MAX DE WARDENER
Max de Wardener is a BAFTA-nominated composer, arranger and bassist from the UK. He has worked in many contrasting musical environments, from film scores and classical commissions to performing at international electronic music festivals, building his own instruments and playing bass in Zimbabwean Mbira bands.

His film music credits include two film scores for acclaimed Polish director Pawel Pawlikovski (Last Resort and Woman in the Fifth) as well as Rowan Joffe’s debut, Secret Life starring Matthew Mcfadyen. More recently he collaborated with Gazelle Twin for the BFI funded horror, The Power, for Shudder.

Various feature documentaries for filmmakers include films for Sarah Gavron (Village at the End of the World), Kevin MacDonald (It Takes a Flood), and Jerry Rothwell (Heavy Load and Donor Unknown). In 2023 he was BAFTA-nominated for his music for The Elon Musk Show (72 films) and scored Sky Cinema's Dead Shot, a gritty thriller based in the 1970s during the troubles and starring Aml Ameen, Colin Morgan, Mark Strong and Felicity Jones.  

Max has written orchestral arrangements for artists such as Emilíana Torrini (Iceland Symphony Orchestra), Damon Albarn (Concertgebouw), Matthew Herbert (London Sinfonietta) and Gazelle Twin (BBCCO). His own concert music includes a Percussion concerto for Colin Currie (ONBA) as well as his Proms debut in 2022 with a work written for the Indian virtuoso Kala Ramnath.  

Recent releases of his own music include an album of unusually tuned piano music for Kit Downes (ECM) Music for Detuned Pianos and Kolmar,  written for Thomas Bloch performing on the  Cristal Baschet and Ondes Martenot. His music has been recorded by Oliver Coates (Towards the Blessed Islands) and the LSO (The Panufnik Variations) among others.