Max Mason
Programme: Serena Fenwick programme
Discipline: Directors
Year: 2026
“As a director, I’m fascinated by what is possible at the contact-point between voice and body. I’d been in choirs all my life, and, as a sometime actor, treaded the boards at the Donmar Warehouse. Whilst I was supposed to be studying English, I flirted with Chinese Opera in Xi’an, improving my Mandarin whilst expanding my directorial practice. I’m now founding a new site-sympathetic company, Fermata Opera, expanding access to work that responds to the particulars of place and space.
I live near Glyndebourne, where I saw my first opera - David Bruce’s Nothing - when I was fourteen. Something about Bruce’s tree-bound precocious bookworm seemed to stick. I’m an avid reader, in English, French and (with a good dictionary!) in Chinese, and I remain an enthusiastic Padel player.”