Maxwell Brown, violin

Meet Maxwell

Max performs on Show 456.

Maxwell Brown (violin), 13, hails from Wilmington, Delaware. He is a student at Juilliard’s Pre-College where he studies with Catherine Cho. He additionally studies with Li Lin, and Itzhak Perlman through the Perlman Music Program. His other primary teachers and mentors include Brian Lewis, Timothy Schwarz, and Shelley Beard Santore. Max has been honored to perform as a soloist- with orchestras including the Ambler Symphony, Carolina Philharmonic, Chicago Arts, Delaware Youth Symphony, Midwest Young Artists Conservatory, Old York Road Symphony, Rowan Strings Ensemble, and Warminster Symphony; as part of the Delaware County Symphony Chamber Series; at Carnegie Hall, Juilliard’s Paul Hall, Royal Albert Hall, and the Kimmel Center, and at institutes including Heifetz, the Calidore String Quartet Seminar, Ithaca College’s Preludio Program, Northwestern University’s Bienen Institute, and the Perlman Summer Music School.

Max has been the Overall Winner of the Walgreens National Concerto Competition Junior Open Division, second place winner of the International Lowell Chamber Orchestra Concerto Competition, and a semifinalist for the International Young Artists Concerto Competition. He has won the MTNA junior division for his state, the Ambler Symphony Menges Award, the Old York Road Young Artists Competition, the Warminster Concerto Competition Children’s Division, and the Delaware Youth Symphony Orchestra Concerto Competition. For his age group, he has won the Delaware Youth Concerto Competition, as well as the Camerata, Irvine Conservatory, and Long Island Conservatory of Music competitions, among many others. He has been honored to twice receive the top Coastal Concerts scholarship and the Frankel and Glotzer awards, and to be the student performer for the 2023 ASTA Board Meeting. He was thrilled to be selected as one of 12 student artists for Juilliard’s 2023 Starling-DeLay Symposium.

An avid fiddler, Max has won numerous youth and adult contests, and is a two-time youth champion of the world’s oldest and largest fiddlers convention at Galax, VA, where also he has placed 2nd in the adult contest. His fiddle teachers have included Andrew Vogts and Bruce Molsky, and he has received masterclass instruction from Darol Anger. Max also has studied guitar with Christopher Braddock and Mark Unruh and was named the 2021 Maryland State Flatpicking Guitar Champion. Max has shared the stage with renowned artists including Del McCoury and David Grisman, Alasdair Fraser and Natalie Haas, Jay Ungar and Molly Mason, Mark Schatz and Bryan McDowell, The Ragged Edge, The New Ballard’s Branch Bogtrotters, Trout Fishing in America, the Steep Canyon Rangers, and The Beach Boys.

Max is passionate about supporting other young musicians including by volunteering with the MELODY program and coaching his little sister, River. When he’s not making music, Max can be found reading, drawing cartoons, horseback riding, playing soccer, and spending time with his family and friends.

For more about Max, visit www.swellstrings.com and www.youtube.com/@Swellstrings