Maria Schneider opens a week at Birdland on Tuesday, Nov 17

The Maria Schneider Orchestra starts a five-night run at the 44th Street club, and Tuesday's early set is the first chance to catch it.

There's a particular kind of quiet in a 200-seat room just before a big band counts off. On Tuesday, Nov. 17, Birdland gets it at 7 p.m.

Maria Schneider plays Birdland Jazz Club on Tuesday, Nov. 17, opening a run of five dates at the club. The show starts at 7 p.m. Birdland's own listing puts doors at 5:30 p.m., with a second set at 9:30 p.m. and tickets at $45.76 to $56.06 before fees. Tickets are sold through TicketWeb, where the engagement is listed as the Maria Schneider Orchestra.

The run continues through Saturday, Nov. 21, according to the artist's Live Nation page. Tuesday matters because it's the opener: if you want to hear the band before word gets around the week, this is the night.

Schneider is about as local as a working composer gets in this city. In our records she plays Manhattan more than any other market, and she keeps coming back to Birdland. Earlier this year, her own events page billed a Birdland engagement as the official release celebration for her album *American Crow*, with two sets each night. That listing was for a February 2026 run, so it's not a promise about what this week holds, but it shows how she uses the room: as a home base where a new record gets played into shape in front of people who came specifically for it.

If you want to hear the band before word gets around the week, Tuesday is the night.

The room is part of why. Birdland is at 315 West 44th Street, between Eighth and Ninth avenues. The name goes back to the original club, which opened in 1949 at 1678 Broadway near West 52nd Street and was named after Charlie Parker's nickname. That club closed in 1965; the current one moved to 44th Street in the late 1990s (sources split on 1996 or 1997) and has since added the Birdland Theater, a second performance space downstairs. Upstairs is where a full orchestra fits, but at 200 capacity it's still close enough that you can follow individual players through an arrangement.

What to know before going. Two sets means two separate audiences: the 7 p.m. set lets you make a reasonable night of it, and the 9:30 set suits people coming from work or dinner in the Theater District. With doors at 5:30 p.m. for the early show, get there early if you care where you sit; a 200-seat room fills quickly for a five-night engagement like this one. Check the Birdland listing for any food or drink policy before you go, and budget for fees on top of the listed price.

It's also worth reading the ticket listing carefully, since the run spans several nights and two sets. Make sure the date and time on your ticket match the night you meant to pick.

A big band in a jazz club is rarer than it should be in this city, and Schneider's week is one of the few chances to hear it done at this scale. Tuesday is the first, and on paper the easiest, night of the run.

Sources: Maria Schneider Orchestra (Birdland Jazz Club) (birdlandjazz.com); Maria Schneider events (Live Nation) (livenation.com); Upcoming events (Maria Schneider) (mariaschneider.com); Birdland (New York jazz club) (Wikipedia) (en.wikipedia.org); Maria Schneider Orchestra at Birdland Jazz Club (TicketWeb) (ticketweb.com); Maria Schneider at Birdland Jazz Club (JamBase) (jambase.com)