Today we’d like to introduce you to Maria Schafer.
Maria, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I’m originally from Canada, but spent my childhood in Pryor, Oklahoma and then have been in southern California since high school. I grew up in a small town and wanted to go into medicine, but would very shyly oblige people around town and perform here and there as a kid too. In middle school, I had a phenomenal choir teacher, Heather Lowther, who helped shape my awareness of music, choir, and studying music, but I didn’t take formal music lessons until I was in college.
All throughout high school and my beginning college years I had prepared for a career in medicine with top grades, a bunch of scholarships and grants, and accelerated courses, but some paperwork issues kept me from going on in medicine. I was studying at Mt. San Antonio College and still hoping I’d eventually be able to transfer to a university and get my first degree in Nursing, but while I was waiting for that to be a possibility, I started studying music to bide my time. I had some amazing musical experiences there with choral and jazz program there under ensemble directors Bruce Rogers and Bill McIntosh and really had my mind and heart opened to a completely different way of seeing the world through the arts.
In the end, when I finally was able to transfer, too much time had passed and music ended up being my only option, so I dove headfirst into being a musician, got an undergraduate degree in Music from CSU Long Beach and have been figuring things out along the way. Now I’ve put out three albums of my own, traveled the world twice over with a big band for more than 300 shows, and am back in LA performing with different groups and writing new music.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
The path for an artist who wants to make a living doesn’t seem to be a very clear one. It’s taken me a few years to find my footing and I’m researching all the time about how to make this life work. I see it as an entrepreneurial endeavour as much as it is a creative one, and I think that certainly clashes with the romantic concept of the starving artist only worried about their craft. It took me a long time to even begin to understand the business requirements to move forward in the music world on my own (without a label, wealthy family, etc) and accepting that just as much or more of my time would be spent on creating opportunities to share the music as opposed to actually making the music.
I think the biggest struggle for me with this path is possibly just an inherent part of the entertainment industry and exposing yourself to the spotlight in general, but it has astounded me how frequently and candidly people feel free to share their negative opinions about my body, appearance, personality, etc. or how I need to do A, B, and C to really “make it” in the music world. It’s certainly helped me build a thicker skin and given me insight into how a lot of people’s brains work or how they interpret the world, but getting negative feedback about my appearance right after completing a great performance never stops being a bummer. Most times I can just laugh it off, but on a bad day, it can really get to me. I constantly work on strengthening myself against things like that.
Can you give our readers some background on your music?
I am a musician and singer who loves to delve into the story of a song, the human narrative, and the chemical interaction of making live music with some wiggle room. My performances are direct communications to the audience members and the other musicians on stage, and I aim to craft music that is beautiful and honest above all else.
I perform and write music encompassing jazz, folk, world, and singer-songwriter genres and I lead a variety of my own groups ranging from duos, quartets, and “little big bands”, like my 8-piece jazz group, “Lady Sings, Trumpet Swings!”. These groups perform in club and theater performances with music I arrange and program, but I also often arrange performances for private functions where the client requests particular music, and we put on a great show even if it’s not the type of music we make as solo artists.
I just self-released my third album “No Broken Hearts” under my record label, Marsch Music, in collaboration with my good friend and guitarist, Shane Savala. We both love old school, straight-ahead jazz but with songs that were written 70 years ago, most of them have been recorded over and over again in very similar ways; on this album we put our own twist on them to bring the songs into the 21st century and really tried to season the familiar with new relevancy and interpretations. The album also features four originals written by me and Shane, which is the most original tunes I’ve recorded to date. Earlier this fall in August, I took Shane out on my first solo tour to perform along the West Coast and soft launch “No Broken Hearts”, which was an absolute blast. For my first time planning a tour, I was really pleased with the results and aim to do more and more touring in the future.
What is “success” or “successful” for you?
For me, success comes about when you convert your dreams into actionable goals, and then incrementally make steps toward achieving the goal. Pretty simple in concept. The caveat is that when you’re an ambitious person, you always move the finish line as soon as you complete one goal. It can be easy to lose sight of the things you’ve already accomplished successfully because you’re focusing on the things you haven’t yet achieved.
Success to me is settling in that place where you allow yourself to acknowledge that you’ve done some great things, that you’re helping people, that your work is useful and valuable, but also knowing that you have more work to do and relishing the process of determining the future steps and then actually completing them.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.MariaSchafer.com
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/mariaschafermusic
- Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/mariaschafermusic
- Twitter: http://www.facebook.com/mariaschaferjaz
Image Credit:
Jason Kruppa, Alex Sadnik, Yonjais
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