He is a composer, bassist, percussionist and producer who studied at York University before completing his post-graduate studies in jazz and studio music at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.
As a musician he has been a bass player with Chartwell Dutiro’s band Spirit Talk Mbira and has performed on recordings by artists that include Simon Bookish, Matthew Herbert, Plaid and Dan Siciliano along with several others.
He has also worked as a percussionist and has created some of his own instruments such as Cloud Chamber Bowls and a bass marimba that have been used in his own compositions.
As a composer he has worked in genres that range from classical to jazz to electronic music and has written commissions for the London Symphony Orchestra, the percussionist Joby Burgess, the violinist Kala Ramnath, the tabla player Sanju Sahai and the Elysian String Quartet. He has also participated in the LSO Discovery Panufnik Young Composers Scheme.
Composing for film and television, a small selection of his music for scores includes the 2011 film The Woman in the Fifth, the 2013 short The Beast, the 2018 TV movie saving Planet Earth: Fixing a Hole and the TV series Nova along with many others.
As a recording artist he has released the EPs Stops, which combines the church organ with electronic music, and the EP Classist where he uses the name Max de Mara and collaborated with the singer-songwriter Mara Carlyle. He has also released the 2004 album Where I Am Today, the 2019 album Kolmar and 2020’s Music for Detuned Piano.
Sources:
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_de_Wardener
- https://www.allmusic.com/artist/max-de-wardener-mn0000332482#biography
- https://villagegreenrecordings.co.uk/artists/max-de-wardener
- https://www.nmcrec.co.uk/composers/max-de-wardener#biography
- https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0212344/
- https://www.marmosetmusic.com/artists/max-de-wardener
- https://accidentalrecords.bandcamp.com/album/where-i-am-today
- https://www.discogs.com/artist/128216-Max-de-Wardener