BIO
MONICA SHRIVER is a Nashville-based saxophonist, composer, bandleader, educator, visual artist, writer, and co-founder of Brave Musician®. The Monica Shriver Quartet (MSQ) is an experimental jazz ensemble led by Monica Shriver, featuring original compositions, arranged standards, and spontaneous improvisations. Collaboration, intention, trust, and connection are key elements as the ensemble draws heavily on experimental and improvisatory musical forms and settings, taking much inspiration from the work of groundbreaking artists such as Ornette Coleman, Alice Coltrane, Pharoah Sanders, and John Coltrane.
She is dedicated to exploring the connections between composition, improvisation, visual art, and writing in compelling and innovative ways. Shriver’s artistic expression embraces imagination, vulnerability, generosity, collaboration, storytelling, reciprocity, and is deeply inspired by individual and collective human experiences. Her intensity, creativity, and openness is evident in the music she writes, the art she creates, and the authenticity she shows as a performer. Monica’s musical expression is full of intense joy, love, adventure, humor, loss, and deep sensitivity.
Monica’s compositions consist of material that is designed to be a jumping-off point for free improvisation sections, where the ensemble has the opportunity to instantly co-compose together. Chords, melodies, rhythms, grooves, forms, etc. are all created (or destroyed) in the moment, and are malleable based off of what is happening musically. Each member of the ensemble has agency and choice, co-creating an intuitive and vulnerable musical space that encourages and requires spontaneous decision-making, awareness, emotionality, deep musical understanding and a willingness to express as a group and as an individual.
Monica’s love of improvisation and experimentation is evident in her visual art as well, as she uses colors and textures to create captivating and engaging abstract art pieces on canvas, wood, and paper.
The Monica Shriver Quartet has released two albums, ‘Acceptance’ (2023) and ‘Unfolding’ (2024). Acceptance features her original compositions plus arrangements of “Lonely Woman” (Ornette Coleman) and “Love is Everywhere” (Pharoah Sanders) and was nominated for "Best Jazz Album" by NIMA (National Industry Music Awards). Unfolding 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 2025 Jazz Road Creative Residency recipient, 2025 New Music USA Creator Fund Awardee, Chamber Music America 2023 Performance Plus Grantee (funded through the generosity of the Doris Duke Foundation) and a Spring 2023 South Arts Jazz Road Artist (funded by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation with additional support from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.).