Maria Newman

At 62 years old, Maria Newman physical status not available right now. We will update Maria Newman's height, weight, eye color, hair color, build, and measurements.

Newman is an Annenberg Foundation Composition Fellow, and received a grant from the foundation in 2012.

As a violinist who performs and records around the world, Maria Newman began her professional composition career using a pseudonym. "I was terribly worried that I would not be taken seriously as a female composer in what I felt was a highly male-dominated field. My famous family's film musician genealogy also put the notion into my mind that I would not be accepted, much less respected, in the concert music world as a serious composer." Newman used the name, M. Louis Parker, the name of her maternal great-grandmother, feeling that the name neither indicated that she was a Newman, nor a woman. In 1991, Newman began using her own name as a composer. Newman studied composition briefly with Martin Bresnick, at Yale University, though she received both her BM and MM in Violin Performance. To date, Newman's original music library consists of over 150 concert works.

In the Summer of 1995, Newman was appointed Composer-in-Residence for the Icicle Creek Music Center in Leavenworth, Washington. She held the post until the end of the 2004 summer season.

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 40-plus concerts annually in this venue alone. Her duties at MAHMA include Composer-in-Residence for the Malibu Coast Chamber Orchestra, Malibu Madrigals, the Malibu Coast Silent Film Orchestra, Malibu Coast String Quartet, the Malibu Ocast Chamber Ballet, and the Malibu Coast Chamber Orchestra Solisti. Newman has held the Louis and Annette Kaufman Composition Chair and the Joachim Chassman Violin Chair at the Montgomery Arts House for Music and Architecture (MAHMA) and the Malibu Friends of Music since 2005.

Newman's achievement at MAHMA is the story of a dedicated classical musician, who, through perseverance, dedication and the belief that music is a highly powerful community-wide healing mechanism, is offering music and music making on an intimate level. Newman has a gift of making audiences feel valued and she effortlessly gains their trust. It is important to Newman that the musicians are happy as well. Says Newman, "I feel that at MAHMA we are in a place where dear friends gather to rehearse, perform, listen, experience, eat, laugh, and discuss music and art in depth. The level of music-making here is extraordinarily high and truly rare for a small town, as we bring in wonderful guest artists and speakers from around the world to collaborate with our outstanding group of resident artists. The entire experience at MAHMA is marvelously satisfying." In addition, Newman tours frequently as featured composer, performer, lecturer and master teacher.

According to critic Jim Svejda, "Maria Newman is hugely musical, bewitching, profound and playful with an instantly recognizable and unusually appealing musical personality."

Along with pianist/longtime musical partner, Wendy Prober, Newman founded the Viklarbo Chamber Ensemble in 1987. With Viklarbo, Newman and Prober have concertized in this country's most prestigious concert halls, as well as for some of the poorest communities in the United States. The ensemble has been awarded grants from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), the City of Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department, the California Arts Council, the Utah Tour for the Performing Arts, the Delta Arts Council, the Headwaters Council for the Arts, Hawaii Council for the Arts, and many others. The ensemble continues to present concerts today. Newman serves as Composer-in-Residence for the ensemble.

Newman has been guest composer for Los Angeles Mozart Orchestra, Solisti New York, Brevard Symphony Orchestra, San Jose Chamber Orchestra, New West Symphony, Olympia Chamber Orchestra, Wichita Symphony, Los Angeles Jewish Symphony, Santa Monica Symphony, Pacific Serenades, Martha's Vineyard Chamber Music Society, Chamber Music Palisades, Dorian Festival Chamber Orchestra at Luther College, Omaha Conservatory Festival and Cinema Orchestras, Azusa Pacific Grand Orchestra Festival, Central Washington University Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra Omaha, Wonder of Words Festival (WOW!), Northwestern University, Indiana University, Bloomington, School of Music Philharmonic Orchestra, and more.

Performance career

A bold and versatile performer, Newman's performances of both her works and traditional masterworks are consistently programmed in concert halls and heard regularly on radio broadcasts and on television 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 also premiered many new works for violin, as well as for viola (including many of her own) in some of the United States and Europe. She was the viola soloist for the Grammy Award-winning album, "Symphonic Hollywood", in Miklos Rozsa's "Viola Concerto" with the Nuremberg Symphony. Newman performed the U.S. premiere of Miklos Rozsa's Violin Concerto No. 1 with the St. Matthew's Chamber Orchestra, as well as the premiere recording of Rozsa's Introduction and Allegro for Solo Viola.

Ms. Newman has collaborated in concert as soloist with celebrities Pierce Brosnan, Billy Crystal, Paul Reiser and Daniel Stern, and has performed as a featured soloist at the United States Capitol Building Complex on Capitol Hill in Washington D.C., headlining a Special Event representing the highly debated Victim's Rights Bill. Newman has been featured as commissioned composer and performer in the Private Theatre inside the Historic Hearst Castle in San Simeon, California, introduced by William Randolph Hearst III.

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