Maxim Eshkenazy Biography www.eshkenazy.com
Talented and engaging", "charismatic and exciting", "energetic and intelligent", "conductor who
orchestrates with complete confidence and attention" - these are some of the superlatives used by
the press to describe Maxim Eshkenazy. Defined as a rising star in the contemporary generation
of young conductors, he himself mainly desires to bring more audience to the music halls and
promote the values of classical music.
Maxim Eshkenazy was born in Sofia in the family of musicians. He started playing the violin at
an early age and graduated from the National Music School "L. Pipkov" and the National Music
Academy "Pancho Vladigerov" in Sofia. After winning a scholarship, he continued his education
at the University of Southern California-Los Angeles where he completed two master's degrees violin and orchestra conducting. He studied conducting with Hans Bauer, Sergio Comissione,
and in the Pierre Monteux school in Maine. He has also attended numerous master classes and
worked with world famous conductors such as Pierre Boulez, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Zubin Mehta,
Kent Nagano, Michael Tilson-Thomas. In the summer of 2000, Maxim Eshkenazy was awarded
fellowship in the American Academy of Conducting at the Aspen Music Festival.
Maxim Eshkenazy lives in Los Angeles and spends a lot of his
time working with young musicians. Deeply attached to teaching,
he leads several youth orchestras in Southern California with the
purpose of enabling young people to gain orchestral experience
and savour the unique feeling of orchestral music making. Maxim
Eshkenazy works at the Colburn School of Performing Arts,
where he is currently music director, conductor of the Chamber
Orchestra, and conductor of the symphony orchestra as well as
assistant conductor of the Colburn Conservatory Orchestra. Under his leadership, in September
2010 the Colburn Orchestra performed a series of concerts during a tour in his native Bulgaria.
Maxim Eshkenazy is also music director and conductor of the Youth Symphony Orchestra of
Bakersfield, which in 2011 carried out an extremely successful tour in South Korea, as well as
music director of the Irvine Classical Players Orchestra & Seraphim Symphony, which in 2012
performed a concert tour in the UK - London, Edinburgh, Bristol and Oxford. He was also guest
- conductor of the West Symphony, guest - conductor of the Symphony Orchestra of Huntsville,
Alabama and Sibelius orchestra. In 2012 he conducted the National Symphony Orchestra of
Costa Rica.
Maxim Eshkenazy was music director of the Youth Symphony
Orchestra and Pasadena Chamber Orchestra "Music of Changes".
He was also assistant conductor of the American Youth
Symphony Orchestra and Chamber Orchestra "Zipper". From
2008 to 2013 he was music director of the Youth Orchestra
"Pacific Symphony", which in 2011 performed a concert tour in
Bulgaria’s biggest cities - Sofia, Varna and Plovdiv - that was
filmed by PBS. Five years under the leadership of Mr.
Eshkenazy, the orchestra managed to rise its artistic level and
enrich its repertoire to the point that in 2012 it won the highly prestigious "Youth Orchestra of
the Year" Award of the Classics Alive Foundation. At the same time he was assistant conductor
of the Symphony Orchestra of the Pacific, where for the period of five years he conducted its
educational concerts and implemented numerous projects and premieres of contemporary works.
Maxim Eshkenazy has a special relation to contemporary music. As music director of the
Chamber Orchestra "Music of Changes", he was involved in many performances and premieres
of contemporary works. He regularly included in the program works by contemporary composers
such as George Andreev, Jim Self, Steve Miller, James Taylor, Sandor faithful and others.
He paid meticulous attention to the premiere of American and
Bulgarian works coming from different genres- from music based
on themes from Bulgarian folklore to modern interpretations of
classic works, ethno jazz and film music. As conductor of the
Pacific Symphony, Maxim Eshkenazy made memorable
performances across genres too, including the Nutcracker,
Tchaikovsky Spectacular, Cirque de la Symphonie, the project
"Dvorak in America."
While Maxim Eshkenazy is committed to conducting, and so far he continues to play the violin,
he is furthermore part of the piano trio "Hermes" that often participates in chamber music
concerts and recordings. Maxim Eshkenazy has worked with artists such as Midori, Pinchas
Zukerman, Shlomo Mintz, Sarah Chang, Joshua Bell, Yo-Yo Ma.
Maestro Eshkenazy divides his time between numerous engagements in the U.S. and Bulgaria.
He is among the most popular guest - conductors of the Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra,
Philharmonic Orchestra of the National Radio, Classic - FM band, symphonic orchestras in
Pleven and orchestras of the opera houses in Stara Zagora, Varna and Burgas.
In 2010, Maxim founded the "Fortissimo Fest" - festival for
classical music, which builds a bridge between the culture of
Bulgaria and the SA to present in an exciting and attractive way
the richness of classical music for the wider audience. Since then,
every year more than 10 000 people get the opportunity to get in
touch with the art of Maxim Eshkenazy at outdoor concerts in the
largest cities of the country. After the extraordinary success of the
festival Maxim Eshkenazy program created the "Fortissimo in
class" program that focuses on bringing professional musicians to 32 schools in the country and
familiarizing children with musical instruments and the gems of classical music. In 2012 Maxim
Eshkenazy launched a new program - "Fortissimo Family", which offers family concerts and
enjoys great popularity. This generous initiative of Maxim Eshkenazy in Bulgaria does not
pursue commercial interests and his charismatic personality is extremely appreciated by the
Bulgarian society - his popularity at home is like the one of a pop
star.
In addition to his temperamental style of conducting, Maxim
Eshkenazy also has numerous extreme hobbies: he dives, jumps,
skydiving, paragliding, has licenses to fly an airplane and
helicopter.
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