Mary Knapp is a musician, storyteller and educator based in Brooklyn. She is currently writing and developing"Play, Yvette," a dark comedy musical celebrating the convergence of accordion, house music and fashion. Mary is co-member of avant punk band Death Sneeze and in April 2022 traveled to Santo Domingo, DR to record its debut album with co-producer Lily Wen. She is also founder of family music project, The Nightingale Fam, bringing her programming to NYC public libraries, daycares and her home studio. Mary made her 2016 Broadway debut in Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812 and has enjoyed collaborating with up and coming theater makers such as Jaime Lozano and Whitney White. In 2013 she began her first band, Toot Sweet - releasing three albums, the beginning of a web series, and performing over the course of 7 years at Brooklyn DIY spots, lower east side shells of themselves, Gracie Mansion, Bryant Park Accordion Festival and the Southern US. Between 2015 and 2018 Mary toured South and Central America as accordionist and backing vocalist for Dominican artist Irka Mateo.
Mary has made several TV appearances including the role of Neve in Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll on FX, a singer-accordionist role on Steve Buscemi's Park Bench series on AOL and with the cast of The Great Comet at the 71st Annual Tony Awards. Mary is a regular contributor to Dr. William Schimmel's annual Accordion Seminars and has performed extensively in New York City and the surrounding area with traditional Colombian dance band, Cumbia River Band.
Mary graduated from Bard College with a B.A. in voice and piano. The seed for her band, Toot Sweet, germinated with her second senior thesis concert, a cabaret show in which she arranged and performed early 20th century French and German repertoire for 8-piece ensemble with original monologues. Mary grew up in Princeton, New Jersey.