As a recorder player, harpsichordist and increasingly as an ensemble leader, Max Volbers is one of the most versatile young musicians in the field of early music. In the spirit of the sound worlds of the 17th and 18th centuries, in which musicians mastered several instruments without question, he illuminates the repertoire of early music from very different perspectives as a multi-instrumentalist. He also devotes himself time and again to new music and regularly works with composers on commissioned compositions. He studied at the 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 Ludwigsburg Schlossfestspiele and the Innsbrucker Festwochen. Deeply convinced that early music should not be the exclusive preserve of the “original sound movement”, he plays equally with ensembles such as Concerto Köln, La Cetra or the Contentus 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 been a guest in major halls such as the Berlin Philharmonie, the Berlin Konzerthaus, the Elbphilharmonie, the KKL Lucerne, the Casa da Musica Porto, the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden, the Konserthuset Stockholm, the Vienna Konzerthaus, the Philharmonie de Paris or the MÜPA Budapest.
As a conductor, he has worked with orchestras such as the Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra and soloists such as Olivia Vermeulen. In addition to his concert activities, Max teaches at the Mozarteum University Salzburg, the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna and at various master classes.
He received great support from the Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben, the Ernsting foundation and the GWK Münster (music award 2013 and GWKCordes scholarship). After numerous radio productions, his debut CD “Whispers of Tradition” was released by GENUIN in October 2022 and was enthusiastically received by the specialist press. For this CD he received the OPUS KLASSIK 2023 award in the category “Young Artist of the Year”.
