Maria Neckam

Maria Neckam is a singer and composer, who currently lives in Brooklyn, New York, and released her Sunnyside Records debut Deeper in February 2010.

Neckam was born and raised in Vienna, Austria, where she made her first appearances with the rock-band Sounds of Silence as well as solo. After finishing High School she moved to the Netherlands and studied voice at Amsterdam Conservatory. Inspired by her multi-cultural surroundings, her compositions were characterized by their extensive and hybrid range of styles: Rock, Drum N´Bass, Jazz, Contemporary Classical Music, Free Improvisation and Indian music were melted and combined with personal experiences, resulting in her very own, unique style.

With her Electro-pop band Mia Thought And Something Happened (mtash) Neckam toured through Europe several times and won numerous competitions and awards. She released her debut album Crossing and Blending with her first Jazz project Maryland.

In 2005, Neckam moved to New York City to study with Luciana Souza, Peter Eldridge, Theo Bleckmann and Kate McGarry (voice), Samir Chatterjee (Indian Music) and Nils Vigeland (Composition), and graduated from Manhattan School of Music in 2007 (MM).

Neckam has appeared with groups such as The Mahavishnu Project, Will Vinson Group, Lars Dietrich Quintet, Donald Vega Quartet, David Bronson's “Circuit Band” and internationally renowned musicians including Jeff Ballard, Lewis Nash, Aaron Parks, David Binney, Dan Weiss, Jon Cowherd, Miles Okazaki, Lage Lund, Sam Barsh, Mark Guiliana, Mike Moreno, Jonathan Kreisberg, Adam Holzman, Niti Ranjan Biswas etc.

Her latest Sunnyside release Deeper features some of the most prominent musicians on the New York scene, Aaron Goldberg on piano, Thomas Morgan on bass, Colin Stranahan on drums, Lars Dietrich on alto saxophone and Samir Zarif on tenor saxophone, with special guest vocalist Peter Eldridge.