Her voice is utterly captivating.  She conjures coloratura, she purloins punk, her voice liquefies love and emulsifies emotion...

Max Sharam is a multi award winning/nominated composer, singer, producer and interdisciplinary artist living in New York City. A pioneer, activist, risk taker and feminist, Max's focus is 'transcendence' — to rise up and inspire.

Labelled "unique" and her work as "highly original",  Max, an 8-time ARIA nominee/winner and platinum selling artist and founder of music production company / record label Purple Flower Music, produced and performed the music for AFI award winning documentary Forbidden Lie$ (shown at MOMA, NY), the title track for Expired the movie and created the music and sound design for Hollywood Fringe Festival winning Best New Original Play, Anaconda.

Her career success has covered live Stand-up comedy — her one-woman performance pieces have been part of Melbourne International Comedy Festival, Hong Kong Fringe and New York Arts Festival, Musical Theater — starring in various stage productions in Europe, US and Australia, to  sharing the stage with musical greats like Patti Smith, K.D. Lang, Melissa Etheridge, Dylan and Tori Amos and touring with Cyndi Lauper and Chris Isaak.
 
In 2008 Max was included in the Berlinale Film Festival with her video piece Sleeping Beauties, showing along side Isabella Rossellini's Green Porno.
 
Max’s love for music, documentary and technology has led her to develop hybrid art forms – video performances with distinctive themes and digitally manipulated media constructions, her art and music is charged with an eerie, dreamlike quality, appearing on first glance as whimsical, yet there is a disquieting aspect to her aleatoric play that exposes the vulnerable underbelly - as the ‘misfit’ characters struggle with the question of equality and identity.
 
Max is a 2 time recipient of the Ballhausen Pipe Organ Scholarship and Non-Fiction Writing Mentorship with Melbourne Libraries.

ARTISTS RESIDENCIES
2024               YADDO, New York        
2019               Arts Letters & Numbers, Averill Park, New York

2017               Duda Paiva Workshop, Poznan, Poland
2015               Floez Akademie/Academy Floez Workshop, Tuscania, Italy
2010               Salem to Salem, Artists Residency Program, Salem Castle, Germany

ONE WOMAN SHOWS
2020  Stand-up Comedy                     Broadway Comedy Club, New York

2010 Bushpygmalion                          Melbourne International Comedy Festival

2009 Songs in my Suitcase                 The Butterfly Club, Melbourne, Australia

2005 Butterfly Suicide                        Hong Kong Fringe Festival, Hong Kong, China

2000 MadmoselleMax                        Melbourne International Comedy Festival

SOLO and GROUP GALLERY SHOWS
2019 Between Worlds, Ballarat Gallery, Australia

2016 Five Cent Cinema, Melbourne, Australia

2015 Whistleblower!, Berlin, Germany

2015 Luxville, Mechanics Institute, Ballarat Australia

2014 How Now Brown Cloud?, Container Art, Australia

2010 Neue Museum, Salem Schloss, Germany

2009 Titanic Piano, Mopa, San Francisco, USA

2009 Gay Girls, Acon, Sydney Mardi Gras, Australia

2008 Sleeping Beauties, Berlin Film Festival, Germany

2008 29 Palms, CA, Spesshardt & Klein Gallery,  Berlin, Germany

2002 Be Careful What You Draw, The Electric Lodge  - Los Angeles, CA, USA  

2002 Be Careful What You Draw, Abbott Kenney Street Festival, Los Angeles, CA, USA

2002 Allegory For Immature Adults, Electric Ave Gallery, Venice Art Walk, Los Angeles, USA

2002 Miscellaneous Max, Hotel Café, Los Angeles, CA, USA

1998 Charcoal, D.U.M.B.O. Art Festival - Brooklyn, NY, USA 

VIDEO ART

2019 Permanent Resident                             Animated Music Video
2017 Eve & The Burning Bush                     HD Video 4 minutes
2016 Diptych Dive...                                     HD Video Diptych

2015 Women in Wigs                                     HD Video Diptych

2014 Zilch von Klutz                                     Animation (work in progress)

2014 Belle of The Ball                                3D Animated Short (work in progress)
2012 Four Minute Max                                 Video Vlog and animations, 12 Episodes

2011 White Walkabout                                   Mixed Media (work in progress)

2010 FLUSH!                                                Mixed Media (ongoing)

2008 Sleeping Beauties                                 Video 7 minutes.

2008 Grandwords                                          Mixed Media 4 min

2007 DigiBio                                                 Video 9 minutes

1995 Sleeping Senses                                     Film 8mm, 10min.

1994 Crashlanding!                                       Music Video, Film 8mm, 4 minutes.

1996 Is it Okay if I call you mine?                 Music Video, Film 8mm, 4 minutes.

 

COMMERCIALLY RELEASED RECORDINGS
Snow Child                             (2017) Purple Flower Music, Independent

