• Leading a versatile career as a soloist, chamber musician and teacher, Max Zorin is a sought-after musician engaging audiences worldwide with a diverse repertoire and style.

As a soloist, Max performed with the Saint Petersburg State Orchestra, Odessa Philharmonic, Williamsport Symphony, Pennsylvania Chamber Orchestra and San Jose Youth Symphony. He appeared throughout the United States, South America, Europe, China, Israel, Russia, and in prestigious venues including Tchaikovsky Hall, Alice Tully Hall and Henan Art Center in China. He also performed at festivals such as Granada International Music Festival, Aspen Music Festival, and collaborated with many of the world’s leading chamber musicians, including Maxim Vengerov, Itamar Golan and the Grammy Award-winning Parker Quartet.

His 2008 debut album “French Touch”, a collection of 20th century French works for violin and piano, won a Gold Medal from the Global Music Awards and was hailed as “simply magnificent” by Strings Magazine.

Driven by an eclectic passion for music that spans beyond the classical realm, Max released a music-video of his own arrangement of the well-loved jazz standard “Mack The Knife”. He also appeared as a guest performer with a wide range of non-classical musicians, including rock guitarist Rik Emmett and jazz violinist Didier Lockwood. 

Max Zorin is associate professor of violin at Penn State University and regularly gives masterclasses at various institutions such as London’s Royal Academy of Music, Tel-Aviv University and University of Taipei. He is also as co-artistic director of Recontres Musicales Internationales des Graves, a summer academy and music/wine-tasting festival in the Bordeaux region of France.

Born in Israel into a Russian family of professional musicians, Max began studying the violin at the age of five with his father and gave his first public performances when he was eight years old. At age 17 he won First Prize at the Corpus Christi International Competition. His principal teachers included Dorothy De Lay, Naoko Tanaka, Peter Ounjian, Ani Kavafian, Philip Setzer; he holds degrees from the Juilliard School, Yale, and Stony Brook University.

Max performs on a violin crafted by J.B. Vuillaume and a bow by Engene Sartory. 

LANGUAGES: Classes are given in English, French and Russian

• Solo double bass of the National Orchestra of Bordeaux Aquitaine
• Professor at the Pôle d’Enseignement Supérieur Musique et Danse Bordeaux Aquitaine

After her musical studies at the CNR of Cergy-Pontoise, Esther Brayer joined the CNSM of Paris (class of J.M. Rollez and J.P. Celea) and obtained her Master’s degree with unanimous approval and congratulations, as well as a distinction in chamber music training (class of C. Ivaldi). She diversified and continued her training by participating in orchestral academies (O.F.J. ), academies of the XXth century, of Attergau with the philharmonic of Vienna), and works with B. Cazauran, T. Martin, G. Ettore, W. Guttler, T. Barbé, A.G.y Araque….

An eclectic artist, she has formed a double bass quartet, “S grave”, is part of a baroque ensemble Pasticcio Barocco with David Walter (3 CDs recorded by the Hérisson label), will be a soloist with the Orchestre des Siècles for 4 years (on period instruments), and then a soloist with the Paris Mozart Orchestra (under the direction of Claire Gibaut), with whom she will be involved in awareness-raising activities for young audiences, supported by the Philharmonie de Paris. At the same time, after having obtained her DE and then her CA at a very young age, she taught for 13 years at the CRR of Cergy Pontoise and participated in numerous workshops and academies.

In chamber music she performed with A. Meunier, R. Pidgeon, and others. Meunier, R. Pidoux, T. Zimmerman, J.G. Queyras, N. Dautricourt, the quintet Moragues, j.M. Luisada and many others during various concerts and festivals, with the Concerts de Poche, La Chambre d’Amis, the Festiv’Académies… She is also regularly solicited by the most beautiful French orchestral formations (the Orchestre de Paris, the Opera Bastille, the Ensemble Orchestral de Paris, the ONPL, the Orchestre du Capitole, the Orchestre de Lille, etc…)

Previously titular of the Orchestra of the Republican Guard, she is, since 2015, Double Bass Solo of the National Orchestra of Bordeaux Aquitaine and teacher at the Pole of Higher Education Music and Dance Bordeaux Aquitaine.

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LANGUAGES: Classes are given in French and English