Music is something everyone can relate to. We reminisce about the past and express emotions through music. It is the one thing that never fails to bring people together.

Max Friedman (12) was born into a family dedicated to the love of music. His mother plays clarinet for the Memphis Symphony and his father taught trumpet at Interlochen Center for the Arts, a summer camp and arts boarding school, from 1998 to 2001.

Friedman learned to play the trumpet in sixth grade, but his music career extends beyond the instrument. He made his debut as a composer in seventh grade when his arrangement, Chess Piece Suite, was performed by the White Station Middle School concert band under band director Skip Quinn.

Friedman continued composing various pieces of music for competitions and festivals, but the turning point in his composing career came in ninth grade when he submitted an orchestral piece for a full orchestra and a SATB choir to the 2012 Humans In Space International Youth Art Contest.

His composition, Pillars of Creation, was inspired by a picture taken by the Hubble space telescope. The piece won best orchestral piece in the professional composition category and best overall between ages 14 through 18. Friedman was flown to Cologne, Germany to hear the premiere of his piece played by the Cologne-Bonn youth orchestra and choir.          

Friedman realized when he was looking at colleges that he wanted to study at Interlochen for his senior year of high school.

“There’s only so much music I can fit in outside of school,” Friedman said.

Interlochen would help him further his music education by allowing him to pursue a major in composition and a minor in trumpet as well as learn from world-renowned musicians.

“I love the environment; it’s a very creative environment. Everyone there is an artist of some sort,” Friedman said.

He enjoys how his academic classes, like English and Independent Physics, are geared toward making connections with the arts. His one wish is for additional time at the composing studio so he can work on his current pieces.

Friedman’s main projects are his portfolios for Oberlin Conservatory and the Cleveland Institute of Music, which will be comprised of a trumpet trio, a trio for flute, clarinet and piano and a big orchestral piece that will be ten minutes long when completed.

“Right now, this orchestral piece is my favorite, but later on, I will write something I like better,” Friedman said.

Friedman’s mother is proud of her son and is happy he has returned to the place where he was first exposed to music.

“I never would have imagined sixteen years ago that he would be returning [to Interlochen],” Rena Feller Friedman said,

Friedman is uncertain if he will major in composition in college, but Oberlin Conservatory and the Cleveland Institute of Music are both compatible with music majors and academic majors.