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Maud Hixson

Hailed as “gently virtuosic” (All About Jazz), Maud Hixson is a devoted exponent of great songs, ranging from the classic Great American Songbook to the often unsung or forgotten compositions awaiting rediscovery. Based in Saint Paul, Minnesota, Maud made her Guthrie Theater debut in the Noel Coward revue Coward’s Women, also appearing in Park Square Theater’s The Soul of Gershwin. She teamed with Sir Richard Rodney Bennett in 2012 for the long-running Midtown Jazz at Midday concert series at Saint Peter’s and debuted her show Skyscraper Wits in London and New York in 2015. She has made three appearances at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Rose Hall for the New York Cabaret Convention, presented by the Mabel Mercer Foundation. Maud received a Next Step Grant from the McKnight Foundation in 2015 and is the recipient of four Artist Initiative grants from the Minnesota State Arts Board, one of which supported the research for her album comprised of compositions by Broadway composer Michael (Mickey) Leonard. Her newest recording is devoted to the music of her mentor, Sir Richard Rodney Bennett, which earned a 2024 Bistro Award.

Awards

Minnesota State Arts Board Artist Initiative Grants: 2006, 2008, 2017, 2020 Next Step Grant, McKnight Foundation Next Step Grant: 2015


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18
Interview

Maud Hixson: Studying Scores and Moving Forward

Read "Maud Hixson: Studying Scores and Moving Forward" reviewed by David Bittinger


Maud Hixson has built an accomplished career as a performer and recording artist out of unlikely circumstances. She grew up far from the capitals of jazz and vocal music, in the Twin Cities area. Doris Day's performance in the Ruth Etting biopic “Love Me Or Leave Me" served as a primary inspiration for a young Maud to become a performer. In her twenties, waiting tables at a diner, she met another future jazz singer, Nichola Miller. With no glamour and ...

4
Album Review

Maud Hixson: Don't Let A Good Thing Get Away

Read "Don't Let A Good Thing Get Away" reviewed by David Bittinger


This collection of songs by veteran composer Michael Leonard has deep roots but contemporary character. It was laid down in New York's legendary Nola Recording Studio, whose clients have included Duke Ellington and Dizzy Gillespie. The outstanding instrumentalists--cornetist Warren Vache, bassist Steve LaSpina, guitarist Gene Bertoncini, and pianist/arranger Tex Arnold--have worked with such luminaries as Benny Goodman and Stan Getz.In 2008, Twin Cities-based vocalist and music researcher Maud Hixson, working with Arnold, began reviewing the prolific work of ...

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1

Performance / Tour

The Lead Sheet: Twin Cities Live Jazz, April 3-9

The Lead Sheet: Twin Cities Live Jazz, April 3-9

Source: JazzINK by Andrea Canter

Seems that the Star Tribune only intermittently recognizes music beyond Pop these days, but rest assured, jazz is alive and well, if mostly in small venues in the Twin Cities. Intimate spaces have considerable merit for this music! Take this weekend for example — Maud Hixson singing at Parma, Dean Magraw and Steven Hobert dueling at Jazz Central, Mancrush at The Nicollet, Steve Kenny Quartet at the Black Dog, Connie Evingson and Jon Weber at The Jungle, and Easter Brunch/Easter ...

“Maud Hixson is one of the best, most sensitive and creative song stylists to come out of the pages of the Great American Songbook in the last decade. She has taste and sophistication, she is full of surprises, and boy can she sing!” REX REED "Her vocal style is so warm, intimate and compelling–it’s clear that she cares about the words and telling the story, with clarity and without artifice– practically a lost art these days." MICHAEL FEINSTEIN, PIANIST, SINGER, HISTORIAN “Hixson’s slightly gauzy tone and breezy phrasing evoked cool-school singers of the 1950s…there was nothing historic nor nostalgic about Hixson’s manner, her inherent swing sensibility driving the music unstoppably forward…it was the sound of Hixson’s voice and the alacrity of her approach to rhythm that left the deepest impression.” HOWARD REICH, CHICAGO TRIBUNE "Maud knows how to sing to you

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