is an electric violinist, composer, and poet living in Los Angeles, California. Her compositions are far from traditional. Ms. Newmark bridges the gap between current trends in electronic music and the virtuosic violin techniques of the past. Her work incorporates live performance, original poetry and electronically generated sounds. The results are unique pieces that inhabit their own sound worlds.

In December 2006, “Street Angel Diaries,” Ms. Newmark’s multimedia work about the homeless, premiered in a full theatrical production at the Boston Court Performing Arts Complex in Pasadena, California. Philip Brandes of the Los Angeles Times hailed the work’s “haunting score.” Brandes went on to applaud Mary Lou’s "modernistic musical sketches on her neon-lit electric violin -- picture Laurie Anderson on a good hair day, but aiming more at emotions than intellect."

The Street Angel Diaries Video, which includes performance footage from the theatrical production, has been played on public television in Massachusetts and at festivals in Houston, Texas and Jacksonville, Florida.

In March 2003, the Montpelier Chamber Orchestra commissioned Ms. Newmark to compose an electric violin concerto, one of only a handful to have ever been written. The resulting work, “Canto de Luz - Song of Light, A Concerto for Electric Violin and Orchestra,” was premiered to a standing room only audience in Montpelier Vermont with the composer as soloist.

Recently, Ms. Newmark has revised the score and added a new cadenza. In June 2010 the Culver City Chamber Orchestra (Arlette Cardenes, conductor) will perform the West Coast premiere of “Canto de Luz” with Ms. Newmark as soloist.

Ms. Newmark has also completed commissions for internationally acclaimed double bassist Tom Peters, the St. Matthew’s Chamber Orchestra, and Curvd Aire, a brass quintet in Sacramento, California. In Fall 2010, clarinetist Andrea Cheeseman will premiere a new Newmark composition, “Shattered, for Clarinet and Soundscape,” at Appalachian State University.

Mary Lou’s creativity has led to collaborations with other artists, in areas beyond the boundaries of a classically-trained musician. In 2009 her poem, "Scattered," was paired with John Legend's "Ordinary People" in the anthology, "Poetry over Music: Volume 4, Freedom Through Music." Her composition for storyteller and electronic soundscape, “La Loba, Wolf Woman” was performed at Rutgers University’s Steadman Art Gallery as part of the art exhibit, “A Complex Weave: Women and Identity in Contemporary Art” (2009). Mary Lou is currently working as a lyricist with vocal composer Valerie Crescenz. Their first collaboration, “Those Red Shoes,” was premiered by the Princeton Singers at the Lehigh University Choral Composer’s Forum in 2008.

Ms. Newmark’s numerous awards for composition and performance include the Bettylou Scandling Hubin Award in Music Technology (2009), election into the prestigious "Artists, Composers, Musicologists, Educators" (ACME) of Mu Phi Epsilon (2007), and nomination for the Herb Alpert Foundation’s Alpert Award in the Arts for Music (2004).

She received a Subito Grant from the Los Angeles Chapter of the American Composers Forum (2003), worked with composer Steve Mackey and the Talujon Percussion Quartet during a residency at the Atlantic Center for the Arts in Florida (2002), and has been awarded annual ASCAP Awards (1999-2007), multiple Mu Phi Epsilon Professional Grants, and recognition in the Luigi Russolo Competition for electronic music (1998).

Ms. Newmark provides instrumental music instruction in private and public schools throughout Los Angeles with the Children’s Music Workshop and maintains a private violin and composition studio. She frequently presents lecture/demonstrations of her music and compositional methods throughout the United States. Her works have been performed at international festivals in Corfu, Greece and Montreal, Canada, and have been featured on radio stations throughout the United States and Canada, as well as in Argentina, Australia, Croatia, New Zealand, the Netherlands, and Russia.

In 2006 Ms. Newmark was elected to the Executive Board of the International Alliance for Women in Music. She served as the Chair of the "Search for New Music" Composition Competition for Women Composers for three years. She recently joined the board of “Smart Beginnings/Easy Preventions,” a non-profit that works with inner city teenage mothers and infants.

Although she breaks new ground as a composer, Mary Lou has a traditional classical background with undergraduate and graduate degrees in violin performance from Southern Methodist University and the University of Southern California, and a Masters degree in composition from the University of California, Los Angeles.

What she plays: Mary Lou plays a green acrylic 5-String Electric Violin, EV Luma, made by Tucker Barrett of T.F. Barrett Co. in Vermont. She uses an Eventide Ultra-Harmonizer, Pro Tools and Ableton Live.

Email: marylou@greenangelmusic.com