Maria Neckam - vocalist

Maria Neckam (b. 1979, Vienna, Austria) is a singer and songwriter from Austria who has also lived in the Netherlands. When Maria moved to New York in 2005, she hit the music scene like lightning. Since then she has been working as one of the most innovative musicians on the scene. Her compositions are as diverse as life's surprises, combining elements of Rock, Drum 'n' Bass and Modern Jazz as well as Indian and Western Classical music. Maria often tours the United States and Europe from her home base in Brooklyn. Maria's voice is one of those you either love or hate, and so is her music. Uncompromising in her musical approach as well as performance she hits truth right at it's core and strikes a chord in you. Her clear, airy sound has been compared to that of angels as well as wind instruments, the latter referring to her use of it as well - Maria sings like an instrumentalist plays. This is also reflected in her use of lyrics, as she states her point in an abstract way, making space for everyone's own story in hers. Her compositions are as diverse as life's surprises, merging modern Jazz with Drum N'Bass and Rock grooves as well as Indian and Classical music. You can hear Stravinsky as well as Björk in it, Billie Holiday and Debussy, Nikhil Banerjee and Ani DiFranco, ... but most of all, Maria Neckam. A native of Austria, Maria now lives in Brooklyn. She has been performing and recording internationally throughout the past ten years, in countless settings and styles. Her TripHop band Mia Thought And Something Happened (mtash) has won numerous competitions and awards and toured through Europe several times, as well as her first Jazz project Maryland, with which she released her debut album Crossing and Blending. Maria has appeared with groups such as The Mahavishnu Project, Lars Dietrich Group, Donald Vega Quartet, Will Vinson Group and internationally renowned musicians including Jeff Ballerd, Lewis Nash, Aaron Parks, Peter Eldridge (New York Voices), Aaron Goldberg, David Binney, Dan Weiss, Thomas Morgan, Jon Cowherd, Miles Okazaki, Lage Lund, Sam Barsh, Mike Moreno, Jonathan Kreisberg, Adam Holzman, Mark Guiliana, Niti Ranjan Biswas etc. To date, she has developed and refined her very own style of singing and composing music that runs like a bright and vivid thread through her different bands and projects.