MALIBU FRIENDS OF MUSIC

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 around the globe by such organizations and artists as the Annenberg Foundation, the Mary Pickford Foundation, 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 and Creighton University, 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 Ottawa Festival, the Jewish Music Commission, the Dorian Chamber Orchestra, the Malibu Coast Chamber Ballet, the Museum of the Gilded Age at Ventfort Hall in Lenox, the City of Malibu, the Malibu Coast Children's Choir,  the Dorian Festival Orchestra, Songfest, the Yakima Symphony Master Chorale, the Kairos Lyceum, the International Harp Congress, the World Cello Congress, the International Viola Congress, the International Brass Congress, the Supreme Master Ching Hai National Association, Malibu Coast Madrigals, Turner Classic Movies, and many others. Newman's popular and frequently performed set of Concerti Grossi have been performed and recorded by such esteemed artists as cellist Andrew Shulman, violist Paul Coletti, double bassist Nico Abondolo, pianist Delores Stevens, pianist Peter Longworth, pianist Bryan Pezzone, flutist Hal Ott, soprano Diane Thueson Reich, the Kairos String Quartet, musical artist Randy Newman, and Los Angeles Opera tenor George Sterne. Newman's recorded works are released on the Montgomery Arts House Modern Masterworks label, among others, and are available worldwide. Newman's sheet music is published exclusively by Montgomery Arts House Press, Malibu California.

Maria 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 as “Classical Artist of the Year”, the “Variety Composer Legend” Award,  the coveted “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 public radio and television, 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 & 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 (2005-2011), the Gold Coast Chamber Music Festival (2000-2003), the Dorian Festival at Luther College (2003-present), the Old Pasadena Film Festival (2009 & 2010), the Malibu Film Society (2009 & 2010), Sundays Live at LACMA, the Malibu Celebration of Film Festival (2003), Rancho Camulos Ramona Days Festival (2010 & 2011), Cinecon Festival Hollywood (2000), and Chamber Music Unbound (2009 & 2010). She has served as long term Composer-in-Residence with the Malibu Coast Chamber Orchestra (2005-present), the Sierra Symphony Chamber Orchestra (2004-present), the Malibu Coast Children's Choir (2007-present), the Malibu Coast Chamber Ballet (2007-present), the Icicle Creek Festival Orchestra (2000-04) and the Omaha Conservatory Festival Orchestra at the University of Nebraska and Creighton University (2009-present).

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 Yale University, where she graduated with an MM as a George Wellington Miles Fellow. While at Yale her studies in composition were with Martin Breskick, and in violin with Syoko Aki. Newman received her BM Magna cum Laude from the University of Rochester's Eastman School of Music. Newman is a member of 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 forty-plus concerts annually in this venue alone, collaborating with many of the world’s most celebrated musicians, architects and speakers. In addition, Newman tours frequently as a featured composer, performer, lecturer and master teacher.