MAESTRO: Maksim

Maksim is a classical-crossover pianist hails from Croatia, a well-known young piano player who plays in flamboyant style, unlike the traditional classical pianist you seen anywhere else.

Maksim is one of the earliest artist that I came across when I'm starting to build up my musical senses. I heard about him back in 2002 as he's releasing his debut album "The Piano Player". It wasn't until 2003 when I get the chance to listen his songs, and started to love it from that onwards.

Cover for Maksim's 4th album Electrik.

One of my all-time-favourite songs is "Croatian Rhapsody" he played, absolutely love this piece! I think that this piece displays a strong emotion in it, as Maksim learn his piano in the earlier days under shelter while the Croatian civil war is going in in the early 90's. It isn't easy to live a normal life, and yet he managed to train himself at that time to become one of the most promising pianist today we've witnessed.

Croatian Rhapsody MV, live from Roundhouse London.

Maksim - Croatian Rhapsody

Many people recognise Maksim's style of playing from his debut single "Flight of the Bumble Bee", which is a lively piece and yet hard to play it perfectly at such pace. It is also one of his earlier works to turn a classical song into a modern-classical piece via his crossover style.

Flight of the Bumble Bee MV.

Maksim - Flight of the Bumble Bee

Following his success with "Flight of the Bumble Bee", Maksim played another fast-paced piece in his 2nd album "Variations", called "Kolibre". The nature of the song is different than the bee song, and I think Kolibre is much livelier than bee song. :)

Kolibre MV

Maksim - Kolibre

Maksim's new approach on classical music greatly lifts the younger generation's interest in classical music. I for one, greatly impressed by his styles & skills, and not to mention the composer who's helping him to compose many great songs like Croatian Rhapsody, a fellow Croatian Tonci Huljic.

Now I'm waiting for his 5th album "Pure" to be released in Malaysia. There's lots of problems for that album and the release has been delayed..... I'm definitely will be getting it to complete the album collection, it's just a matter of time when the album will reaches our shores here.

Next on the list.... Yanni!