About me

Maxwell Lowery is an educator, composer, and violist whose greatest passion is teaching music. He has taught in string orchestra programs, general music classrooms, and private studios, in every scenario helping students to find and refine their beautiful sound, collaboration skills, and musical ears. In his classroom, he instills an attitude of determined hard work while maintaining a lighthearted, encouraging atmosphere.

As a composer, Maxwell specializes in writing programmatic music for chamber ensembles that include the viola. His work takes inspiration from nature, humanity, and fantasy storytelling. In June 2026, Maxwell will perform a recital consisting entirely of original solo and duo viola works at the American Viola Society’s biennial conference alongside his wife, violist Molly Wise.

Combining his interests as a teacher and composer, Maxwell has also composed for student string orchestras. Through his work in this genre, he hopes to provide students with the opportunity to hear rich harmonic colors, explore intriguing extended instrumental techniques, encounter varied compositional gimmicks and strategies, and paint vivid scenes for their audience.

Maxwell had the privilege of studying viola with Jeffrey Irvine and composition with Keith Fitch at the Cleveland Institute of Music, graduating as the recipient of the Gilbert M. Brooks Dean’s Award for Academic Excellence, the Maurice and Judith Kaplow Award for Uncommon Creativity, and the Beth Pearce Nelson Award for Music Theory. He has won prizes in composition competitions hosted by the Cleveland Composers Guild and the American Viola Society. Cooking is his favorite hobby, hiking is his favorite outdoor activity, and Teddy Grahams are his favorite snack.

Maxwell is moving to Iowa in Summer 2026 with Molly, who was recently appointed professor of Viola at the University of Iowa. He looks forward to continuing his music education career as an orchestra director in Iowa.