The Gods Envy                        (2014) EP/CD Purple Flower Music, Independent

A Million Year Girl                 (1996) LP/CD Warner Music International, Platinum  

Coma                                       (1995) EP/CD Warner Music International, Top Ten Single

I’m Busy                                  (1985) LP/CD - CAM (Italy)

MUSIC FOR FILM

2019 Luxville                         - additional music composer/producer/performer.         
2007 Expired                          - additional music composer/producer/performer. Multiple Wins

2006 Forbidden Lie$              - producer/performer. Multiple Wins, AFI (Best Documentary)

2001 Frozen Angels               - producer/composer/performer

1999 The Big Tease               - additional music

1998 Change of Heart            - additional music/co-writer

1997 Die Heilige Hure           - additional music

 

THEATRE (principle roles only)

2013 The Hanging of Jean Lee, ArtsHouse, Melbourne, Australia
2012 Composer/Sound Designer for Anaconda (The Play)

2009 Late Night Lounge with Justin Bond (NYC), Sydney Opera House Theatre, Australia

2006 The Hanging of Jean Lee – The Musical. `Jean Lee`. Sydney Opera House Theatre

2006 Penthesilea, The Dahesh Museum of Art, New York City, USA

2006 Rooftop Cabaret Performance Troupe, New York City, USA

2002 The Camera, The Electric Lodge, Los Angeles, California, USA

1994 Fourplay, Darlinghurst Players Theatre Troupe

1990 The Magic Flute,  `Papagena`, Sydney Light Opera Company, Australia

1985 Forza Venite Gente, Teatro Bagaglino, Rome, Italy

1984 Kolbe, Teatro Il Barrocone, Rome, Italy

1983 Jesus Christ Superstar, `Magdalena`, Ballarat Theatre Workshops.

1982 Tilly Divine, `Pealie`, Ballarat Theatre Workshops.

1982 Zigger Zagger, Ballarat Youth Theatre.

 

FILM/TV (principle roles)

Backroads                                                 (2019)    ABC TV
Rockwizz Tour                                         (2015)    Regent Theatre, Ballarat
Spicks & Specks                                      (2009)    ABC TV, Australia

One Size Fits All                                      (2005)    Short Film, School Visual Art, New York, USA

Jazz Nights                                               (1998)    Lifetime Television, USA

Rakuda                                                      Short, Australia

BIG BIG BANG!                                      SBS Television. Australia

La Ragazza Con La Chitarra                     RAI TV (Italy)

Hey Hey It’s Saturday                               Variety TV (Australia)

The Bert Newton Show                             Variety TV (Australia)

Elle McFeast                                              ABC TV    (Australia)

Good News Week                                      ABC TV    (Australia)

 

BOOKS/ANTHOLOGOIES

2021 A Lisp, A Limp & A Stutter                      (pre production)

2021 Bitch Babes                                                (pre production)
2016 Women of Letters                                       Penguin / Random House
2015 Fury                                                          Hardie Grant

2005 Stirring Up A Storm                                    Mammoth Books, USA

2003 Allegory For Immature Adults                    Independent, USA           

2002 Big Night Out                                              Harper Collins, Australia

1999 Pizza Poetry                                                 Darlinghurst Writers Collective

 

SPECIAL AWARDS

2016/17 Ballhausen Pipe Organ Scholarship Recipient
2013 Finalist VANDA YOUNG Songwriting Competition

2011  Finalist APRA Professional Development Awards

1996 x8 Aria Nominations - Winner Aria Award – Best Album Art Work

1986 Queen of Comedy, Harold Park Hotel, Sydney, New South Wales

1984 Star of the Year, Genoa Jazz Festival, Italy.

1980s x3 General Academic Excellence Awards, Beaufort High School, Victoria

1980s x3 Musical Comedy 1^st Place - South Street Eisteddfod, Ballarat, Victoria

 

AFFILIATIONS

Screen Actors Guild (USA), Actors Equity (USA), APRA (Australia)

 

PRIVATE TUTORS

Classical Singing    – Robert Bickerstaff, Robert Lemke/Constance Coward, Opera Australia

     – W.H. Keith Young - Sounds of Sunday Choir, Ballarat, Vic.

Voice and Piano    – Tad Motyka, New York City, USA.
Pipe Organ           – Bruce Keck

 

EDUCATION
Master of Fine Art (Interactive Digital & Video)
Graduate Diploma ~ Animation & Interactive Media (RMIT), Advanced Diploma Screen & Media (RMIT),
Graduate Certificate ~ Animation Direction - Australian Film, Television & Radio School (AFTRS), 
Diploma ~ Digital & Interactive Media - Enmore Centre of Design.
AMEB   ~ Grade 6, Classical Singing

 

OTHER

Animator/After Effects, Adobe Creative Suite, Final Cut, Flash. Languages - Fluent Italian. Basic German. Passive French. Speed Typist!