Classical Music Celebrity to Share Her Notes

By JOHN HARLOW | Editor-in-Chief

Maria Newman is as respected and regal as Hollywood musical royalty gets.

And, having been raised in Pacific Palisades, only to drift away as her music career went global, it will be a rare opportunity to hear her speak at the next lunchtime engagement in the thoughtful series of lectures, “Food for Thought.”

To say the composer comes from a musical family feels like an understatement. Between them all, they may have scored more than 500 movies.

Her father, Alfred Newman, composed for 200 “Golden Age” movies, from “Wuthering Heights” to “How the West Was Won.”

Her older brothers, David and Thomas, have nearly another 200, from “The War of the Roses” to “Wall-E.” Her uncle Lionel and Emil racked up many hit, her niece Jaclyn is a music editor, her cousin Joey scores for TV and her other cousin, Randy Newman, is, well, Randy Newman.

Only her mother stayed away from the music—or as far as a supermodel-turned-Goldwyn Girl can.

In the new world of political nepotism, it may seem quaint that Newman originally worked under a pseudonym to avoid discrimination in the music world. But she has earned her own respect.

As a violinist, she has brought classical disciplines to modern music, composing large-scale orchestral pieces, works for ballet, chamber, choral and vocal works.

She has been commissioned to write for the United States Congress, the California State Senate and Assembly, and Hearst and Heidelberg castles.

She now holds the Louis and Annette Kaufman Composition Chair at the Montgomery Arts House for Music and Architecture in Malibu.

But her family background may never be far away: She has added to her fame by creating scores for silent movies, earning her a Mary Pickford fellowship.

Maria Louise Newman will be revealing the secrets of her trade and life at the Pacfic Palisades Presbyterian Church on Thursday, May 18 at 11:30 a.m. Reservations are required, through syljonboyd@gmail.com.