Randy Max joined the Rotterdam Philharmonic as principal timpanist in 1988. Prior to that he was timpanist and percussionist with the Radio City Music Hall Orchestra and The Orchestra of St. Luke’s in New York. He has performed with many ensembles including the Budapest Festival Orchestra, Flemish Radio Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris, Philharmonia Virtuosi, Royal Flemish Philharmonic, St. Louis Symphony, and San Francisco Symphony, and has performed as soloist with the Amsterdam Percussion Group. He spent two summers as timpanist with the National Repertory Orchestra and attended Tanglewood as a timpani/percussion fellow.
Randy has given masterclasses in the United States, South America, and Europe, and co-presented the Roland Kohloff Memorial Masterclass at PASIC 2006. He earned his undergraduate degree at the St. Louis Conservatory, where he studied with Rick Holmes and John Kasica, and received his Master’s Degree from The Juilliard School, where he studied with Roland Kohloff, Buster Bailey, and Walter Rosenberger.
He is the founder of MAXmallets and since 2007 has served as Visiting Professor of Timpani at Trinity College of Music in London. Randy is the author of Orchestral Excerpts for Timpani, with an Audio CD, published by Theodore Presser Company. His arrangements of Schumann, Six Pieces for Pedal Piano, arranged for timpani and piano, are published by Bachovich Music Publications.