Mary Louise Knutson, ’88, received the 2004 Nathan M. Pusey Young Alumni
Distinguished Achievement Award, which recognizes alumni of 15 years or less
for significant
contributions to and achievements in a career field.
Minneapolis-based jazz pianist and composer Mary Louise Knutson has been called "one of the most exciting and innovative artists to happen to jazz piano in quite some time." Her debut jazz trio CD, "Call Me When You Get There," charted in the Top 50 in the United States and Canada for eight consecutive weeks following its release and earned her an award for "Top New Jazz Instrumentalist of the Year." An acclaimed composer, she has received numerous awards, including two from Billboard magazine for her compositions "How Will I Know?" and "Meridian." Chosen as the music for the art documentary, Wellington Lee: 60 Years of Artistic Photography, her composition "Call Me When You Get There" will soon be heard at major art museums across the country. In addition, her composition "Merle the Pearl" streams on the Internet as the theme music for "Jazz Release," an interview program on JazzSteps.com. A member of the International Association for Jazz Education and a former instructor in jazz piano and improvisation at Carleton College, she offers a variety of masterclasses, including "Jazz Voicings and Scales: Freedom from the Written Page" for beginning jazz students and "What's Up with Jazz?" for non-musicians. She has performed with such jazz greats as Dizzy Gillespie, Bobby McFerrin, Dianne Reeves, Slide Hampton, Richie Cole, and Greg Abate, among others, and currently is performing both locally and nationally, with her jazz trio or as a soloist, at clubs, festivals, and concert halls, as well as backing up other performers and freelancing with a variety of instrumental groups.
Lawrence Today magazine, Fall 2004