Max Midroit
Fields of Study:
Voice Performance
Pianist Max Midroit's active career as a soloist, chamber musician, and vocal accompanist has led him to perform at many of New York City's most important venues, including Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Merkin Hall, Steinway Hall, and the Museum of Modern Art. He has also appeared at the National Gallery and at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC, Denver's Boettcher Concert Hall, as well as in Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, and his native France.
In collaboration with other artists, he participated in many world premieres, performed for dance for the NYU distinguished choreographers series, the Juilliard Dance Ensemble, the American Repertory Ballet. His expertise as a studio musician led him to work for many years with the NYU Scoring for Film and Multimedia program, performing live music for animation and silent films at the Walter Reade Theater at Lincoln Center and the Museum of Modern Art in NYC as well as at the National Gallery of Washington DC.
As a studio musician, he has recorded for the CRI label as well as for independent film, documentaries, pop music, and animation, such as Academy Award winner John Canemaker's 2019 animation “Hands.”
At home in many styles and mediums, his versatility as a musician has been hailed by critics; the Denver Post noted his "ravishing tone" in a "scintillating" performance of Shostakovich's Second Piano Concerto with the Colorado Symphony, described by NBC's Channel 4 as "on all accounts brilliant," and after his performance of rag-style music by Willie (the Lion) Smith, the New York Times commented that Mr. Midroit "played with ferocious speed and sweetness."
He is fortunate to work for the top vocal studios of NYC, where he has collaborated with many international opera stars as well as Grammy, TONY, and Academy Award winners, including the immense privilege to spend a few months at the piano for Meryl Streep as she prepared for her Academy Award nominated performance as Florence Foster Jenkins.
In 2012, The U.S. government declared Max Midroit an “alien of extraordinary ability in the arts,” granting him U.S. residency. This prestigious achievement, recognized through extensive documentation, is reserved for "the small percentage of artists who have risen to the very top of their field globally and have demonstrated sustained international acclaim." He is a dual citizen France/USA.
Dr. Midroit holds degrees from the Juilliard School, Rice University, and obtained a PhD from New York University, focusing on the analysis of stratification and symmetry in Benjamin Britten's music. He has been on faculty at Queens College (City University of New York), New York University, and at the Usdan Center for the Creative and Performing Arts, and every year is the pianist for the North America auditions for the Royal College of Music of London.