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Max Rosen (April 11, 1900, Dorohoi, Romania - December 17, 1956) was an American violinist of Jewish descent.
The son of a hairdresser who emigrated from Romania to the USA when Max was 8 months old. He received his first music lessons from his father, a music lover, then studied with David Mannes, Bernard Sinsheimer and Alois Trnka. This period includes the repeatedly described acquaintance of 10-year-old Rosen with 12-year-old George Gershwin, who heard Rosen playing in a school classroom from the street, was shocked and went to meet the performer; allegedly, this meeting was decisive for Gershwin's desire to devote himself to music.
Thanks to several patrons, including the founder of the Flonzale Quartet, Eduard de Koppe, in 1912, together with his father, he went to study in Germany, graduated from the Berlin Conservatory (1915) in the class of Willy Hess, also studied with Leopold Auer. He made his debut as a soloist in Dresden in 1915, and gave concerts in Germany and the Scandinavian countries.
At the end of 1917 he returned to the USA, performing for the first time on January 12, 1918 at Carnegie Hall (Carl Goldmark's violin concerto with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Joseph Stransky and a number of solo pieces). At the turn of decades he toured the country extensively, then in 1923-1927 he worked in Europe. Upon his return to the USA in the late 1920s, he made a number of audio recordings.
In 1928-1930 he was married to the opera singer Nanette Guilford.
He died of a stroke.
