Monica Shriver

Monica Shriver is a Nashville-based saxophonist, composer, visual artist, and co-founder of Brave Musician®. Her artistic expression embraces vulnerability, collaboration, connection, and is deeply inspired by the vast and complex experiences of being a human. Monica leads an experimental jazz ensemble that pulls from a wide range of material including modern arrangements of music by artists like Ornette Coleman, Pharoah Sanders, and Alice Coltrane, original compositions, and spontaneous full-group improvisations. 

For Monica, the power of telling our stories is the central inspiration depicted in all of her creative work. Shriver is dedicated to exploring the connections between composition, improvisation, visual art, writing (poetry and memoir) and how each of these involve memory, imagination, expression and feelings about the past and present.  Shriver’s artistic expression embraces vulnerability, collaboration, honesty, and connection, and is deeply inspired by the shared human experience of “trying to figure out this thing called life”. Her intensity and honesty is evident, from the music she writes and the authenticity she’s willing to show as a performer. Monica’s musical expression is full of intense joy, love, adventure, humor, emotional processing, and deep feelings. 

Monica released her first album, Acceptance, in July 2023 which features her original compositions plus arrangements of “Lonely Woman” (Ornette Coleman) and “Love is Everywhere” (Pharoah Sanders). Monica's second album, Unfolding, was released on April 30, 2024 and features her original compositions as well as original composition by bandmates Matt Endahl and Rahsaan Barber, and arrangements of "Blue Nile" (Alice Coltrane), "Spank" (Cindy Blackman-Santana, and "Nature Boy" (Eden Ahbez). Both albums feature Monica's original abstract paintings as the cover art. The Monica Shriver Quartet performed as a featured ensemble at the Alabama Women in Jazz Festival in 2023 and continues to perform at venues throughout the country. 

Monica is a Chamber Music America 2023 Performance Plus Grantee and a Spring 2023 South Arts Jazz Road Artist.