Her works have been performed in unique venues, including the United States Capitol, Hearst Castle Private Theatre,[15] the Washington State Capitol Building Rotunda, the National Archives Building, the Kennedy Center, and the Marine Barracks, Washington, D.C.. Newman and her husband, Scott Hosfeld, the founding conductor and music director of the Malibu Coast Chamber Orchestra, currently live in Malibu, California.

Maria is the youngest child of Martha Louis Montgomery (born December 5, 1920, in Clarksdale, Mississippi; died May 9, 2005, in Pacific Palisades, California), a former John Robert Powers model, actress, benefactor, and Goldwyn Girl, and nine-time Academy Award-winning film composer Alfred Newman.

As a violinist who performs and records around the world, Maria Newman initially began her professional composition career using a pseudonym.

My famous family's film musician genealogy also led me to believe that I would not be accepted, much less respected, in the concert music world as a serious composer.

Although she studied composition briefly with Martin Bresnick at Yale University, she earned both her BM and MM in violin performance.

[21] A bold and versatile performer, Newman’s interpretations of both her own works and traditional masterworks are regularly featured in concert halls and heard on radio broadcasts and television worldwide.

As a violinist, violist, and pianist, Maria Newman has performed globally as a soloist, recitalist, and a member of the Malibu Coast String Quartet and the Viklarbo Chamber Ensemble.

[19] As a concert soloist, Newman has premiered many new works for violin and viola, including several of her own compositions, in the United States and Europe.

Newman also performed the unofficial premiere of Rózsa's unpublished first Violin Concerto and made the first recording of his late Introduction and Allegro for Solo Viola.

Newman has collaborated as a soloist with celebrities such as Pierce Brosnan, Billy Crystal, Paul Reiser, and Daniel Stern.

[22] Newman has been commissioned to score revisions of vintage silent films by various organizations, including the Annenberg Foundation, the Mary Pickford Foundation, the Viklarbo Chamber Ensemble, the Malibu Friends of Music,[23] Timeline Films, the Luther College Dorian Festival, the Omaha Conservatory of Music, Icicle Creek Music Center, Central Washington University, the family of Mary Lofdahl, Milestone Films, A&F Productions, the Sierra Festival Symphony, Grand Performances Los Angeles, and Turner Classic Movies.

Wonder of the Words Festival (wonderofwordsfest.com), The Kate Shelley Story – featuring Marian Newman's original music, based on the story written by Mary Kay Shanley..."is the story of a young Iowa girl that has captured the attention of Iowans for decades..."The live mixed-media performance will showcase an original narrate and retelling of The Kate Shelley Story penned by best-selling author Mary Kay Shanley; an original musical score written and conducted by award-winning composer and virtuosic violinist Maria Newman, and the highly acclaimed federated actress with the Repertory Theatre of Iowa Allisa Schetter-Siedschlaw will play the role of Kate.

[27] August 12, 2009: "Winston's family has donated the film projection equipment for the screening of The Terminator and for future Malibu Film Society screenings, which include a fully restored Blu-ray print of 1948 Academy Award winner The Red Shoes; Woody Allen's Oscar-winner Annie Hall; last year's Waltz with Bashir, the Israeli animated documentary about the 1982 Lebanon War; and the 1919 silent film, Daddy-Long-Legs, starring Mary Pickford, which will feature a chamber orchestra conducted by Maria Newman.

"[28] Newman presents masterclasses,[29] coaches student performances of her original compositions and others,[30] and lectures at universities and various arts organizations nationwide.