Maria Newman

Life and career

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, (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.

Newman and her husband, Scott Hosfeld, who is the Founding Conductor/Music Director of the Malibu Coast Chamber Orchestra, currently live in Malibu, California. They are raising five children: Martha Jeannette Thatcher (b. 1996), lsabella Montgomery Thatcher (b. 1998), Samuel (Sonny) James Thatcher (b. 2000), Noah Louis Hosfeld (b. 2005), and Joaquin Syrus Hosfeld (b. 2008).

Family and renowned siblings

Maria is the youngest child of Martha Louis Montgomery (born December 5, 1920, Clarksdale, Mississippi - died May 9, 2005, Pacific Palisades, California), a former John Robert Powers model, actress, benefactor and Goldwyn Girl, and 9-time Academy Award-winning film composer, Alfred Newman (composer). Maria Newman has four older siblings: Thomas Newman, David Newman, Fred Newman, Lucy Newman Whiffen. She has one half brother, Tim Newman.

Maria is from a large family of major Hollywood film composers:

Composition career

Maria Newman is an Annenberg Foundation Composition Fellow, and received a grant from the foundation in 2012.

As a violinist who performs and records around the world, Maria Newman began her professional composition career using a pseudonym. "I was terribly worried that I would not be taken seriously as a female composer in what I felt was a highly male-dominated field. My famous family’s film musician genealogy also put the notion into my mind that I would not be accepted, much less respected, in the concert music world as a serious composer." Newman used the name, M. Louis Parker, the name of her maternal great-grandmother, feeling that the name neither indicated that she was a Newman, nor a woman. In 1991, Newman began using her own name as a composer. Newman studied composition briefly with Martin Bresnick, at Yale University, though she received both her BM and MM in Violin Performance. To date, Newman's original music library consists of over 150 concert works.

Icicle Creek Music Center

In the Summer of 1995, Newman was appointed Composer-in-Residence for the Icicle Creek Music Center in Leavenworth, Washington. She held the post until the end of the 2004 summer season.

Montgomery Arts House for Music and Architecture and Malibu Friends of Music

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 40-plus concerts annually in this venue alone. Her duties at MAHMA include Composer-in-Residence for the Malibu Coast Chamber Orchestra, Malibu Madrigals, the Malibu Coast Silent Film Orchestra, Malibu Coast String Quartet, the Malibu Ocast Chamber Ballet, and the Malibu Coast Chamber Orchestra Solisti. Newman has held the Louis and Annette Kaufman Composition Chair and the Joachim Chassman Violin Chair at the Montgomery Arts House for Music and Architecture (MAHMA) and the Malibu Friends of Music since 2005.

Newman’s achievement at MAHMA is the story of a dedicated classical musician, who, through perseverance, dedication and the belief that music is a highly powerful community-wide healing mechanism, is offering music and music making on an intimate level. Newman has a gift of making audiences feel valued and she effortlessly gains their trust. It is important to Newman that the musicians are happy as well. Says Newman, "I feel that at MAHMA we are in a place where dear friends gather to rehearse, perform, listen, experience, eat, laugh, and discuss music and art in depth. The level of music-making here is extraordinarily high and truly rare for a small town, as we bring in wonderful guest artists and speakers from around the world to collaborate with our outstanding group of resident artists. The entire experience at MAHMA is marvelously satisfying." In addition, Newman tours frequently as featured composer, performer, lecturer and master teacher.

According to critic Jim Svejda, "Maria Newman is hugely musical, bewitching, profound and playful with an instantly recognizable and unusually appealing musical personality."

Viklarbo Chamber Ensemble

Along with pianist/longtime musical partner, Wendy Prober, Newman founded the Viklarbo Chamber Ensemble in 1987. With Viklarbo, Newman and Prober have concertized in this country’s most prestigious concert halls, as well as for some of the poorest communities in the United States. The ensemble has been awarded grants from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), the City of Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department, the California Arts Council, the Utah Tour for the Performing Arts, the Delta Arts Council, the Headwaters Council for the Arts, Hawaii Council for the Arts, and many others. The ensemble continues to present concerts today. Newman serves as Composer-in-Residence for the ensemble.

Guest residencies

Newman has been guest composer for Los Angeles Mozart Orchestra, Solisti New York, Brevard Symphony Orchestra, San Jose Chamber Orchestra, New West Symphony, Olympia Chamber Orchestra, Wichita Symphony, Los Angeles Jewish Symphony, Santa Monica Symphony, Pacific Serenades, Martha’s Vineyard Chamber Music Society, Chamber Music Palisades, Dorian Festival Chamber Orchestra at Luther College, Omaha Conservatory Festival and Cinema Orchestras, Azusa Pacific Grand Orchestra Festival, Central Washington University Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra Omaha, Wonder of Words Festival (WOW!), Northwestern University, Indiana University, Bloomington, School of Music Philharmonic Orchestra, and more.

Performance career

A bold and versatile performer, Newman’s performances of both her works and traditional masterworks are consistently programmed in concert halls and heard regularly on radio broadcasts and on television 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 also premiered many new works for violin, as well as for viola (including many of her own) in some of the United States and Europe. She was the viola soloist for the Grammy Award-winning album, "Symphonic Hollywood", in Miklos Rozsa’s "Viola Concerto" with the Nuremberg Symphony. Newman performed the U.S. premiere of Miklos Rozsa’s Violin Concerto No. 1 with the St. Matthew’s Chamber Orchestra, as well as the premiere recording of Rozsa’s Introduction and Allegro for Solo Viola.

