Maria Newman

Maria Newman
Maria Newman at Pepperdine University in February, 2013.
Background information
Birth name	Maria Louise Newman
Born	(1962-01-18) January 18, 1962 (age 55) Los Angeles, California, United States
Genres	Modern classical silent film
Occupation(s)	Composer, conductor, arranger, musician
Instruments	Violin, viola, piano, percussion
Years active	1980-present
Website	www.malibufriendsofmusic.org

Maria Newman (born Maria Louise Newman on January 18, 1962 in Los Angeles, California, USA) is an award-winning American composer of classical music, and a critically acclaimed violinist, violist and pianist. She is the youngest child of Alfred Newman, a major Hollywood film composer. Maria holds the Louis and Annette Kaufman Composition Chair; and the Joachim Chassman Violin Chair at the Montgomery Arts House for Music and Architecture in Malibu, California, and is a founder of the Malibu Friends of Music,. Her library of original works represents a range of genres, from large-scale orchestral works, works for the ballet, chamber works, choral and vocal works, to new collaborative scores for vintage silent film. She has been presented with many awards and commissions, including musical commendations from the United States Congress (2009), the California State Senate (2009), the California State Assembly (2009), the City of Malibu (2010), and the Annenberg Foundation (2011).

The youngest of the children of nine-time Academy Award winning composer/conductor Alfred Newman and former Goldwyn Girl and businesswoman, Martha Louis Montgomery, Maria Newman is part of the musical Hollywood Newman family dynasty. Her father, Alfred Newman (composer), (1900-1970), was the conductor of the original Hollywood Bowl Orchestra.

Newman grew up in Pacific Palisades, California and began studying piano at age six. At age eight, she started a lifelong tie to the violin and was composing by age nine. As a teenager, Newman studied with violinist, Joachim Chassman, who was a founding member of the Hollywood String Quartet, and played in the 20th Century Fox Studio Orchestra under Alfred Newman (composer).

After high school, Newman entered the University of Rochester's Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY, where she studied violin with Peter Salaff of the Cleveland Quartet, and piano with Blair Cosman, graduating in 1984, and earning a Bachelor of Music (BM ’84) with high honors (Magna cum Laude). Also in 1984, Newman was inducted into the American Academic Honor Society, Pi Kappa Lambda. Newman attended Yale University from 1984-1986, completing graduate work there, studying violin with Syoko Aki, and composition with Martin Bresnick. She earned a Master of Music Degree (MM ’86), and received Yale School of Music's George Wellington Miles Award. In addition to her active career as a composer, and performing her own works in concert, Maria Newman has collaborated as a soloist with celebrities Pierce Brosnan,Billy Crystal, Paul Reiser, Randy Newman, and Daniel Stern. Her works have been performed in such novel locations as the U. S, Capitol Building, Hearst Castle Private Theatre, Washington State Capitol Building Rotunda, The National Archives, the Kennedy Center, and the U.S. Marine Barracks, among others.