Loren Schoenberg was born in New Jersey in 1958. He entered the Manhattan School of Music as a Music Theory major/piano minor in 1976. In the interim, he had begun playing the tenor saxophone, and throughout his college years, worked in Eddie Durham's quartet. This association led to further associations with such legends as Russell Procope, Al Casey, Harold Ashby, Jo Jones, Sammy Price, Willis Jackson, Jabbo Smith, Eddie Barefield and Panama Francis.

In 1979, Mr. Schoenberg produced a tribute to Charlie Parker and Lester Young at Carnegie Recital Hall that featured Howard McGhee, Eddie Bert, Herb Ellis, Dicky Wells, Joe Albany and Mel Lewis. The next year, Mr. Schoenberg formed his own big band in New York City, and began an association with Benny Goodman, first as an archivist and later as his personal manager. In 1985, Mr. Goodman hired the Schoenberg band to appear with him in the PBS special "Let's Dance". After Mr. Goodman's death in 1986, Mr. Schoenberg first appraised and was then appointed curator of the Goodman Archives at Yale University, where he has produced an ongoing 10-CD release of previously unissued recordings.

Radio has also been a long-time vocation for Loren: He began broadcasting in 1972 on WBAI, and had his own weekly show on WKCR beginning in 1979; in 1984, he became a co-host on WBGO and The Institute of Jazz Studies' "Jazz from The Archives"; and is now a producer of the Duke Ellington Centennial Radio Project, airing this year. In 1988/9, Mr. Schoenberg conducted the West German Radio Orchestra in Cologne in concerts of Ellington, and of Gershwin's Rhapsody In Blue, co-led (with Mel Lewis) an all-star band for Gunther Schuller in Japan, and produced a tribute to Goodman at Carnegie Hall featuring his band with guests George Benson, Lionel Hampton and Joe Newman. In 1985, the Schoenberg band began an association with the New York Swing Dance Society that remains to this day. The band has also appeared at the Village Vanguard, the Blue Note, Michael's Pub and many other venues in and around New York, in addition to a cross-country tour in 1989. Since 1984, Loren has steadily issued a series of challenging and well-received big band albums of his own, including MANHATTAN WORK SONG, which was chosen as one of the outstanding albums of 1994 by the Village Voice. Their sixth album, OUT OF THIS WORLD, has been released internationally by TCB Records.

From 1986-92, Mr. Schoenberg was a member of the American Jazz Orchestra, and was its musical director and conductor for its final two seasons. He has conducted the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, as well as The Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra, of which he has also been a charter member. He was also the musical director for the 1993 International Duke Ellington Conference. In addition to playing and lecturing internationally in the last few years, Mr. Schoenberg has also become a prolific writer (including a recent piece for The New York Times), and was awarded the 1995 Grammy Award for Best Album Notes, along with Dan Morgenstern. He has chapters in The Lester Young Reader, Settin' The Pace: Fifty Years of Great Jazz Liner Notes, and in the upcoming An Oxford Companion To Jazz.

In 1997, Mr. Schoenberg became Bobby Short's musical director, and appears with Mr. Short at the Cafe Carlyle 19 weeks a year. Mr. Schoenberg is currently on the faculty of The New School and the Manhattan School of Music (graduate division), and an artistic consultant to Jazz At Lincoln Center.

In September 1998, Mr. Schoenberg played and spoke at The White House, along with President and Mrs. Clinton, Wynton Marsalis, Marian McPartland, Dr. Billy Taylor, and Dr. David Baker. The event was televised internationally on VH-1.