Artist Spotlight: Max Tan

Violinist Max Tan ’15 made his Symphony Hall debut on March 7, playing Samuel Barber’s Violin Concerto along with the Benjamin Zander-directed Boston Philharmonic Youth Orchestra. The Crimson caught up with Tan before his performance to chat about music, school, and striking the precarious balance between the two.

The Harvard Crimson: Have you always known music would be such a big part of your life?

Max Tan: I don’t think so. I think I knew that music was something I was very attached to, but I didn’t really quite understand why or how until I was 15 or 16. That’s a long time to be in music—I started piano when I was four—and not know exactly why. Music was something I really liked, and it was another avenue of expressing myself, and I was good at it, so I stuck with it. But I don’t think until my teenage years I quite understood what it meant to emote something through music.

THC: Why have you chosen to stay involved with BPYO as opposed to HRO or one of the other Harvard music ensembles?

MT: I don’t think it’s necessarily a decision to stay with one group over the other. I think one of the things that’s difficult about Harvard is that there are so many wonderful groups on campus, and you just want to do everything. I remember my freshman year I was in HRO, I was in...Dunster House Opera, I was in Brattle [Street Chamber Players], I did [the Harvard Pops Orchestra] for a semester, and on the side I did private lessons, and I was also doing chamber music—and so I died. That’s a huge understatement…. Sometimes people do groups because they want to do it for their friends, and they want to do it for the organization, and they want to do it for the tradition—and then there’s the other route, which is: if I do want music to be part of my life, which one will cultivate [in me] something I think is lacking?

THC: How do you balance schoolwork and music? Do you find it challenging?

MT: It’s definitely challenging. Before coming here, it would be a struggle to maybe get two, three hours of practicing in a day—but I’d still get two, three hours of practicing in a day. Here, it’s a struggle to get…an hour. But that doesn’t mean I’m practicing less. That means I’m spending time with my instrument less. I do a lot of mental practicing: I practice things through in my head as if I were playing, but I’m not doing physical practice.

THC: You recently returned from two weeks at the Menuhin Competition [a prestigious international competition for young violinists]—had you participated in a competition of that scale before?

MT: Not at all. It was not something that I was experienced with, going to competitions. One reason I decided to do Menuhin was that the age limit is 21. I just turned 21, and I figured, “Why not try and send in an application and see what might happen?” When I got the email that I was selected to go, it was also very shocking because the decision to do the competition was sort of last-minute, and I didn’t really expect anything to come out of it. Going there, the level of musicianship was incredibly high…. Everyone else has such a unique voice, they have such interesting ideas, they’re practicing so much, and a lot of them already have a lot of performing experience. It sort of re-inspired me and made me discover that there’s so much to work at, and there’s so much to benefit from, and so much to enjoy from the work.

THC: Any musical role models?

MT: So many. I think one of the most influential violin figures is Itzhak Perlman. I actually say that one because he used to be my teacher. I studied with him when I was in high school—I was in his studio at Juilliard Pre-College…. He was just an amazing teacher, a really funny guy, and also as a recording artist and a performing artist: he’s just so phenomenal. He really takes the idea of speaking the music to something no one ever does…. I think one of the things I learned from Mr. Perlman is this idea of how to empathize. How do you develop emotional expression in music, but also how do you apply all of that that you learn in music to how you live and the person you want to be?

THC: Realistically, then, if there was one thing you wanted to do in music—a musical bucket list—what would it be?

MT: I would love to travel. I would love to go to different places in Europe and Asia, Africa, South America—classical music is huge in South America. Playing concerts with friends, with other musicians—I would be totally satisfied and very happy just to collaborate with other musicians and play a lot of music. In terms of a bucket list, I don’t have anything specific, but I would love to do these things. And if I can enjoy my life and whatever I’m doing from these things, then I’m a happy person.