Grammy-nominated drummer Maxime Cholley was born in a minuscule French city nestled near the beautiful Alps mountains. Currently living in Brooklyn, NY, he can be found performing, teaching, producing, and composing.
Highlights as a drummer include collaborations with artists such as Steve Vai, Tigran Hamasyan, Darren Barrett, Paul Winter, Eugene Friesen, Shakthisree Gopalan, Mayssa Karaa, Harloe, Matt Hartke, Tor Miller, and more.
Maxime held the drum chair for the 2017 Off-Broadway run of Burn All Night, directed by Cian McCarthy (In the Heights, The Book of Mormon). He also appeared on the 2022 Grammy-nominated Berklee Indian Ensemble album Shuruaat and performed at Boston’s Emerson Colonial Theater in 2025 for the world premiere of The Witcher in Concert. He has hosted the Spontaneous Jam Session with Marcelo Maccagnan in Brooklyn weekly since 2022 and released an eponymous album in 2025.
As a composer and producer, Maxime worked with tech giant Meta and was commissioned to compose songs that he released in 2025, featuring artists such as Swaminathan Selvaganesh on percussion and guitarist Aleif Hamdan. He also produced songs for Lithuanian artist Simona Smirnova and Indian singer and violinist RINI. He produced and arranged two songs as part of the duo S.N.A.K. in 2023 and 2024.
A 2016 Berklee College of Music graduate, Maxime was awarded the Berklee Achievement Scholarship and the Avedis Zildjian Endowed Scholarship. His talent was also recognized nationally after winning French competitions including the “Prix des Neiges“ from the Savoiexpo Foundation (2014) and the “Bourse de la Vocation“ (2015) from the Marcel Bleustein-Blanchet Foundation.
