As “king of quirk” (Far Out magazine) Jeff Goldblum has “built an acting career on oddity” (New York Times), known for his eccentric characters in The Fly, Jurassic Park, Independence Day, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, Portlandia, and the Wicked movies, it tracks that his parallel music career—including more than 30 years as a gigging jazz pianist—should incorporate that “loopy charm” (New York Post). Case in point: consider the name "with absurdist flair” (Jazz Times) he chose for the band with which he tours and has released four recordings, including guest artists such as Gregory Porter, Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande, Charlie Puth, Fiona Apple, and Kelly Clarkson. It’s called the Mildred Snitzer Orchestra, but when you see the band perform as headliner of the ARTS by George! event at the Center for the Arts on Oct. 3, none of the musicians onstage go by—or have ever gone by—that name. So who is Mildred Snitzer?
Goldblum explained in a Soundcheck podcast interview that the real Mildred Snitzer was a friend of his parents in a suburb of Pittsburgh, where he grew up. “She was very nice, lived to be over 100. She had a very steady, conscientious exercise regime. But one time we were playing the Playboy Jazz Festival some years ago and for the first time… they said ‘What do you call yourselves?’ So I just made that up.”
In a 2001 interview with the Silicon Valley Historical Society, Snitzer confirmed that she had known Jeff Goldblum when he was 12 years old, played bridge with his mother and father, and that his father was her doctor. “When my husband passed away, his mother invited me for dinner every Tuesday night, which was very nice. I got to know the children.”
When Goldblum was around 19 and seeking to get into show business, he connected with Snitzer's brother-in-law, “one of the old-time talent agents,” who encouraged the young actor to move to New York and get his feet wet, where he was ultimately discovered and landed in Hollywood. “I think that that’s why he thought of my name," Snitzer reasoned. "Because I hadn’t seen him for 25 years or so.”
Upon hearing Goldblum had named his ensemble the Mildred Snitzer Orchestra, she humbly assumed it referred to someone other than her. “I said, that’s another person. Jeff would never think of me. Well then, there was a little blurb in the Mercury News about it was Mildred Snitzer, and she had lived in Pittsburgh. I said, my God, that must be me. And here it was.”
In a 2025 Jazz Times article, Goldblum mentioned that he was delighted decades later to actually encounter Snitzer at a California gig: “We were playing one night, and somebody said, ‘Hey, guess who’s here?’ It was Mildred Snitzer. She came in during the middle of a song, and she was wearing a sequined gown of some kind, dancing around. It was fantastic seeing her. The spirit of longevity and playfulness is not a bad model.”
Indeed, Snitzer’s charming playfulness figures prominently in her 2011 obituary in the San Mateo (CA) Daily Journal, which notes that she died at “103 3/4 years old” and highlights her favorite expression: "If you don’t keep moving, they’ll plant you.”
Discussing the band moniker’s origin with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, Goldblum noted that the ensemble has even featured Snitzer on merchandise, including T-shirts with her face on the front. Amanpour aptly summed it up: “It sounds completely mad, but it works.”
The spirit of longevity and playfulness is not a bad model.”
—Jeff Goldblum
