LAWRENCE UNIVERSITY JAZZ SERIES
MARIA SCHNEIDER, composer and conductor
Featuring
LEE TOMBOULIAN, accordion soloist
LAWRENCE UNIVERSITY JAZZ ENSEMBLE
Fred Sturm, Director
Friday, June 1, 2007
Lawrence Memorial Chapel
8:00 pm
PROGRAM
(all compositions by Maria Schneider)
Hang Gliding
Three Romances
I. Choro Dançado
II. Pas De Deux
III. Dança Illusória
Sky Blue
Aires De Lando
Lee Tomboulian, accordion soloist
MARIA SCHNEIDER
Born in Windom, Minnesota, Maria Schneider arrived in New York City in 1985 after studies at the University of Minnesota, the University of Miami, and the Eastman School of Music. She immediately sought out Bob Brookmeyer to study composition. At the same time she became an assistant to Gil Evans, working on various projects with him, but most notably, the film The Color of Money and music for the Gil Evans/Sting tour in 1987. In recent years she’s been invited to conduct Evans’ music extensively, featuring such musicians as Jon Faddis, Wallace Roney, Miles Evans, Ingrid Jensen, and David Sanborn.
The Maria Schneider Jazz Orchestra came into being in 1993, appearing at Visiones in Greenwich Village every Monday night for a stretch of five years. Subsequently, her orchestra received invitations to perform at jazz festivals and concert halls across Europe as well as in Brazil and Macau. She’s received numerous commissions and invitations for guest conducting her music in America, Italy, Portugal, France, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Belgium, Holland, Germany, Slovenia, Austria, Canada, Scotland, Australia, Greenland, and Iceland. Commissions include the Norrbotten Big Band’s and Danish Radio Orchestra’s commission to arrange and conduct concerts with Toots Thielemans. Other commissioning organizations include the Metropole Orchestra, Stuttgart Jazz Orchestra, Orchestre National de Jazz (Recapitulation), Carnegie Hall Jazz Orchestra (El Viento), Monterey Jazz Festival (Scenes from Childhood), University of Miami Concert Jazz Band (Three Romances), Hunter College (Concert in the Garden and Sky Blue), Jazz at Lincoln Center (Bulería, Soleá y Rumba), Los Angeles Philharmonic Association (Aires de Lando) and Peter Sellars’ New Crowned Hope Festival (Cerulean Skies). Maria was also the recipient of a Doris Duke award to compose a dance work (Dissolution) in collaboration with the Pilobolus dance group, performed with her orchestra at the American Dance Festival and Kennedy Center. She arranged a concert of Ivan Lins' music for Ivan Lins, Toots Thielemans and the Danish Radio Orchestra for an extensive European tour in 2003.
Concert in the Garden, released only through her website (an ArtistShare site), won a 2005 Grammy Award and became the first Grammy winning recording with internet-only sales. It received the Jazz Album of the Year award by the Jazz Journalists Awards and the DOWNBEAT Critics Poll. Both also awarded Maria Composer of the Year and Arranger of the Year, and the Jazz Journalists also named her group Large Jazz Ensemble of the Year.
Maria’s debut recording Evanescence was nominated for two 1995 Grammy Awards: Best Large Jazz Ensemble Recording and Best Instrumental Composition (for its title piece). Her second and third recordings, Coming About and Allégresse, as well as two compositions from Concert in the Garden were nominated for Grammy Awards. Her third album, Allégresse, was chosen by both TIME and BILLBOARD in their Top Ten Recordings of 2000, which was inclusive of all genres of music. Her newest recording, Sky Blue, is scheduled for release from her ArtistShare website, mariaschneider.com, on June 14th, 2007.
LEE TOMBOULIAN
Pianist/composer/educator Lee Tomboulian teaches jazz improvisation, jazz small group performance practice, and applied jazz piano at Lawrence University. He has performed on piano, accordion, and keyboards with noted jazz artists Airto, Nat Adderley, Doc Cheatham, Larry Coryell, Jack DeJohnette, Herb Ellis, Eddie Harris, Marc Johnson, Sheila Jordan, Dick Oatts, Bucky Pizzarelli, Pharoah Sanders, and Steve Swallow. He was also a member of the world-famous University of North Texas One O'Clock Lab Band and is a founding member of the Brazilian and Uruguayan ensemble Circo.
Lee earned his B.A. in composition with a minor in Theater Arts from the University of Arkansas, his M.M. in Jazz Studies (piano performance) at the University of North Texas, and studied privately with ECM giant Art Lande and Giorgio Della Terza at the Naropa Institute. He also studied African-American gospel music at St. Andrew Church of God in Christ in Texas.
Lee previously served on the faculties at Texas Wesleyan University, Cedar Valley Community College, the University of Dallas, and North Central Texas College. He has also worked as an instructor at the University of Texas at Arlington Jazz Camp, the University of North Texas Jazz Combo Camp, and served as a UNT graduate teaching fellow for two years.
LAWRENCE UNIVERSITY JAZZ ENSEMBLE
Personnel
Reeds
Elizabeth Bird, flute
Keegan White, soprano and alto saxophones, flute
Dane Sorenson, soprano and alto saxophones, flute
Ben Doherty, tenaor saxophone, flute, clarinet
Dan Watkins, tenor saxophone, flute, clarinet
Conner Lewis, baritone saxophone, alto flute, bass clarinet
Trumpets
Vanessa Meggiolaro
Adam Meckler
James Nufer
Dan Willis
Trombones
James Hall
Katie Daugherty
Trevor Long
Evan Jacobson
Tim Phelan, bass trombone
Rhythm
Gabriel Davila, guitar
Evan Montgomery, guitar
Eli Wallace, piano
Greg Woodard, piano
Nick Anderson, bass
Sue Spang, bass
Derek Dreier, drums and percussion
Reed Flygt, drums and percussion
Mike Truesdell, percussion
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