Hermann Max is a German choral conductor, noted for his historically informed performances of early music. He studied at the Berlin Musikhochschule and the University of Cologne, where, in addition to music, he also pursued art history and archaeology. He founded the youth choir Dormagen in 1977, which later formed the core of the Rheinische Kantorei, and with the Baroque orchestra Das kleine Konzert, he made Baroque music central to his repertoire. Most of Max's recordings with his groups are devoted to the works of Johann Sebastian Bach, Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, Wilhelm Friedemann Bach, Georg Philipp Telemann, and other German composers. Max founded the Knechtsteden Early Music Festival in 1992, an annual event held in a church outside Düsseldorf. In 2004, he led a performance of Bach's St. Matthew Passion at the Israel Festival in Jerusalem, and followed that with a performance of Bach's St. John Passion with the Israel Camerata Orchestra Jerusalem in 2006. Max has recorded extensively for CPO and Capriccio Records.