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Maria Schneider Orchestra

The Thompson Fields

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Welcome to Maria Schneider's brand new recording project "The Thompson Fields"!

Audios

Interview with WBGO's Gary Walker
Interview with WUCF: Orlando FL - Kayonne Riley
Interview with WUOT: Knoxville - Todd Steed
Here and Now Segment
Interview with SDPB's Karl Gehrke
NPR: Fresh Air Segment
1 Walking by Flashlight
2 The Monarch and the Milkweed
3 Arbiters of Evolution
4 The Thompson Fields
5 Home
6 Nimbus
7 A Potter's Song
8 Lembranca
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With The Thompson Fields, composer, arranger and bandleader Maria Schneider celebrates a long-awaited reunion with her vaunted jazz orchestra, a homecoming nearly a decade in the making.  Featuring eight new original works by the leader, The Thompson Fields makes brilliant use of Schneider's 18-piece jazz orchestra, a long-standing ensemble that spotlights such first rank players as Donny McCaslin, Rich Perry, Frank Kimbrough and Lage Lund.  The performances reveal an ever-deepening relationship between Schneider and her musicians, many of whom she has worked with over a quarter of a century.  The album follows a momentous year that found Schneider's recent album Winter Morning Walks garnering three wins in the classical category of the 2014 GRAMMY Awards, making her one of the rare musicians to win GRAMMYs in both the jazz and classical categories. The CD is powered by ArtistShare andavailable exclusively at MariaSchneider.com.

  • Maria Schneider: David Bowie cracked me....maybe not in a good way / The Guardian
    Posted At: February 15, 2024 12:00 AM
    The US musician has won star admirers and seven Grammys across three decades of lyrical and angry work – but you can’t stream it. She explains her fight against big tech, and her dismay at other artists’ apathy.The Guardian's Hugh Morris writes….Maria Schneider is one of the world’s most distinguished composers for jazz orchestra, a key collaborator for David Bowie and a seven-time Grammy winner – but it’s ...
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  • Gil Evans, David Bowie, and the evils of technology. Maria Schneider in conversation with David Sanborn / 88.3WBGO
    Posted At: October 10, 2023 12:00 AM
    Maria Schneider’s music has been hailed by critics as “evocative, majestic, magical, heart-stoppingly gorgeous, imaginative, revelatory, riveting, daring, and beyond categorization.” Blurring the lines between genres, her varied commissioners stretch from Jazz at Lincoln Center, to The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, to the American Dance Festival, and include collaboration with David Bowie. She is among a sm...
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  • Maria Schneider elected to American Academy of Arts and Letters / DOWNBEAT
    Posted At: March 7, 2023 12:00 AM
    ?“To be recognized in this way by the most esteemed and accomplished creators in our nation — it’s hugely inspiring,” Schneider said.DOWNBEAT writes……Composer and bandleader Maria Schneider is one of 19 new members and four honorary members who will be inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters during its annual Ceremonial on May 24. During the ceremony, the Ukrainian writer Andrey Kurkov, who i...
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  • Maria Schneider on 'Data Lords' winning 'DownBeat Critics Poll - Best Large Jazz Ensemble of 2022'
    Posted At: August 3, 2022 12:00 AM
    “I value musicians who really appreciate not playing and listening and waiting for the right moment to make their entrance,” Maria Schneider DOWNBEAT's  Phillip Lutz writes…..A year ago, Maria Schneider was, like many people, stuck in a pandemic holding pattern. With live gigs for The Maria Schneider Jazz Orchestra canceled or postponed, she was spending an inordinate amount of time in archival cl...
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  • Set for Bay Area concerts, Maria Schneider continues to take on big tech in her music and advocacy / 88.5KQED
    Posted At: March 22, 2022 12:00 AM
    KQED's Andrew Gilbert writes…..Think of Maria Schneider as a renegade botanist who’s spent more than three decades patiently cultivating a plant that bursts into spectacular bloom when placed in just the right environment.A composer who often draws inspiration from the natural world, particularly the avian realm, she leads the Maria Schneider Orchestra, one of the era’s most subtle, resourceful and celebrat...
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  • Maria Schneider nominated for 'Jazz FM: International Jazz Act of the Year'
    Posted At: October 21, 2021 12:00 AM

