Max Reese

Hailing from Philadelphia, Max Reese is currently an in-demand freelancer and educator in the Chicago area. Reese recently completed a 1 year appointment in the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra as Assistant Principal/2^nd/Eb clarinet. He frequently performs with the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, Milwaukee Symphony, Akron Symphony, and other orchestras throughout the midwest. He has played under the baton of Edo de Waart, JoAnn Falletta, Ken-David Masur, Han Na Chang, Carl St.Clair, Matthias Bamert, Keith Lockhart, Tim Weiss, Marcelo Lehninger, Yaniv Dinur, Cliff Colnot, and many others. While a student at Oberlin, he was selected as a musician for the Oberlin Orchestra’s tour to Carnegie Hall in 2019 under the direction of Raphael Jimenez. He has additionally been a fellow at the Round Top Festival Institute and the Brevard Music Center. As a chamber musician, Reese was engaged to perform the Brahms Clarinet Quintet with the Southeastern Young Artists at the Lake Lanier Music Festival in December 2022. His chamber groups have won Oberlin’s annual Orientation Recital and Oberlin’s Danenberg Honors Recital. Reese’s wind quintet can also be heard on WCLV 104.9, Cleveland’s classical music radio. An advocate for new music, Reese has additionally performed with Rhythm Is Image, and has participated in numerous recording projects for the advancement of new music. Reese is an active educator and has a studio of clarinet students ranging from the ages of 7 to 85. He is a founding teacher at Virtu.Academy, and was a teaching artist at the DePaul Community Music division, where he taught clarinet in school districts throughout the Chicago area. Reese has also taught through the Ravinia Festival’s Reach, Teach, Play program in the Austin neighborhood of Chicago. He completed a master’s degree under the tutelage of Stephen Williamson, principal clarinet of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Prior to that, he received a bachelor’s in music from the Oberlin Conservatory studying with Richard Hawkins, and has additionally studied with Charles Salinger.