“When I was a student at college, I was like a classical puritan.

Maksim believes that this sort of experimentation is integral to the survival of classical music in the future. While trained as a classical pianist, and still a classical musician at heart, Maksim is famous for experimenting with the fusion of classical and pop music, sometimes adding electronica beats and sounds to famous classical works.

Taipei, 2016 | Image supplied by Harmonie International ‘Classical crossover’ refers to classical music that has become popularised or pop music that is performed in a classical manner or by classical musicians. Today, Maksim is one of the world’s most popular ‘crossover’ pianists, having sold over four million copies of his albums across 57 countries. During his time as a student, he won first prize in the Nikolai Rubinstein International Piano Competition and the Pontoise Piano Competition. Maksim went on to study at the Music Academy in Zagreb and the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest, and later moved to Paris to study with Igor Lazko. Still enveloped in the chaos of war, Maksim won his first major piano competition in Zagreb in 1993. However, he was adamant to not let his tumultuous surroundings get in the way of his dreams of pursuing a career in music. In 1991, war broke out in Croatia when Maksim was just a teenager. Born in Šibenik, a coastal city in Croatia, Maksim Mrvica first began playing piano at nine years old and performed in concert for the first time three years later.

Maksim mrvica sheet music