    The music of Grammy Award-winning composer and bandleader Maria Schneider 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 fo...
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  • Jazz Journalists Association honors Maria Schneider, Ron Carter and WBGO's Gary Walker, Jazz United
    Posted At: May 6, 2021 12:00 AM

    WBGO writes......Longtime WBGO host and music director Gary Walker and the podcast Jazz United are among the winners of the 2021 Jazz Journalists Association Jazz Awards. They join bassist Ron Carter, honored for Lifetime Achievement in Jazz, and Fresh Air critic Kevin Whitehead, recipient of Lifetime Achievement in Jazz Journalism, along with others recognized in a total of 47 categories. Gary Walke...
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  • Maria Schneider's Grammy-Winning 'Data Lords,' is a tale of two opposite worlds / 90.1WRTI: Jazz Album of the Week
    Posted At: March 16, 2021 12:00 AM

    90.1WRTI's COURTNEY BLUE writes......With a grand stroke of prescience, NEA Jazz Master Maria Schneider crafted a double album about being polarized by the demands of a digital society and longing for human connection, all before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Just before we were forced to be locked indoors and working from home, long before the coveted "snow days" off were cancelled, and right ...
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  • Grammy award-winning composer / bandleader; Maria Schneider wins JazzTimes: Critics Poll for Artist of the Year, Big Band/Large Ensemble, Composer and Arranger
    Posted At: February 1, 2021 12:00 AM

    For this annual companion poll to our Top 50 Critics' Picks, our regular contributors participated in this survey based on our yearly Readers' Poll. Contributors were asked to focus on artists' achievements during 2020 rather than assessing entire careers. Grammy Award-winning composer and bandleader; Maria Schneider won for Artist of the Year, Big Band/Large Ensemble, Composer and Arranger. Sch...
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  • Listen to Maria Schneider's stimulating, inspiring conversation with Judy Carmichael on 'Jazz Inspired'
    Posted At: January 28, 2021 12:00 AM

    Composer Maria Schneider is one of a handful of musicians to receive Grammys in multiple genres, both is the classical and jazz category and for her collaboration with David Bowie. Her latest double CD, Data Lords examines our relationship with the digital and natural worlds with evocative compositions and an accompanying treatise on the subject that I feel should be required reading.  Maria is...
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  • Maria Schneider - Data Lords makes 'JazzTimes: Top 40 New Jazz Releases of 2020'
    Posted At: January 11, 2021 12:00 AM

    JazzTimes writes......For our 2020 Year in Review section, we calculated the top 40 new releases and top 10 historical/reissue recordings of 2020 based on year-end lists by our writers. They were asked to choose the 10 best new releases and five best historical titles-i.e., albums and box sets consisting primarily of music recorded 10 or more years ago. Some discs may have slipped through the cracks, but...
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  • Those of us looking to renew and/or rejuvenate our relationship with Mother Nature, can lend an ear to Maria Schneider's 'Data Lords' / Jerusalem Post
    Posted At: January 10, 2021 12:00 AM

    Data Lords is a double-album by Grammy Award-winning composer and bandleader Maria Schneider. Inspired by conflicting relationships between the digital and natural worlds, the recording features Schneider's acclaimed orchestra of 18 world-class musicians. BARRY DAVIS from the Jerusalem Post writes.....Those of us looking to renew and/or rejuvenate our relationship with Mother Nature, in ...
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  • Maria Schneider Orchestra - Data Lords makes theartsdesk: 'Album of the Year 2020'
    Posted At: January 6, 2021 12:00 AM

