Praised for his “superb artistry and beautiful sound”, cellist Max Geissler is currently a Doctoral Candidate at Rice University under the tutelage of Desmond Hoebig. Currently, Max serves as the cellist of the mixed instrumentation new music ensemble Latitude 49 and is a highly sought-after chamber collaborator and educator. Before his studies at Rice, he earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan working with Richard Aaron. As an enthusiastic educator, Max is an in-demand masterclass clinician, having given classes at schools such as SUNY Fredonia, Baylor University, and the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. Max spends his summers on faculty at ENCORE Chamber Music in Cleveland, working closely with aspiring cellists and performing alongside good friends and colleagues.
Max is a passionate advocate of the chamber music literature and takes any opportunity he can to excitedly share it with audiences. He has performed alongside and collaborated with artists such as Jon Kimura Parker, Lynn Harrell, Cho-Liang Lin, Martin Beaver, Margaret Batjer, Brian Connelly, Desmond Hoebig, James Dunham, Timothy Pitts, and Benjamin Kamins. He has also performed regularly as a part of the new music organization MUSIQA in Houston, as well as joined Brian Connelly on his chamber music series, Music in Context. Max is currently the Artistic Director for Kalmia Gardens Chamber Music, a summer chamber festival hosted in a farmhouse in Durham, Connecticut, as well as a regular performer at the Geneva Music Festival. In addition to these festivals, Max has appeared as a Young Artist at La Jolla SummerFest, and performed as a part of the Taipei Music Festival in Taiwan.