become quite varied. They include: the Norrbotten Big Band and Danish Radio Orchestra with Toots Thielemans and Ivan Lins, the Metropole Orchestra in the Netherlands (several works), Orchestra National de Jazz (Recapitulaion), Carnegie Hall Jazz Orchestra (El Viento), Monterey Jazz Festival (Scenes from Childhood, Willow Lake), The American Dance Festival (for dance company, Pilobolus – Dissolution), University of Miami Concert Jazz Band (Three Romances), Hunter College (Concert in the Garden, Sky Blue), Jazz at Lincoln Center (Buleria, Soleá y Rumba), Los Angeles Philharmonic Association (Aires de Lando), Peter Sellars’ New Crowned Hope Festival (Vienna’s Mozart Festival–Cerulean Skies), Kronos Quartet (String Quartet No. 1) and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra with soprano, Dawn Upshaw (Carlos Drummond de Andrade Stories), a work that had its New York premiere May 2011 at Carnegie Hall conducted by Schneider.
Schneider’s most recent work (premiered June 12th, 2011), co-commissioned by the Ojai Festival, The Australian Chamber Orchestra and Cal Performances, blurred boundaries further as it featured the Australian Chamber Orchestra, Dawn Upshaw, and three musicians long associated with Schneider’s own orchestra: pianist, Frank Kimbrough, bassist, Jay Anderson, and multi-instrumentalist, Scott Robinson. For this work, she incorporated poems by poet laureate and Pulitzer Prize winner, Ted Kooser, from his book, ‘Winter Morning Walks.’
Schneider and her orchestra have a distinguished recording career with nine Grammy nominations and two Grammy awards. ‘Concert in the Garden’ (Best Large Ensemble Album), released only through her ArtistShare® website, became historic as the first record to win a Grammy with Internet-only sales. The second Grammy was awarded for Maria’s composition, Cerulean Skies (Best Instrumental Composition).
Unique funding of projects has continued for Schneider, as she has recently composed two works for her own orchestra with the involvement of commissioners, not from arts organizations, but directly from her ArtistShare fan base. For these projects, she documented her process of creating the two new works for participating fans. The commissioners are, Christophe Asselineau (The Thompson Fields), and Bill and Carol Bloemer, Justin Freed, Paul James and John Koerber (Lembrança).
Concert in the Garden and her orchestra’s latest album, Sky Blue (on which Cerulean Skies was recorded) were both named “Jazz Album of the Year” by the Jazz Journalists Association and the DOWNBEAT Critics Poll.
Recorded live at the Humber College Lakeshore Campus Auditorium, in Toronto, Canada, on October 14, 2011.
Humber Faculty Big Band:
Leader: Denny Christianson
Saxophones: Mark Promane, Andy Ballantyne, Pat LaBarbera , Kirk MacDonald, Shirantha Beddage
Trombones: Alastair Kay, William Carn, Kelsey Grant, Pete Hysen
Trumpets: Dave Dunlop, Steve Crowe, John MacLeod, Brian O’Kane
Rhythm: Brian Dickinson (Piano), Mike Downes (Bass), Ted Quinlan (Guitar), Mark Kelso (Drums), Joe Macerollo (Accordion)
Set List:
Got The Jazz 
This was an outstanding concert – well attended in spite of its somewhat skimpy publicity beforehand. The musicianship and professionalism of the HFBB players brought fresh new ideas and colours to Ms. Schneider’s already surprising and colourful music and she seemed to brim with pleasure and humour as the evening unfolded. The greatest surprise and pleasure for me was to hear Joe Macerollo’s masterful accordion on these mainstay Schneider pieces – especially in Concert in the Garden, Cerulian Skies, and Choro Dancado. I have never heard this key part played so well!
There was joy in his face. Bravo. Get me this CD! DVW
Hi Don, glad you enjoyed the concert, I agree, it was fantastic! This isn’t really a CD per se, but you can download all my live recordings on the page by right clicking them and selecting “Save Link As…” Enjoy!