Maksim

Croatian born pianist Maksim Mrvica started to play piano when he was nine and by the age of 11 he held his first concert as a soloist with an orchestra. It wasn’t always easy to harbour his dream of becoming a concert pianist, especially when, at the age of 15, war broke out in Croatia. With sometimes 1000 grenades a day falling on his city, Maksim continued to practice his piano in the basement of his music school. By that time he had won first prize in a National Competition in Zagreb. Later on, he won first prize at the Rubinstein Piano Competition in Paris and first prize at Pontoise Competition in France. For his first album Gestures, he was awarded with four Porin awards (Croatian Grammys).
After graduating from the Music Academy in Zagreb, Maksim enrolled at the Ferenz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest. After that, he finished his master at the Ecole National de Musique in Paris and did an additional year at Alexander Skrjabin Conservatioire, also in Paris.
Today Maksim is the biggest selling crossover pianist in the world. His albums have sold over 4 million copies in 57 countries world wide, reaching gold and platinum sales in many countries. He has had in excess of 100 million Youtube hits.
His first crossover album’s success was crowned with the MTV music award for the best debutant of the year in Asia.
Maksim is managed by Mel Bush who was the innovator of Classical Crossover music with artistes such as Vanessa-Mae and Bond. He has promoted many great artistes worldwide including Led Zeppelin, Paul McCartney, Queen, Elton John, Bob Dylan, Santana, A-ha, Tina Turner, Jean Michel Jarre and David Bowie.
In 2006 Maksim performed a 20 city tour of Japan which was considered one of the largest tours of any international artist in Japan. After the great success of the tour, he was invited by maestro Juri Simonov, chief conductor of Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra, to perform a series of the concerts all over Japan as a soloist.
In 2010 Maksim was invited by the Chopin Society in Warsaw to perform at a concert to celebrate the bicentenary of Chopin's birth. The open air concert was held beneath the famous monument of Chopin in the Royal Baths Park in Warsaw.
For the Olympic games in Greece, Maksim’s song “Olympic dream” was the single on the official Olympic album “Harmony” and for the Beijing Olympic games in 2008, Maksim was invited by the Chinese national television station, CCTV, to shoot four videos of his songs for the promotion of the Olympics games in China.
His distinctive fashion style led to collaborations with some of the worlds leading fashion brands such as Dolce and Gabbana in Tokyo and Christian Dior in Paris, supplying the clothes for concerts, video shoots and media events. In 2004 Maksim was named the best dressed man in the world by Vogue Hommes in Taiwan. In 2010 the fashion brand Armani invited Maksim to perform a series of gala events organized for Armani VIP clients and guests.
His charisma and immense talent has attracted some of the worlds biggest brands such as BMW, Mercedes, Buick, Amway, Mineral water company, Petrol & Oil company, American Express, BMW, Diners Card, Chevrolet, Land Rover, Toshiba, Samsung, Nissan, Hyundai, Kia, Star Alliance and Yamaha.
Last year a documentary was filmed about Maksim’s life called “Maksim, The Croatian Rhapsody”