    Data Lords, the double-album by Grammy Award-winning composer and bandleader Maria Schneider, was inspired by conflicting relationships between the digital and natural worlds, the recording features Schneider's acclaimed orchestra of 18 world-class musicians. "No one can deny the great impact that the data-hungry digital world has had on our lives. As big data companies clamor for our attention, ...
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  • Maria Schneider - Data Lords makes The San Diego Union-Tribune: 2020 year in review
    Posted At: December 27, 2020 12:00 AM

    The San Diego Union-Tribune's George Vargas writes; The vital need for music has never been greater, at least in this century, than it was in 2020. Best albums came as COVID-19 made music more essential than ever in a year we'd all like to forget. Untold numbers of musicians have lost their jobs. So have concert promoters, stagehands, audio engineers, lighting operators, security guards, merchan...
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  • Maria Schneider - Data Lords makes 'Jazz Police: 20 from 2020 - the New Music that Helped'
    Posted At: December 23, 2020 12:00 AM

    2020 was the Year of the Rat which seems fitting for this year of plague. Concerts have been canceled, jazz clubs closed and it was a time when we needed music more than ever. If this dark cloud has a silver lining there must be serious wood-shedding going on right now and in 2021 after some normality returns we will witness a creative explosion of new music. But for now live streaming events help and bo...
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  • Maria Schneider - Data Lords makes The Guardian '10 best jazz albums of 2020'
    Posted At: December 21, 2020 12:00 AM

    Alongside archive recordings from Sonny Rollins and John Coltrane, and inventive new releases by Maria Schneider and Carla Bley, 2020 had plenty of spectacular fusions The sensibilities of the great American composer, bandleader and musicians'-rights campaigner Maria Schneider have usually been turned outwards – toward depicting spacious landscapes and the sounds and movement of the natural...
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  • The darkly prophetic 'Data Lords' unleashed the inner beast of Maria Schneider and makes 'The Irish Times - best Irish and international albums of 2020'
    Posted At: December 19, 2020 12:00 AM

    THE YEAR OF THE PANDEMIC PRODUCED OUTSTANDING, THOUGHTFUL MUSIC ACROSS ALL FORMS. Top 10 lists from the votes of Joe Breen, Louise Bruton, Tony Clayton-Lea, Siobhán Kane, Siobhán Long, Lauren Murphy, Éamon Sweeney and Dean Van Nguyen included the selection of: Maria Schneider Orchestra – Data Lords. For an art form that lives and evolves in the presence of an audience, ...
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  • Data Lords might be Maria Schneider's most audacious and challenging release to date / textura
    Posted At: December 11, 2020 12:00 AM

    It's safe to say the arrival of a new Maria Schneider album qualifies as a major event. Years are dedicated to the writing, arranging, and producing of her projects, the result a discography that's modest in size yet distinguished. The multiple Grammy-winning composer brings an exhaustive amount of thought to every release, and the care and commitment she brings to the undertaking are always evid...
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  • Maria Schneider, Data Lords on JAZZIZ - Crate Digging video series
    Posted At: December 8, 2020 12:00 AM

    Remember record stores? Remember the thrill of turning your friends on to new music by swapping vinyl and CDs? Yeah, we do too. That's why we're rebooting that tradition for the digital age with our "Crate Digging" video series, in which we'll search through crates of our memories to bring you a handful of album recommendations on a given theme. It's social media in the truest sense of th...
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  • Maria Schneider - Data Lords makes Chicago Tribune 'best jazz recordings of 2020'
    Posted At: December 8, 2020 12:00 AM

    Recorded music has been more important than ever during the pandemic, with most jazz clubs closed and only a few streaming performances. Among the best jazz recordings of 2020, selected by Howard Reich of the Chicago Tribune is Maria Schneider: "Data Lords" (ArtistShare). As much a philosophical statement as a musical one, "Data Lords" finds the accomplished composer-arranger-bandleader examinin...
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  • Maria Schneider Orchestra, Data Lords makes NPR: Best Music Of 2020
    Posted At: December 4, 2020 12:00 AM

