Max Grafe

Biography

Max Grafe writes music characterized by “jagged declamations and muffled filigree” (Gramophone) with the aim of striking a distinctive balance between the stylistic immediacy of modernism and the dramatic power of romanticism. Grafe’s music has been performed by a wide range of prominent and emerging ensembles—including the New York Philharmonic, the New York New Music Ensemble, Quince Ensemble, ensembleNEWSRQ, and Duo Entre-Nous—and has been featured at numerous music festivals across the country, including the Tanglewood Music Center, the Resonant Bodies Festival, and the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival. Grafe is a founding member of the New York composer collective ICEBERG New Music and a regular faculty member at ICEBERG's summer composition institute. Grafe’s music appears on commercial recordings by the New York Philharmonic, harpist Emily Levin, and pianists Mika Sasaki and Jenny Lin, and has received recognition from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Tanglewood Music Center, the American Composers Orchestra, BMI, and ASCAP. Grafe has been a member of the music faculties at Hofstra University, the Juilliard School, and the Kaufman Music Center, and holds degrees from the Juilliard School and Indiana University.

Research

Music composition, orchestration, and theory