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The Swedish-born former resident of Norway baritone, Max Rydqvist, obtained his Bachelor of Music degree in Vocal Performance Magna cum laude from the State University of New York at Binghamton (August 2013-May 2016; John M. and Marcella M. Keeler Scholarship); and his Master of Music degree in Vocal Performance Magna cum laude from the College of Fine Arts at Boston University (September 2016-May 2018).
Residing as an active freelance vocal performer in the city of Boston, Max Rydqvist presently engages as ensemble member and soloist with the Cantata Singers of Boston (since September 2018) and also as a soloist/section leader at the Church on the Hill of the Boston Society of the New Jerusalem (since September 2018). He has recently performed with local companies and organizations such as MassOpera, Odyssey Opera, Cambridge Chamber Ensemble, Opera51 and Opera on Tap Boston. This coming spring season he will be performing the role of Guglielmo in W.A. Mozart's Cosi fan tutte with Opera51 in Concord, Massachusetts.
Beyond opera, Max Rydqvist is an avid art song and church singer who has participated in many recitals and concert performances during his time as a freelancer in Boston. He will be featuring as a soloist with the Cantata Singers concert series this spring. Recent concert appearances include baritone soloist in a Nordic Art Song Recital with the Cantata Singers Chamber Series, bass soloist in George Frideric Handel's Messiah as well as baritone soloist in Johannes Brahms' Liebeslieder Waltzer with Church on the Hill. In addition to performances with his own church, he regularly sings as a bass section leader and soloist with other churches in the area, including the St. Columbkille Parish and St. Ignatius Parish in Brighton. In recent years, he has also taken part in summer festivals such as the Bay View Music Festival, the Young Artist Program of SongFest at the Colburn School of Music, and the Up North Vocal Institute in northern Michigan. In the less immediate past, he participated in the opera studio of the American Institute of Musical Studies (AIMS) in Graz, Austria, the Westchester Summer Vocal Institute in New York, and the Songe d’ete en Musique in Quebec.
Max Rydqvist is trilingual (Swedish, Norwegian, English) and also holds intermediate proficiency in the German language. Being well-traveled throughout Europe, he is passionate about languages, cultures, and their eclectic application to music and to the voice studio. He specializes in Nordic song repertoire. As a performing artist he is endeavoring to shed more light upon this exclusive body of poetry and music and is dedicated to disseminating its riches to American singers and audiences. Having already performed a number of academic and professional recitals featuring this music, he plans to host his own independent Nordic recital this spring which will seek to highlight some of the most representative qualities of this unique canon of art song. Additionally, this summer he will be taking part in a Nordic song literature research project at Long Island University Brooklyn specifically oriented towards making this body of repertoire more accessible linguistically and musically to aspiring singers in America.
After several years of immersion in pedagogic study - which has included engagements in events such as the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) Summer Conference and the Boston Conservatory Vocal Pedagogy Workshop - Max Rydqvist formally began teaching in 2021. He currently teaches voice to students of all ages spanning amateur to professional through both community music schools as well as privately. He is open to both virtual lessons as well as to in person lessons for students residing in the Boston area. He is fervent about exploiting each arena of vocal knowledge - teaching, researching, and performing - for the mutual benefit of each, both for his personal enhancement and for the growth of his students. He is presently enrolled as an associate member of NATS and is a participant in the local Boston Chapter. He also holds a professional membership with the Voice Foundation. |