    This week we shared NPR Music's best songs and albums of 2020, lists voted on, politely argued over and presented by our staff, station partners and contributors. Today we're featuring the good stuff from the private reserves. Below you'll find lists of top 10 albums and songs from the members of NPR Music's staff. Nate Chinen DIRECTOR OF EDITORIAL CONTENT, WBGO writes; In a year ...
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  • The Jazz Standard is silenced by the pandemic. More clubs may follow / The New York Times
    Posted At: December 3, 2020 12:00 AM

    The coronavirus has claimed its first major jazz club in New York City, and other venues are in danger of going under as well. The New York jazz scene was dealt a blow this week when the Jazz Standard, a noted club on East 27th Street in Manhattan, announced it was closing its doors because of the pandemic. The 130-seat, subterranean Jazz Standard, which opened in 1997 and then started over five ...
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  • Celebrate virtual 'Thanksgiving at Jazz Standard' with the Maria Schneider Orchestra
    Posted At: November 27, 2020 12:00 AM

    From Maria Schneider: "We are heart-broken to miss our annual "Thanksgiving at Jazz Standard." So this year, we are coming to you, with never-before-seen videos and more. Tune in Friday, November 27th at 7:30PM EST to a live-stream (right here on Facebook or on mariaschneider.com). Afterwards, streamable at your leisure through Monday, November 30th, 11:00AM EST. Before you tune in, to bring ...
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  • Maria Schneider discusses 'Data Lords' with 89.5WPKN
    Posted At: November 20, 2020 12:00 AM

    Data Lords is a new double-album by Grammy Award-winning composer and bandleader Maria Schneider. Inspired by conflicting relationships between the digital and natural worlds, the recording features Schneider's acclaimed orchestra of 18 world-class musicians. "No one can deny the great impact that the data-hungry digital world has had on our lives. As big data companies clamor for our attention, ...
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  • On 'Data Lords,' Maria Schneider steps up her battle with the giants of the technological world / Straight No Chaser Podcast
    Posted At: November 17, 2020 12:00 AM

    With the release earlier this year of Data Lords, a two-disc opus, Maria Schneider stepped up her battle with the giants of the technological world. An outspoken critic of companies like Amazon, Google and YouTube, Ms. Schneider has been standing up for citizens' rights to maintain their online privacy and personal information, as well as artists' rights to control and monetize their work through copyrig...
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  • Maria Schneider Orchestra: The Thompson Fields makes 'JazzTimes top 10 jazz albums of the 2010s
    Posted At: November 16, 2020 12:00 AM

    Earlier in 2020, to celebrate JazzTimes golden anniversary, they conducted five separate readers' polls asking you to tell us your top 10 jazz albums for each of the five decades of JazzTimes‘ existence. Nearly 50,000 votes later, we have the results of all those polls, ranked by the number of votes cast per album, and we're revealing them this week-one day for each decade (starting Monday, Novembe...
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  • Maria Schneider talks about experiences growing up in Minnesota, and her exposure to music by friends and mentors / Straight No Chaser Podcast
    Posted At: November 14, 2020 12:00 AM

    Podcast 778 completes my two-part conversation with Maria Schneider. A recipient of almost every award given for composing, arranging and conducting, Ms. Schneider has moved to the forefront of genre-bending music. Whether it's the work she did with David Bowie on "Sue (or In A Season of Crime," her thrilling new work Data Lords, or her collaborations with classical music giants like Dawn Upshaw, there d...
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  • Maria Schneider discusses 'Data Lords' with Valley Public Radio
    Posted At: October 14, 2020 12:00 AM

    Data Lords is a new double-album by Grammy Award-winning composer and bandleader Maria Schneider. Inspired by conflicting relationships between the digital and natural worlds, the recording features Schneider's acclaimed orchestra of 18 world-class musicians. Schneider says; "No one can deny the great impact that the data-hungry digital world has had on our lives. As big data companies clamor for...
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  • Maria Schneider talks about her new double album 'Data Lords' with SRF 'Jazz & World Aktuell'
    Posted At: October 7, 2020 12:00 AM

