Max Deger (b. 1994, he/him) is a conductor, composer, producer, and educator based in Reno, Nevada.

As a conductor, Max has held positions with and collaborated with groups such as the Nevada Wind Ensemble, the New York All-City High School Orchestra and Jazz Ensemble, and Brooklyn Wind Symphony, where he also performed on trumpet. His focus is on contemporary music, and he maintains active relationships with working composers, recently participating in the consortium for a new work for winds by New York-based composer and saxophonist Aakash Mittal. He has conducted ensembles at the Music Center in Downtown Los Angeles, Power Station NYC, and SoFi Stadium, performing with artists such as the Black Eyed Peas and Joe Lovano.

Max’s compositions span across the borders of genre and tradition, reflecting his own musical experiences performing in symphony orchestras, wind ensembles, big bands, jazz chamber groups, and rock and R&B bands. He has written music for strings, winds, percussion, vocalists, and electronic media, and his piece Cosmograph recently premiered at the Shadows Contemporary Art Festival in Reno. His album Retrospect is an instrumental hip hop album paying homage to its seminal producers.

Max spent ten years as an educator in the New York City and Los Angeles public schools. Most recently, Max served as Director of Bands at Theodore Roosevelt High School in Boyle Heights, Los Angeles, where oversaw all concert and marching band activities and taught digital music production. He was a previously a middle school band and choir director in Brooklyn, New York, where his students performed across the tri-state area, including a performance at the Prudential Center in Newark. During that time, he served on the steering committee for the New York City High School Honors Music Festival. Focused on delivering equitable instruction and equipping others to do the same, Max has given clinics at state music education conferences in California and Nevada.

Max holds a Master of Music degree in conducting and composition from the University of Nevada, Reno and a Bachelor of Music degree from Ithaca College. He is a member of ASCAP and Society of Composers, Inc.