Panish Brothers: Two Times The Talent

In East Hampton, while many youths are just trying to ride out the muddle of their teenage years, a sort of homegrown genius is brewing within not one but two young men raised in Springs. And this is a recipe not oft considered compatible with their ages.They are the Panish brothers, Maxfield and Leo, whose brilliant musical talents became apparent practically out of the womb. Like twins, which they are not—Maxfield is 21, Leo is 17—they finish each other’s sentences and seem to have their own language, riding out the other’s thought processes in the same way their audiences experience a melody.

Maxfield is the aria, a crescendo of information, when, suddenly, Leo will add something of note in allegro, slow and lively. Their words are carefully thought out and intentional—as would be expected from a pair who were violinists before pre-K. While most kids his age were jamming to a purple dinosaur named Barney, Maxfield was asking his mother to turn on classical music in the car.

“I was 4 years old,” Maxfield recalled during a recent interview in Springs. “I really enjoyed classical music when I was a little kid. I would always ask my mom to play it. When I was 5, I heard this violinist, and there was something about the sound, and I enjoyed it so much that I wanted to play it.”

Leo, at age 3, followed suit. “I wanted to be cool like my big brother,” he explained.

The younger Panish is on the cusp of his senior year with the Stanford University Online High School, having just returned to the East End from an internship with NASA. While there, he researched organic light-emitting diodes and their emission patterns, seeking to create a more brilliant light source for LEDs. Once in college, Leo said he plans pursue music on the side, as he is more interested in studying engineering.

Maxfield cannot say the same, as he rests his head on the violin’s prominent chin rest. The singular motion has a transformative effect: His boyish face instantly takes on the profile of intense focus and maturity.

“It’s my baby,” he said, brimming with pride at his beloved Sverdlik violin, a professional-level instrument that he purchased for $30,000, thanks to a successful crowd-funding campaign on indiegogo.com. “That was a big step and a big deal for me. I was able to raise the full amount in a month. That was taking a big leap in creating my future as a professional musician.”

He is taking time off from the Manhattan School of Music to study privately with Lisa Kim of the New York Philharmonic, though he will be auditioning with new schools to transfer into for the fall. Ultimately, his goal is to perform as a soloist with orchestras all over the world.

“Music, to me, is so inspiring, and the feeling that I get when I listen to a great performance of a great piece is something that I want other people to experience,” he said. “There’s something exciting about sharing that with them.”

Not to be outdone by his brother’s ambitions, Leo was the concertmaster of the Symphony Orchestra last year for the Precollege Division of the Manhattan School of Music. He was all of 16. “It’s exciting. I got to sit in the first chair,” he laughed. “The concertmaster acts as the leader of the first violin section.”

“The concertmaster kind of acts as the spokesperson between the conductor and the orchestra,” Maxfield clarified.

“Yeah, that’s it,” his brother said.

As Leo sits on the precipice of leaving boyhood for manhood, he thinks about the future. “I don’t know how much schooling I plan to do,” he said. “I think in 10 years I will have a big company developing something cool. I’m thinking it will involve science, technology, or engineering, or a combination of both.

“It may even involve aviation,” he added, considering he is also a licensed pilot.

There is a long line of science-minded legends who have played instruments, from pianists Thomas Edison and Albert Einstein, who also took up violin, to Neil Armstrong, who played baritone horn. Like them, Leo’s love of physics and math pirouette together with his immense musical talent.

“My big interest is physics and math, but music is my way of expressing myself,” he said. “I love that stuff—it stimulates my mind, like equations, but music is my outlet for expressing what I need to express. I will occasionally compose for myself, because it’s another way of doing that. For some people, it’s painting or writing. I think the arts is a way to express yourself, because we don’t find that opportunity in society.”

When considering how schools have cut back on music in the curriculum, the Panish brothers have definite opinions on how it shapes a person. While observing a student within the current paradigm of tests and scores, they acknowledge the difficulty of seeing how the arts benefit a life lived, but they emphasize its importance in the long run.

Maxfield confirms that a lot of who he has become is largely because of studying music.

“The mindset learned from music is discipline, having to focus, learning to manage your time, categorizing what needs work, discovering problems, analyzing your body,” he said. “These lessons have greatly improved all aspects in my life. Being knowledge-aware, body-aware and being analytical are all things that are important. When you take that out, there is something missing. And it can be naturally developed through music or art.”

“Schools may not see the direct benefit of it. Or see the result immediately,” Leo added. “Over the years, it produces something. It shapes you as you develop. With me and my technical brain, I need those moments, and getting into that mindset is very beneficial to my own sanity. Part of the reason why I look at things a certain way is because I look at music a certain way, and can apply those concepts to it.”

“Teaching can be difficult,” Maxfield interjects. “It’s definitely a skill in itself. It’s not one-size-fits-all.”

Teutonic violin legends, such as Heifetz and Oistrakh, are not common chatter among today’s youth, but the Panish brothers can trade quips between themselves.

“David Oistrakh is one of my favorite old-time violinists. Heifetz as well, because he’s the best of the best, forever and always,” Maxfield said.

“I also like Heifitz and Oistrakh, but I would say a composer has influenced me very much and that is Shostakovich,” Leo said. “I did a research project on him in the sixth grade. There’s something about his music that gets me.”

“Today, there’s a violinist named Janine Jansen who I love,” Maxfield added.

The storied lives of the titans of music are known and studied, and the narrative for the Panish brothers is only just unfolding. Abraham Lincoln once said, “The best way to predict your future is to create it.” And the Panish brothers are creating much more than what Maxfield joked as one of his greatest achievements: “surviving my teenage years.”