Maureen is a former student of the world-renowned bassist, Rodney Whitaker and a graduate of Michigan State University and Berklee College of Music. She now resides in Spain teaching at Berklee College of Music in Valencia and at Escuela de Musica Creative in Madrid while actively performing with her quartet throughout Europe and Asia.
The tour follows on the heels of the 2015 release of their critically acclaimed CD, Ida y Vuelta (“Go and Return” in Spanish) with the collaboration of Spanish musicians Pepe Rivero and Javier Colina, among others.
Ida y Vuelta follows the musical traditions and folkloric songs of Spain, Cuba and South America using the language of jazz and improvisation. Maureen is actually one of the few violinists in the world whose compositions blend an element of classical music with jazz improvisation and Latin rhythms, creating a new genre she calls “Spanish Diaspora”. It is an interesting choice of words; “Diaspora” literally means “the dispersion or spread of any people from their original homeland”. The term was coined by Spanish bassist Mario Carrillo, after the quartet returned from a six-month tour of central and South America.