Biography
As a recorder player, harpsichordist and increasingly also as a conductor, Max Volbers is one of the most versatile young musicians in the field of early music. Following the sound worlds of the 17th and 18th centuries, in which musicians naturally mastered several instruments, as a multi-instrumentalist he illuminates the repertoire of early music from very different perspectives. He also devotes himself to contemporary music and regularly works with composers on commissioned compositions. He studied at Mozarteum University Salzburg with Dorothee Oberlinger, Walter van Hauwe, Reinhard Goebel and Florian Birsak.
As a prizewinner of the Deutscher Musikwettbewerb, among others, he is a welcome guest at the Verbier Festival, the Heidelberger Frühling, the Sanssouci Music Festival, the Menuhin Festival Gstaad, the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, the Ludwigsburger Schlossfestspiele and the Innsbruck Festwochen der Alten Musik. Based on the deep conviction that early music should not be reserved exclusively for the period instrument scene, he plays with ensembles such as Concerto Köln, Il Pomo d'Oro, La Cetra or the Concentus Musicus Wien as well as with “modern” orchestras such as the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra, the Munich Philharmonic, the NDR Radiophilharmonie or the Musikkollegium Winterthur. He has performed in major concert halls such as the Berlin Philharmonie, the Berlin Konzerthaus, the Elbphilharmonie, the KKL Luzern, the Casa da Musica Porto, the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden, the Konserthuset Stockholm, the Vienna Konzerthaus, the Philharmonie de Paris and the MÜPA Budapest.
In addition to his concert activities, Max teaches at the Mozarteum University Salzburg and at various masterclasses.
He has received great support from the Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben, the Ernsting Foundation and the GWK Münster (Förderpreis Musik 2013 and GWK Cordes Scholarship). After numerous radio productions, his debut CD ‘Whispers of Tradition’ was released by GENUIN in October 2022, which was enthusiastically received by the specialist press. For this CD, he received the OPUS KLASSIK 2023 in the category Young Artist of the Year and the WELT am Sonntag Audience Award.
He has been under contract with Berlin Classics since 2024, and his new album “Foreign Masters” with harpsichordist Alexander von Heißen was released in September that year.