Maria Schneider is an American composer and big-bandleader. Her 2004 album Concert in the Garden won a GRAMMY for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album,. Her 2007 composition, Cerulean Skies won a GRAMMY for 'Best Instrumental Composition." In 2013, Schneider released an album Winter Morning Walks featuring soprano Dawn Upshaw, The Saint Paul and Australian Chamber Orchestras, bassist, Jay Anderson, pianist, Frank Kimbrough, and multi-instrumentalist, Scott Robinson. In 2014 it won three GRAMMY Awards: Best Classical Contemporary Composition for the work Winter Morning Walks written to poetry by US Poet-Laureate, Pulitzer Prize Winner, Ted Kooser. Dawn Upshaw received a GRAMMY for her vocal performance on the same recording, and producer, David Frost, and engineers, Tim Martyn and Brian Losch all received GRAMMYs for Best Engineered Album, Classical. The album fan-funded through ArtistShare is surely one of the first, if not the first album by major American orchestras to be fan-funded. [More at Wikipedia]

November 27th, 1960 in Windom, Minnesota (Age 63)