British-Austrian composer Noah Max’s output spans opera, orchestral and chamber music. His works have been performed at the Royal Festival Hall, Wigmore Hall and the Royal Albert Hall’s Elgar Room in London, as well as Vienna’s Musikverein, Altalena Festival in Budapest, Uilenburgersjoel Synagogue in Amsterdam and the Paderewski Academy in Poland. His string trio Sojourn won the 2021 Clements Prize and was performed by members of the Piatti Quartet at Conway Hall.

As Composer-in-Residence at Thaxted Festival from 2023 – 2024, Max saw his String Quartet No.2 premiered by the Tippett Quartet in July 2023. The festival subsequently commissioned Symphony No.1, which premiered with London Mozart Players in June 2024, followed by the Echo Ensemble performing Max’s Phantasy Quintet later that month. Other highlights of the 2023/24 season included Max’s song cycle Rapture, based on the 2005 poetry collection by Carol Ann Duffy, which premiered at Wild Arts’ Summer Opera Festival, in partnership with the Essex Book Festival. Max also conducted his new Cello Concerto AXIOM with Robert Max and Echo Ensemble as part of Proms at St. Jude’s. For his upcoming projects, Max is collaborating with artists such as Ian Bostridge, Jeremy Huw Williams, Alexandra Balog and Imogen Whitehead.

Max spent five years bringing his debut opera A Child In Striped Pyjamas to the stage by special arrangement with Miramax, culminating in a sold-out premiere production at London’s Cockpit Theatre in January 2023. The opera was lauded by critics as ​“emotionally ambitious and vocally eloquent” (The Telegraph) and ​“marvellously scored… A remarkable achievement for a young composer” (The Arts Desk). Max was interviewed about the opera by The Sunday Times and BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, with excerpts from the piece also broadcast on RTÉ Radio. The opera was revived at Brundibár Arts Festival in January 2024 for Holocaust Memorial Day. 

Max’s debut album Songs of Loneliness was released on Toccata Classics in 2022. His String Quartets No.1 – 4 with the Tippet Quartet will be released in late 2024, featuring narration from Sir Michael Morpurgo.

With a creative life that embraces music, painting, poetry and cinema, Max enjoys illuminating the relationships between different mediums. As a conductor, he has assisted Jonathan Cohen and Arcangelo at the BBC Proms and conducted Endymion at Wigmore Hall. Max’s artworks have been displayed at the National Portrait Gallery. His columns have been printed in The Irish Times, The Strad and The Jewish Chronicle; he has contributed to BBC Music Magazine and has been interviewed for Classical Music, Opera Today and BBC Radio 3’s In Tune.

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