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, feelings, and the stories attached to them, are the central inspirations depicted in all of her creative work. Shriver is dedicated to exploring the connections between composition, improvisation, and life. Her intensity and honesty is evident, as she writes and performs her music with maturity and depth. Monica’s musical expression is full of intense joy, love, adventure, humor, pain, healing, and vulnerability.  

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