At six he began taking cello lessons, and at 12 he received his first significant public recognition when he won a gold medal at the Dandenong Festival in Australia, open to ages twenty-four and under.
[5] Newman has maintained an interest in composition since early childhood, and the bulk of his output has been for chamber music and cello solo.
[4] He has been a featured composer on the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center's "Double Exposure" series and the Chicago Chamber Musicians' "Composer Perspectives" series, and has received commissions from Astral Artists, the Barnett Foundation, the Carpe Diem String Quartet, the Weiss-Kaplan-Newman trio, and the Silo Collective, among others.
His Juxt-Opposition is available on a CD of new American music by the Weiss-Kaplan-Newman trio, alongside those of Paul Schoenfield, Lera Auerbach, and Chen Yi.
In 2007, Newman devised a new method of composing based on the way some types of trees grow new branches using the golden ratio.