Max Stern (DMA ’89)

Stern—composer, performer, conductor, musicologist and educator—pioneers biblical compositions blending contemporary idioms and genres. The Israel Music Institute released his “Retrospective” recording. Stern’s publication—“The Speech of the Angels: Thoughts on the Theory of Music A Philosophical Perspective”—explores the meaning of the Theory of Music from a humanistic perspective. 

Stern’s book—“The Art of the Music Critic”—has been published by Nova Academic Publishers. “It’s based on my reviews as music critic for The Jerusalem Post from 1988-2020," says Stern. “If it were not for my studies at the CU Boulder College of Music, this book would never have been written. It was the coursework I did in American Music with Professor William Kearns—and the academic papers under Professor Karl Kroeger and Professor Richard Toensing—that gave me the skill and background in writing, critical thinking and evaluation to become a music critic.”

Additionally, Stern’s “Biblical Wellsprings”—his 21st CD—features works evoking biblical imagination, medieval Jewish poetic inspiration, contemporary realities, educational pieces, and Jewish and Latin-American folksongs.