International Festival of Arts & Ideas

Maria Schneider and her Orchestra have won three Grammy awards and ten nominations. In "Winter Morning Walks", which features poetry by Ted Kooser and soprano Dawn Upshaw, Schneider weaves an evocative and multidimensional soundscape of emotion and overwhelming beauty. Albums "Concert in the Garden" and "Sky Blue" were both named “Jazz Album of the Year” by the Jazz Journalists Association and Downbeat. All About Jazz says, “Schneider is both painter and aural poet,” while the Los Angeles Times calls her “the first truly novel approach to big band jazz composition of the new century.” Tour partners will commission a new work and highlight conversations on artists’ rights in the digital age.