W. Maxwell Derrickson

In addition to being the Hopkins Symphony Orchestra's timpanist, Max Derrickson writes HSO's program notes and gives pre-concert talks. He earned his Bachelor of Music Education at James Madison University in 1985, and his Master of Music, Performance in Percussion at the Peabody Conservatory in 1988. He was working toward his doctorate in ethnomusicology at the University of Maryland when, in 1993, former Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart lured him away to lead a team of ethnomusicologists in the Endangered Music Project, an effort to unearth old musical field recordings of cultures now quickly disappearing. The Project is housed at the American Folklife Center in the Library of Congress, with recordings by Rykodisc. Max now works at the Copyright Office in the Library of Congress. In addition to HSO, he writes program notes for the Bay-Atlantic Symphony, Prince George’s Philharmonic, and, once upon a time, Baltimore Opera.