For musician Sherrie Maricle, her drum set is a real-life metaphor of her career. Playing the drums requires coordinating four limbs at the same time and Sherrie's career synchronizes being a jazz artist, music director, teacher and composer.
From the drum set, Sherrie leads her big band The DIVA Jazz Orchestra and her quintet FIVE PLAY. From Carnegie Hall, she performs with The New York Pops and is also the orchestra's Director of Education. As a music director she works with acclaimed Broadway star Maurice Hines. As a teacher she is on the jazz faculty of The New York State Summer Music Festival and also runs a private drum set and percussion studio. Sherrie is an active clinician for Yamaha Drums, Sabian Cymbals and Vic Firth Drum Sticks and is the creator of The Rhythm, Rhyme and Rap Workshop for children. She is also a busy freelance performer and a published composer/arranger in both the classical and jazz mediums.
With The DIVA Jazz Orchestra and FIVE PLAY she has performed at many of the world's most acclaimed music venues, including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Tanglewood, Kennedy Center, Hollywood Bowl, Symphony Halls in Philadelphia, Cleveland and Saint Louis, SS Norway and QE2 Jazz Cruises. She has also played at jazz festivals throughout the United States and abroad, including Croatia, Colombia, Finland, Germany, Italy, England, Holland, Ireland, Spain, Portugal, France and Switzerland.
DIVA has been featured on CBS Sunday Morning with Charles Osgood, CNN Arts Break and was highlighted on The 25th Anniversary of the Kennedy Center television special and the NHK (Japan) Network's New York Jazz. With The New York Pops, Sherrie often travels overseas to countries such as Japan and Korea.
As a composer, performer and educator, Sherrie has received several honors which include: winning slots for DIVA and herself in DownBeat's annual Reader's Poll, a feature story in Modern Drummer magazine (for which she also authored several articles), a tour grant for DIVA from Arts International, The Kennedy Center Alliance Award for Outstanding Achievements in the Arts, a grant from Meet the Composer, a Doctoral Fellowship from New York University and New York University Music Teacher of the Year awards in both 1997 and 2000.
Additionally, FIVE PLAY's premier recording "On the Brink" was voted the #1 album of 1999 by Nat Hentoff in Jazz Times magazine.
Sherrie was born in Buffalo, New York and at age 5 moved to Endicott, New York. In fourth grade she began studying the clarinet and cello but switched to snare drum in sixth grade. When Sherrie was 11, she heard a concert by Buddy Rich and his Killer Force Orchestra that ignited her passion for the drums, big bands and jazz, and started her on her life's path.
While she was an undergraduate at Binghamton University, she began playing professionally in a wide variety of musical situations. After earning her Bachelor of Arts degree in 1985, she moved to New York City and attended New York University where she completed a Master's of Arts in Jazz Performance in 1986 and a Doctorate of Philosophy in Jazz Performance/Composition in 2000.
The DIVA Jazz Orchestra's most recent recordings are T.N.T. - a Tommy Newsom Tribute (2005) and Blues in the Night (with vocalist Ann Hampton Callaway, 2006). Other DIVA recordings include Live in Concert (2003); I believe in you (1998); Leave it to DIVA (1997) and Something's Coming (1995). Another recording, Live at Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola from Jazz at Lincoln Center, is scheduled for release in early 2008. FIVE PLAY'S most recent album, A Jazzy Way, features Portuguese vocalist Maria Anadon. Other FIVE PLAY CDs include PLUS and On the Brink. Another recording is scheduled for release in early 2008.
Some of Sherrie's additional recording credits include The Time Being; Cookin' on All Burners; Dedication; Sherrie Maricle and Friends "LIVE"; and numerous compact discs with The New York Pops.
"Everyday I get to do what I love and everyday I am very grateful."
