Conducting Masterclass, by Robert Max
Are you a performing musician in Oxfordshire at university, college orsixth-form level? Would you like to apply for this opportunity to develop orimprove your conducting skills?
Conducting Masterclass
The orchestra is hosting a conducting masterclass with our conductor, Robert Max, in Oxford on the evening of Tuesday 3rd December 2024. Please see this PDF for more details, and how to apply.
Robert Max
Conductor, solo and chamber cellist, teacher — in an exceedingly busy career Robert Max has filled all these roles, travelling widely on four continents. As a conductor, Robert directed the symphony orchestra at Royal Holloway, University of London, for over a decade and has conducted the Covent Garden Chamber Orchestra and the Marryat Players – a chamber orchestra for young musicians – on many occasions. He made regular visits to Romania to conduct the Arad and Oradea Filharmonic Orchestras and, following three annual visits to Tambov in Russia during the early 2000s to conduct, give recitals and direct chamber-music academies, he was made an Honorary Professor of the Rachmaninov Institute, one of the oldest conservatories in the country. Other orchestras he has conducted include the BBC Concert Orchestra, the Oxford Sinfonia, the Kazakh State Symphony Orchestra, the London International Orchestra and the London Chamber Orchestra. Robert was appointed as Conductor of the North London Symphony Orchestra in 2017.
Robert is currently in his fifteenth season as musical director of the Oxford Symphony Orchestra, whose adventurous programmes under his baton have ranged from Berlioz to Prokofiev and Britten and included such challenging works as Strauss’s Also Sprach Zarathustra, Britten’s Cello Symphony, Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring and Mahler’s 2nd, 4th, 5th and 7th Symphonies.
Among his activities as a solo and chamber cellist, Robert has performed concertos with
the Arad Philharmonic, London Mozart Players, English Sinfonia and the Kazakh State Symphony Orchestra
and has taken part in festivals in India, Canada and Hong Kong.
For more than thirty years he has been a member of the Barbican Piano Trio,
with which he has made recordings for ASV, Black Box, Guild Music and Dutton and he is
principal cellist of the London Chamber Orchestra.
He coaches chamber musicians at MusicWorks,
which organises unique chamber music courses for talented young string players and pianists,
and has taught the cello at the Junior department of the Royal Academy of Music for twenty-five years.
In addition to his work as a performer, Robert is a member of the International Board of Governors
of the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance, President of the North London Music Festival and Artistic Director
of the Frinton Festival.
This year and next Robert is performing Bach’s six suites for solo cello throughout the UK including
in Oxford where he played at St. John the Evangelist.
Robert has recorded the suites for release by Guild Music in 2020.
