Maria Schneider
EDUCATION
Maria Schneider was one of the few women who really went all the way through with her education in music, and she even got a graduate degree. However, prior to any formal education she received, a woman Mrs. Butler, taught Maria and exposed her to the life of jazz. Mrs. Butler taught Maria how to play in an old stride style when she was learning classical pieces. She also was learning standards and she was able to improvise and come up with her own piano arrangements for them. It was also helpful that Mrs. Butler did not tell Maria anything about the development of jazz so she had to do it completely on her own. Maria even learned how to play out of a fake book.1 Maria did not have much exposure to jazz when she was growing up. Her high school did not have a jazz band or jazz program, and neither did the University of Minnesota, where she attended undergrad.2 By the time that she went to college for music, she thought she was going to study composition. However, she soon found out that the classical world was very difficult to be a part of and compose for. This was the case because if she wrote something too tonal, then she basically was shunned. At that time period, the universities did not understand it.3 School gave Maria the ability to focus on her music without the distractions of the other things in life. This was because she had the concentration of going to classes and really absorbing all of the information that she could during those big years in her life. She also was surrounded by other musicians and ensembles who she was able to write for often so she had the opportunity to do what she wanted. Maria also had teachers that did not tell her what to do, but rather guided her and helped her develop as a composer.4 Maria graduated from the University of Minnesota with a classical degree and during her last year of undergraduate schooling, she spent most of her time independently working on her own.5 After the University of Minnesota Maria Schneider applied to Eastman for graduate school. Unfortunately, the first time she applied she did not get in. She was told that although she was talented, she needed much more experience. Instead of getting accepted to Eastman, they offered her a spot to come to the summer program offered at the university. During this, arrangers came from all over the country and they put together large bands and orchestras. Maria’s job was to work hard and compose for these groups and then they would play the music she wrote and then the arrangers would critique it.6 After the summer program Maria went to the University of Miami for a semester and was shocked by the musicians work there and how modern they all were. While at Miami, the musicians played Maria’s music and even recorded a couple of songs. This was very different for Maria because she had a classical background so she went from two completely opposite sides of the spectrum very quickly.7 After a semester at the University of Miami, Maria was accepted to Eastman. This was very exciting for her because there was so much she wanted to learn and Eastman allowed her that opportunity. While at Eastman, Maria learned about jazz from the historical point of view and studied everything from swing music until music today. She really enjoyed learning about the roots of things and analyzing all of the different pieces. Maria felt like she needed this experience because she felt as though it was a huge gap in her education. However, as far as where her own voice came from, she claims that no one can teach her that and that she found it on her own without any help. She also believes that you don’t really learn anything until you make mistakes and that no matter how much education you receive, mistakes are truly what teaches you.8INDEPENDENCE
Maria was a very independent woman her entire life. Growing up in a small town called Windom in Minnesota she really did not have much access to jazz music. The one woman, Mrs. Butler, was the only person in her town who knew anything about it. Because of this, Maria was constantly teaching herself and doing things on her own. She was a very self motivated person as well. Because she did not have anyone who really was there pestering her to do things, she experimented a lot and came up with her own “unorthodox ways of doing things” that she “never dropped.” She constantly was breaking rules that were taught to her in her formal education and making them work. She often was even used as an example in classes!9 Maria had her own opinion when it came to how to write music. Other people believed that there was a formula and there had to be certain things involved in the music writing process. This was not the case for Maria. She was very against using a “grid” and instead would always be thinking about who she could use and how. She also understood that it was not necessary to use everyone in the band and that she could use one person for multiple instruments or parts. Maria says that in her writing she aims to, “just open myself up and say that I want to create something unlabeled. No grid. No styles. No nothing coming through me.”10 This is also the case when it comes to synthesizers. Maria