    SRF "Jazz & World Aktuell with Jodok Hess" is making room for the biggest new releases from large formations around the pianist Django Bates, the bassist Christian McBride and the composer and arranger Maria Schneider, who talks about her new double album "Data Lords". Data Lords is a new double-album by Grammy Award-winning composer and bandleader Maria Schneider. Inspired by conflicting relatio...
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  • Maria Schneider discusses 'Data Lords' with Santa Fe Public Radio
    Posted At: October 5, 2020 12:00 AM

    Data Lords is a new double-album by Grammy Award-winning composer and bandleader Maria Schneider. Inspired by conflicting relationships between the digital and natural worlds, the recording features Schneider's acclaimed orchestra of 18 world-class musicians. Schneider says; "No one can deny the great impact that the data-hungry digital world has had on our lives. As big data companies clamor for...
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  • 88.9WDNA chats with Maria Schneider
    Posted At: October 5, 2020 12:00 AM

    Data Lords is a new double-album by Grammy Award-winning composer and bandleader Maria Schneider. Inspired by conflicting relationships between the digital and natural worlds, the recording features Schneider's acclaimed orchestra of 18 world-class musicians. Schneider says; "No one can deny the great impact that the data-hungry digital world has had on our lives. As big data companies clamor for...
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  • On her latest orchestral masterwork, Maria Schneider worked to dramatize humanity's struggle between nature and technology / JazzTimes
    Posted At: September 28, 2020 12:00 AM

    "The roughest thing is my mom," composer and bandleader Maria Schneider  says over the phone on a recent summer morning, answering the first question of almost every conversation in the COVID-19 era: How are you holding up? The New York-based composer/conductor has been in grateful, high gear, safe and healthy at her country home while preparing the release of a new two-record set by the M...
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  • Maria Schneider discusses 'Data Lords' with Manx Radio
    Posted At: September 28, 2020 12:00 AM

    Data Lords is a new double-album by Grammy Award-winning composer and bandleader Maria Schneider. Inspired by conflicting relationships between the digital and natural worlds, the recording features Schneider's acclaimed orchestra of 18 world-class musicians. In recent years, Schneider has been increasingly outspoken about Google and big data companies, writing articles and white papers, appearin...
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  • 89.9WUCF Magazine takes on the two polarized worlds of 'Data Lords' with Maria Schneider
    Posted At: September 24, 2020 12:00 AM

    Data Lords is a new double-album by Grammy Award-winning composer and bandleader Maria Schneider. Inspired by conflicting relationships between the digital and natural worlds, the recording features Schneider's acclaimed orchestra of 18 world-class musicians. Schneider says; "No one can deny the great impact that the data-hungry digital world has had on our lives. As big data companies clamo...
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  • 'Im not interested in everybody in the world listening to my music for free, i can't exist that way' / Jazzwise
    Posted At: September 15, 2020 12:00 AM

    Grammy award-winning composer and orchestra leader Maria Schneider is one of the cultural world's most outspoken critics against the tech giants and one of jazz's strongest advocates for musicians' rights. So, as ‘Big Data' plays an ever-increasing, and ever more troubling, role in musical spaces, her new album Data Lords has arrived at exactly the right time. Stuart Nicholson finds Schneider as an...
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  • 89.3WPFW discusses 'Data Lords' with Maria Schneider
    Posted At: September 13, 2020 12:00 AM

    Data Lords is a new double-album by Grammy Award-winning composer and bandleader Maria Schneider. Inspired by conflicting relationships between the digital and natural worlds, the recording features Schneider's acclaimed orchestra of 18 world-class musicians. "No one can deny the great impact that the data-hungry digital world has had on our lives. As big data companies clamor for our attention, ...
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