Selections from Winter Morning Walks
Maria Schneider (b. 1960)

THE STORY

     Maria Schneider, best known for her jazz band in New York City, is also at home writing classical music and composed Winter Morning Walks for soprano Dawn Upshaw. The recording won the Grammy Awards for Best Classical Contemporary Composition, Best Classical Vocal Performance, and Best Engineered Album, Classical, in 2014. 
     The idea for Winter Morning Walks first came when Schneider recalled an interview with a poet she had once heard on NPR. She could not remember the poet’s name, but went to a Barnes & Noble and scoured every poetry book, knowing that she would recognize his work when she saw it. The poet turned out to be Ted Kooser, a former United States Poet Laureate and a Pulitzer Prize winner. Kooser had written his 2001 collection Winter Morning Walks: 100 Postcards to Jim Harrison while he was recovering from cancer. He went for a walk each day in the early morning hours and would then write a poem to his friend; the routine pulled him out of a deep depression.
     The open landscapes that Kooser described in his poetry felt familiar to Schneider, a native of Minnesota. She set his words to intimately expressive, flowing, and hauntingly beautiful music. Listen for the influences of American greats such as Bernstein, Sondheim, Gershwin, and Copland in the three selections heard this evening—including “Walking by Flashlight,” which Schneider names as her favorite in the song cycle. 

The text for this work is available in the printed program at the concert hall or in the printable program online.

INSTRUMENTATION

Two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, two horns, timpani, percussion, harp, piano, strings