does all of her writing just sitting in front of the piano and using score paper. Many people today use synthesizers, however, for Maria it is more of distraction rather than something that is helping her. She can’t get to the meditative place that she needs to with the use of buttons and everything, it just doesn’t work for her.11 Maria is also unorthodox with her writing because she never uses bar paper. She quoted in an interview with Monk Rowe, “I never write with bar paper. I put up a huge pierce of score paper with a thousand tiny staves with no bar lines. And I even try to get away from looking at the stave. I stand up and I dance and I move around and I sing sometimes and I’ll run a tape recorder while I’m doing it. And then I go to the piano and I try to figure out what the hell I’m doing. Because the minute I’m thinking about music it becomes music. I want the music to be that other thing. And then I codify it in notes, in little black dots and lines. To try to translate it.” Maria likes music that doesn’t necessarily sound like music and this is exactly how she achieves her beautiful works every time.12 When teaching students, Maria teaches them that there is “math behind all this beauty” when talking about notes and the way that they work.13 She also encourages her students to write something that makes her feel good, which is exactly what she does for herself. She believes that it is important to make sure you feel good about your work and then put the logic behind it rather than doing it the other way around. It also is important to make sure that you are writing the music for yourself, not just by what is hip or because other people tell you its going to be cool.14 With this Maria quotes, “But try to stay inside. I always feel like the thing that makes each person unique is that you are you, nobody on earth can imitate you, nobody can be more you than you are. So that your job is to become you to the deepest degree that you can, and that’s where your beauty and that’s where your mastery is, in developing yourself. I think so often that it’s really easy to look at other people and say oh he’s a master, I have to try to be like that, I have to follow him. No, you have to find the depth of yours led and be disciplined and developed themselves. And that’s the thing that nobody can imitate/ And that’s where your strength and where your gift is. That’s what people want to see, is feel the uniqueness of each other. That’s where you really communicate something fresh with somebody. It’s hard to do that.”15INFLUENCE
One of the biggest influences in Maria’s life was Mrs. Butler. She started working with Maria when she was a young girl and truly opened her eyes to music and the world of jazz. Mrs. Butler was especially good at introducing Maria to the more classical side of jazz and was a talented musician herself.16 As a child, Maria was also influenced by her fantasies. Coming from a small town, she never really knew what it was like to live in New York, she just always dreamed about it. She claims that she used to “fantasize that there were talent scouts in cars that had machinery that could hear inside of homes and that they were listening to me.” Because of this, she was always full of fantasy in her music. She also used to was influenced by her childhood experiences; the first time you experience disappointment, sadness, romantic love, intensity, fear. All of these things influenced Maria because they truly touched her and impacted her life. These emotions are so real to a person when they are new and experienced for the first time and Maria always goes back to this now when she is writing.17 Another person that introduced and influenced Maria to look at the more modern side of jazz was a guy who lived down the hall from her in her dorm at the University of Miami. One day Maria was listening to an old Ellington album and the guy asked her if she liked jazz. Without hesitating Maria responded that yes, she does like jazz and asked him if he knew what it was. As it turns out, it was this boy in the hallway who taught Maria what jazz truly was. She even admits this in her interview when she says, “well as it turned out, I didn’t know what it was, he knew what it was.” He introduced Maria to jazz in a completely new way than she had ever heard jazz before. He brought her modern jazz albums and showed Maria all of the ways in which jazz can be performed. This was a whole new world for Maria and she was so excited to be a part of it.18Sample performance:
For full interview transcript, read the following:
1 For more details see, Maria Schneider, Interview by Monk Rowe, Hamilton College Jazz Archive, January 12, 2001, lines 38-45, transcript.
2 Interview, lines 35-37.
3 Interview, lines 53-57.
4 Interview, lines 25- 35.
5 Interview, lines 76- 78.
6 Interview, lines 88- 97.
7 Interview, lines 97- 100.
8 Interview, lines 100- 106.
9 Interview, lines 108- 112.
10 Interview, lines 190- 200.
11 Interview, lines 361- 367.
12 Interview, lines 219- 226.
13 Interview, lines 267- 268.
14 Interview, lines 276- 280.
15 Interview, lines 280- 290.
16 Interview, lines 150- 156.
17 Interview, lines 164- 180.
18 Interview, lines 68- 75.
