Maria Schneider Nominated for Two Grammys

“5-Star Masterpiece
- January 2008 DownBeat

“For its marriage of precision and imagination, and the outright beauty of its broad-canvas compositions, the Maria Schneider Orchestra has no peer in the realm of jazz. And because improvisation serves so much more than an ornamental purpose for the group, it has no real equivalent in classical music, or among any species of pop."
- Nate Chinen, New York Times

World-renowned New York-based composer/orchestra leader Maria Schneider has earned two 2007 Grammy nominations for her acclaimed CD Sky Blue, an album without in-store distribution. Released in July of 2007 through ArtistShare (www.artistshare.com) and available exclusively through her website, MariaSchneider.com, the CD has taken the international music world by storm.

Sky Blue was nominated as in the category of “Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album," and Schneider's composition “Cerulean Skies" from the same album, performed by the Maria Schneider Orchestra, was nominated in the category of “Best Instrumental Composition." The Grammy Awards ceremony will take place on Sunday, February 10, 2008, in Los Angeles.

“These nominations belong to all the great musicians represented, engineer (Joe Ferla), assistants and co-producer (Ryan Truesdell), and of course all of my fans who have participated, thereby making all of this possible," Schneider says. “I thank you!"

Schneider's 2004 CD Concert in the Garden was the first recording ever to win a Grammy award without in-store distribution. When she won, Maria's fans started writing in to say how proud they felt. This was not surprising, as it was her fans that made the recording possible via her ArtistShare-powered website, where “the fans make it happen." With Sky Blue Schneider expanded and deepened her relationship with her fans, finding that in addition to their help with funding her recordings, they also helped to fuel her creativity.

Maria Schneider is a composer first and foremost, and one who constantly pushes the boundaries of jazz. Always in-demand as a bandleader, she tours the world conducting bands in full-length concerts of her music. But her first love is composing new music for her own band to perform because, when she composes, it is her musicians who she hears inside her head. More than half of her orchestra members have been with her since the Maria Schneider Orchestra was formed in 1993. Their mutual admiration, coupled with the intimacy that time brings, is evident throughout Sky Blue.

Music writers worldwide have expressed the highest praise for Sky Blue:

“She now has become entrenched among the ranks of America's leading composers. ... For Schneider, the question is no longer whether she can sustain the heights she has attained on earlier recordings; it is now how far her musical journey will take her."
- James Hale, DownBeat

“...among the most arresting, accomplished music of the new century."
- Doug Fischer, Ottawa Citizen

“Though some might deem it premature to advance Maria Schneider to the pantheon just yet, at 47 she seems to me to have all the qualifications, right down to a core of steadfast orchestra members: 'Those guys play her music like they'd take a bullet for her,' another composer remarked enviously following a recent performance. Schneider's new Sky Blue makes it easy to hear why." -
- Francis Davis, Village Voice

“Twenty-one musicians of tremendous technical sophistication and emotional energy channel their talents through the direction of the most significant big-band jazz composer of our time."
- Norman Weinstein, Christian Science Monitor

“It seemed impossible for Schneider top her Grammy-winning Concert in the Garden, but she's done just that with Sky Blue. She has elevated her music to a seemingly impossible height... Cerulean Skies" is the masterpiece within a masterpiece... Magnificent. A magical work of art, from beginning to end."
- Dan McClenaghan, All About Jazz

“On her new album, Sky Blue, she puts together stories that speak with the clarity of Ernest Hemingway and the musical grace of Aaron Copland. It is touching without ever lapsing into tawdry sentiment. Accomplishing that in emotion is a feat. Doing it in music is a masterpiece. As is this album." - Bob Karlovits, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

“Best Record of the Month"
- Musical Jazz (Italy)

“Choc" Highest Rating
- Jazzman (France)

“What she does, across the five elegant tracks of Sky Blue, is to create new strands of melody - finely crafted yet tough as steel cable - set within orchestrations that are richly detailed and unhurried, lush but never schmaltzy."
- John L. Walters, The Guardian (UK)