short bio
Max Allard is a banjoist, multi-instrumentalist and composer from Chicago. His musical influences span from bluegrass to electronic music. Max’s solo debut album, Odes / Codes was released in January 2022 and produced by Jayme Stone. He followed that with his 2023 release March Maxness, 31 Tracks in 31 Days.
"A new mature and poetic voice on the 5 string banjo. Beautiful compositions and a very nice touch.”
—Béla Fleck
Max has performed all over Chicago as a solo artist and in a duo with his brother Otto Allard. He toured the midwest with the Minneapolis based progressive bluegrass band Barbaro.
Max is a core member of the progressive bluegrass ensemble EZRA, which also includes mandolin virtuoso Jacob Jolliff, guitarist/composer Jesse Jones, and bassist Craig Butterfield. EZRA’s debut self-titled album was released in March 2024, and the second album, Earth to EZRA (which featured pianist Xak Bjerken and musical polymath Mark Stewart) was released on September 2024. A third album with the core ensemble will be released in March 2025.
Max is the winner of the 2018 RockyGrass Banjo Competition and the 2019 FreshGrass Banjo Award. In 2022, Max was awarded the inaugural J.D. Crowe Scholarship from the IBMA Foundation.
Max is currently pursuing a bachelor’s degree in composition at Oberlin Conservatory (class of 2025). He will perform the world premiere of his banjo concerto with the Contemporary Music Ensemble in December 2024.
LONG BIO
Max Allard has been composing and learning music for as long as he can remember: figuring out tunes on his toy instruments, or making music from half filled water glasses or pots and pans. After many years of asking for a piano, he finally got one at the age of six. But Max vividly remembers picking up the banjo at eleven and the guitar a few years later.
He has always been interested in harmony, and he brings the influences of many genres, cultures and styles of music to his compositions. Max’s solo music is an unclassifiable mix of bluegrass, jazz, new acoustic, classical and pop.
Max released his debut solo record Odes / Codes in January 2022. It is made up of material that he wrote in 2020 and reflects the contemplative feeling of that year, capturing moods of melancholy, nostalgia, longing, and hopefulness. It’s an example of a new way of thinking for the banjo and how it fits in non bluegrass music. Odes / Codes was recorded in Colorado in January 2021 and produced by Jayme Stone.
"A new mature and poetic voice on the 5 string banjo. Beautiful compositions and a very nice touch.”
—Béla Fleck
In March 2021, Max embarked on a challenge of writing, recording, and releasing one new piece per day, every day for the entire month. These were home recordings and ranged in style to include many of the genres that interested Max: from solo banjo and acoustic guitar to looped electric guitar, piano, multi-tracked tunes with banjo, guitar, bass and harmonium, and even a piece featuring the trombone. Entitled March Maxness, these tracks were originally daily recordings released exclusively to his Patreon supporters via a subscription, but Max released the entire album to the public on March 1, 2023.
“It’s a beast of an album…a testament to Max’s versatility and musicianship.”
—Rick Stuart, Roots & Fusion, UK
Max is a core member of the progressive bluegrass band EZRA, which also includes mandolin virtuoso Jacob Jolliff (Béla Fleck, Joy Kills Sorrow, Yonder Mountain String Band), guitarist/composer Jesse Jones (faculty at Oberlin Conservatory), and bassist Craig Butterfield (Maynard Ferguson band, University of South Carolina). EZRA’s debut self-titled album was released in March 2024, and the second album, Earth to EZRA (which featured pianist Xak Bjerken and musical polymath Mark Stewart) was released on September 2024. A third album with the core ensemble will be released in March 2025.
“…what I can only call an acoustic supergroup.”
—Kevin Johnson, No Treble
Max has performed all over Chicago as a solo artist and in a duo with his brother Otto Allard. Max and Otto practically grew up in the halls of the Old Town School of Folk Music in Chicago, where they met lifelong friends, mentors, and collaborators. In February of 2020, Max and Otto had the thrill of opening to a sold out show for Sam Bush at the Old Town School of Folk Music. In June of 2022, Max returned to the Old Town School for the album release show for Odes / Codes.
Max and Otto were hired by composer Warren Leming to reimagine his 2001 album A Rich Man’s War and a Poor Man’s Fight with new instrumentation. Max and Otto arranged the 15 tracks they play on, and they worked to help usher this project through production. The project Warren Leming’s A Rich Man’s War and a Poor Man’s Fight: Songs and Tunes Inspired by the Civil War was released in April 2020.
In December 2020, Max participated in a YouTube project called the 12 Days of Licksmas, in which Eli Gilbert invited Max and 4 other banjo players to take part in a series of writing, presenting and applying banjo licks into tunes each day for 12 days, recording videos of that and cross posting them to their YouTube pages. In total, there are 72 videos (12 each from 6 pickers).
Max released his EP Soleil in 2019, and his EP Rooster in 2020. He toured the midwest with the Minneapolis-based progressive bluegrass band Barbaro from 2019-2023. Max scored the 2021 documentary film Hog Haven, directed by Christopher Beeson. Max’s music was also used in the Illinois Public Media documentary County Fair.
Max is the winner of the 2018 RockyGrass Banjo Competition and the 2019 FreshGrass Banjo Award. He was selected to participate in the 2020 Acoustic Music Seminar (part of the Savannah Music Festival). In 2022, Max was awarded the inaugural J.D. Crowe Scholarship from the IBMA Foundation.
Max is currently pursuing a bachelor’s degree in composition at Oberlin Conservatory (class of 2025). He co-founded the Banjo Society of Oberlin, which offers banjo workshops and lessons on campus. Max will perform the world premiere of his banjo concerto with the Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble in December 2024.