Max Stern

Max Stern He has served on the executive board of the Israel Composers’League (1991-92) and represented Israel’s composers at a number of ISCM Festivals in Oslo, Zurich, Mexico City and Essen. He was selected as their first representative to the Asia Composers League Festival, Manila, Philippines, 1997. He has toured Romania(1993), and South Africa (1994), participated in Festival Horowitz, Castelfranco, Italy(1994), Music Judaica, Prague (1995), and the Festival of the Old Testament, Prague (1996), and given solo contrabass recitals of his compositions in Zurich and Vienna (2000).

Max Stern worked as a free lance musician from 1969-1975, performing contrabass with the Rochester Philharmonic, New Haven Symphony, Bridgeport Symphony, Springfield Symphony Orchestra(principal), Brooklyn Philharmonic, Music for Westchester, National Orchestral Association, Radio City Music Hall, Caramoor Festival, Spoleto Festival, and American Ballet Theatre (principal) performing under Leonard Bernstein, Arthur Fiedler, Walter Hendl, Lazlo Somogy, Jose Iturbi, Lukas Foss , Frank Brief , David Gilbert , Leon Barzin and others.

Simultaneously he was engaged as arranger for the American Ballet Theatre where he was commissioned to write special arrangements for luminaries: Natalia Makarova, Mihail Barishnikov and Gelsey Kirkland. During these years, Stern also taught at the Third Street Music School Settlement on the lower East Side, Wagner College on Staten Island and the Queensboro Community College.

He moved to Israel in 1976 and performed with the Kol Israel Radio - Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra under Lukas Foss, George Singer, Gary Bertini, and Mendi Rodan(1976-78). At the invitation of Mendi Rodan he played with the Israel Sinfonietta Beer Sheva (1979-80).
On a grant from the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture he researched Jewish oriental music and wrote a series of original pieces based on ethnic sources mostly taken from the ethnomusicology collection of Profesor Uri Sharvit, Bar Ilan University(1978-79). From l980-87 he devoted himself to education, creating the concept of instrumental music and publishing a 10 volume Youth Band series of arrangements at Yeshivat B’nai Akiva, Beer-Sheva where he initated and directed a band program for seven years. Simultaneously he served as director of the Conservatory in the development town of Yeroham.
Since 1988 he serves as music critic for “The Jerusalem Post” where he has written numerous articles and reviews.

In 1993 he began an affiliation with Ben-Gurion University of the Negev which has blossomed into an orchestral program, courses, and a music unit within the department of the arts. Recently he joined the faculty of the College of Judea and Samaria.
01maxst@gmail.com

Compositions

TitleCategoriesSerial  
Meditation for saxophone solo Solo, For the Young4897 Click to View Details
Three Lyric Songs without words, for clarinet (or trumpet) and piano Chamber Music / Ensemble150 Details
Trio for clarinet, violoncello (double-bass) and piano (or cembalo) Chamber Music / Ensemble151 Details
Yovel (Jubilee), for symphony orchestra Symphony Orchestra1217  MP3 Details