Maria Schneider: The star of the show

Maria Schneider has collaborated with Bowie and won a flock of Grammy awards. No wonder her orchestra's visit to Cork is being hailed as a coup for the upcoming jazz festival, writes Philip Watson

Maria Schneider has strong memories of the one and only time she has performed in Ireland. The American bandleader, widely considered to be one of the finest composers in contemporary music, appeared in Dublin with the Brussels Jazz Orchestra in 2001, just days after 9/11. Yet it isn’t just the traumatic events that shattered her adoptive city of New York that she recalls.