Max Clouth

Max Clouth, born in Frankfurt in 1985, studied jazz guitar at the Hochschule für Musik Mainz from 2005 to 2008 and at the Hochschule für Musik Carl Maria von Weber in Dresden from 2008 to 2009. He then took lessons with Pandit Nayan Ghosh at the Sangit Mahabharati Music School Mumbai and with Guitar Prasanna at the Swarnabhoomi Academy of Music. He also studied film music composition at the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg in Ludwigsburg from 2015-2018. He composes for film and television, including music for "Freibadsinfonie / Blue Summer Symphony" (director: Sinje Köhler, nominated for the Student Oscar), "Geschichte im Ersten: Der lange Weg der Sinti und Roma" (ARD, 2022 - director: Adrian Oeser) and most recently "Das Leben ist kein Kindergarten" (ARD, 2023 - director: Sinje Köhler).

The double-necked guitars he developed with guitar maker Philipp Neumann are based on oriental and Indian stringed instruments such as the oud or sarod. With his group Ragawerk/Max Clouth Clan, he has developed a musical style inspired by the Mahavishnu Orchestra, Kraftwerk, Led Zeppelin, Indian classical music and contemporary electronics. Max Clouth received the Frankfurt Jazz Scholarship in 2017. He has been teaching jazz guitar and ensemble at the FMW Frankfurter Musikwerkstatt since 2022.