Ms. Newman has collaborated in concert as soloist with celebrities Pierce Brosnan, Billy Crystal, Paul Reiser and Daniel Stern, and has performed as a featured soloist at the United States Capitol Building Complex on Capitol Hill in Washington D.C., headlining a Special Event representing the highly debated Victim's Rights Bill. Newman has been featured as commissioned composer and performer in the Private Theatre inside the Historic Hearst Castle in San Simeon, California, introduced by William Randolph Hearst III.

Selected works

This is only a list of selected works.

String Quartet

Piano

Song Cycles for Voice & Mixed Ensembles/Orchestra

Flute with Mixed Chamber Ensembles

Concerti for Solo Instruments & String Orchestra

(all movements attacca)

(all movements attacca)

String Orchestra

String Duo

Large Brass Ensemble

Library of Vintage Silent Films

Maria Newman has been commissioned by the following organizations to score a revision of Vintage Silent Films by the following organizations: The Annenberg Foundation, The Mary Pickford Foundation, Viklarbo Chamber Ensemble, The Malibu Friends of Music, Timeline Films, Luther College Dorian Festival, Omaha Conservatory of Music, Icicle Creek Music Center, Central Washington University, The Family of Mary Lofdahl, Milestone Films, A&F Productions, The Sierra Festival Symphony, Grand Performances Los Angeles, and Turner Classic Movies including the movie, "Mr. Wu" starring Lon Chaney (1927).

A list of these films include:

Additional Commissions in the Press

October 26, 2012: WOW! Wonder of the Words Festival (wonderofwordsfest.com), The Kate Shelley Story - featuring Marian Newman's original music, based on the story written by Mary Kay Shanley…"is the story of a young Iowa girl that has captured the attention of Iowans for decades…"The live mixed-media performance will showcase an original narrate and retelling of The Kate Shelley Story penned by best-selling author Mary Kay Shanley; an original musical score written and conducted by award-winning composer and virtuosic violinist Maria Newman, and the highly acclaimed federated actress with the Repertory Theatre of Iowa Allisa Schetter-Siedschlaw will play the role of Kate. The performance will be directed by Des Moines Social Club Artistic Director Matthew McIver…"

July 25, 2012: "...Barak, a neoclassicist with four pieces in the New York City Ballet repertory, is creating an 11-minute ballet to a score by Los Angeles composer Maria Newman (of the Oscar-winning, film-composer Newman family)...." (National Choreographers Initiative a lab for ballet at UC Irvine, By Laura Bleiberg, Special to the Los Angeles Times, July 25, 2012)

December 16, 2009: Composer Maria Newman conducting a live chamber orchestra to her original score for the fully restored Mary Pickford silent film classic, "Daddy Long Legs," hosted by Pickford Foundation curator Hugh Munro Neely.

August 12, 2009: "Winston's family has donated the film projection equipment for the screening of "The Terminator" and for future Malibu Film Society screenings, which include a fully restored Blu-ray print of 1948 Academy Award winner "The Red Shoes;" Woody Allen's Oscar-winner "Annie Hall;" last year's "Waltz with Bashir," the Israeli animated documentary about the 1982 Lebanon War; and the 1919 silent film, "Daddy-Long-Legs," starring Mary Pickford, which will feature a chamber orchestra conducted by Maria Newman."

Educational activities

Newman presents masterclasses, coaches student performances of her original compositions and others, and lectures at universities and many arts organizations nationwide.

Awards and recognition

Newman has recognition and commendations from the Annenberg Foundation, 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 newspaper. Newman has appeared in subject spotlight articles by noted and esteemed newspapers and magazines. She received a Malibu Music Award for "Classical Artist of the Year", a "Variety Composer Legend" Award, a "Debut Award" from the Los Angeles "Young Musicians’ Foundation," the California Arts Commission. Newman’s works are featured on private and public radio, as well as on Turner Broadcasting.

Recordings

Newman's works have been performed and recorder by cellist Andrew Shulman, violist Paul Coletti, double bassist Nico Abondolo, artist Randy Newman, flutist Hal Ott, and pianists Wendy Prober, Delores Stevens, Peter Longworth, Bryan Pezzone, Kairos String Quartet, and Malibu String Quartet.

A list of her recorded works on the Montgomery Arts House Masterworks Recording label is as follows: Maria Newman: REQUIEM for the Innocents; Maria Newman: The Art of the Chamber Orchestra Books, I, II, & III; Maria Newman: Music for String Quartet, Book I; Maria Newman: Music for Cello, Book I; Maria Newman: Malibu Chamber Players - Pennipotenti; Maria Newman: Spooky Sonorities; Maria Newman: Dynamic Duos & Obscure Fantasy Heroes, Book I; Maria Newman: A Scented Garden of Music - "Melodies of the South," Book I; Maria Newman: Music for Piano, Book I; Maria Newman: A Holiday Festival of Music & Light - Myth, Mystery & Mysticism; Maria Newman: Music for Violin, Book I

Recorded clips of Maria Newman's work and selected public performances are available on YouTube.