Max Zorin, violin
Acclaimed by Strad Magazine for his “extremely compelling” interpretations, Max Zorin leads a multifaceted life as a soloist, chamber musician, and educator.
His debut album, "French Touch," clinched a gold medal from the Global Music Awards while Strings Magazine praised his performances as “simply magnificent”.
Looking ahead to 2024, Max Zorin anticipates the release of his new album “Connections”, featuring works by Florence Price, William Grant Still, George Gershwin, and a commissioned piece “Jazz Waltz for violin and piano” composed by Vincent Balse. This recording, funded by a Racial Justice Grant award from the College of Arts and Architecture at Penn State, will be available on major streaming platforms.
Max Zorin performed throughout the United States, South America, Europe, Asia, Israel, Russia and Ukraine. Notable venues include Alice Tully Hall in New York, Tchaikovsky Hall in Moscow, Odessa Opera Theatre, Salle Moliere, Henan Art Center in China. He performed with the Saint Petersburg State Orchestra, Odessa Philharmonic, Orchestre de Chambre de Lyon, Williamsport Symphony, Pennsylvania Chamber Orchestra, San Jose Youth Symphony. Summer festivals appearances include the Granada International Music Festival, Aspen Music Festival, Music Alp, collaborating with distinguished musicians, among them Maxim Vengerov, Itamar Golan, Henry Demarquette, Romano Pallottini, and the Grammy Award-winning Parker Quartet.
A passionate advocate of new music and artistic collaborations both inside and outside the classical realm, Zorin premiered numerous works and shared the stage with genre-bending artists like fusion violinist Didier Lockwood and rock guitarist Rik Emmett. His groundbreaking 2015 music video featuring an original arrangement of "Mack the Knife" for violin and jazz trio earned him the Emerging Artist award, by the Global Music Awards.
“Zorin colors his tone so cleverly that you might not even realize that you are hearing a violin at the beginning. And throughout the suite, this isn’t a classical musician who is pretending to play jazz: This is the real thing.”
Fanfare Magazine (review of Mack The Knife)
A dedicated pedagogue, Max Zorin serves as an associate professor of violin at Penn State University. Sharing his passion for music with aspiring musicians, he regularly conducts masterclasses in prestigious institutions worldwide from London’s Royal Academy of Music to Stolarsky School of Music in Ukraine.
In the summers, Max Zorin returns to France, where he spent his formative years, to serve as the co-artistic director of Rencontres Musicales Internationales des Graves, a summer music festival blending masterclasses, concerts, and wine-tasting, creating a harmonious celebration in the renowned wineries of Bordeaux.
Born in Israel into a family of professional musicians, Max began studying the violin at the age of five with his father, an illustrious violinist from Odessa (Ukraine). Max gave his first public performances when he was eight years old and at 17 won a First Prize at the Corpus Christi International Competition. Aside from his father, his principal teachers included Dorothy De Lay, Naoko Tanaka, Peter Oundjian, Ani Kavafian, Philip Setzer. Max holds degrees from the Juilliard School, Yale University, and a doctorate from Stony Brook University.
Max performs on a violin crafted by J.B. Vuillaume (Paris ~1850) and a bow by Edwin Clement (Paris, 2008).