Max Pollak | Austria/United States
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Max Pollak has received Flo-Bert and Hoofer Awards, a Bessie Award Nomination, Individual Artist Grant (N-Manhattan Arts Alliance), NYFA Fellowship in Choreography. A member of Los Muñequitos de Matanzas, Cuba’s famous Rumba ambassadors, he is a prestigious name on the international tap, classical and world music scene. Critics and peers worldwide acknowledge his superior musicianship and his highly individual style called “RumbaTap” - a pioneering blend of Afro-Cuban song and dance with American tap and body music. His innovative a cappella vocal arrangements received critical praise in the NY Times. Originator of Cuba’s first tap festival, he has been teaching and performing there since 1998. Among others he worked with Cuba’s top Rumba groups, Chucho Valdés, Lila Downs, Ray Brown, Phil Woods, Paquito D’Rivera, Danilo Perez, shared the stage with Ann Miller, Carol Channing, Angela Lansbury, Gregory Hines, James Earl Jones, Carl Reiner and Chita Rivera. He is recognized for making classical music more accessible, playing in prestigious venues and festivals in Austria, Germany, France, Canada, the US and Cuba. He has performed as soloist with members of the Vienna, Berlin and New York Philharmonic, London and Montreal Symphony, St. Luke’s Chamber Orchestra, Belarusian State Chamber Orchestra, Les Violons Du Roy, Orchestre Nouvelle Generation, Composer’s Concerdance and more. For such occasions, many internationally acclaimed composers have written orchestral works with tap/percussion parts expressly for Pollak. He is also a recording artist, published writer and on faculty at Sarah Lawrence College in New York.