BIOGRAPHY

Violinist Max Zorin has built a career that brings the traditional repertoire into conversation with contemporary music, jazz, and other musical traditions. Praised by The Strad for his “extremely compelling” interpretations and by Strings Magazine as “simply magnificent,” he has performed as a soloist and chamber musician throughout the United States, Europe, Asia, and South America.

Zorin has appeared at venues including Tchaikovsky Hall in Moscow, Alice Tully Hall in New York, Salle Molière in Lyon, the Odessa Opera Theatre, and the Henan Art Center in China. He has performed as soloist with orchestras including the Saint Petersburg State Orchestra, Odessa Philharmonic, Orchestre de Chambre de Lyon, Williamsport Symphony, and Pennsylvania Chamber Orchestra. His chamber music collaborators have included Maxim Vengerov, Itamar Golan, Henri Demarquette, Christopher Guzman, Philippe Muller, and the Parker Quartet.

An advocate for expanding the violin repertoire, Zorin has premiered numerous works by contemporary composers and frequently explores connections between classical music and other musical traditions. His music video of Mack the Knife for violin and jazz trio received an Emerging Artist Award from the Global Music Awards. His 2026 album Connections (Navona Records) brings together works by Florence Price, William Grant Still, and George Gershwin with a commissioned Jazz Waltz by French pianist and conductor Vincent Balse.

Zorin is Associate Professor of Violin at Penn State University and has given masterclasses at institutions including the Royal Academy of Music in London, Tel Aviv University, and New York University. He is also Artistic Director of Rencontres Musicales Internationales des Graves, in Bordeaux, France, where he brings together international artists and young musicians for performances and masterclasses in the historic wine estates of the region.

Born in Israel to a family of musicians with roots in Odessa, Ukraine, Zorin moved to France at the age of five. His father, violinist Zacharia Zorin, was among his earliest and most influential teachers. He later studied with Dorothy DeLay, Naoko Tanaka, Zachar Bron, Nelli Shkolnikova, Ani Kavafian, and members of the Tokyo and Emerson String Quartets. At seventeen, Zorin won First Prize at the Corpus Christi International Competition. He holds degrees from The Juilliard School and Yale University and a doctorate from Stony Brook University.

Zorin performs on a J.B. Vuillaume violin made in Paris circa 1850, with a bow by Edwin Clement.