“Powerful yet nuanced, complex and deeply human, ‘Both Eyes Open’ touches the spirit as it exposes the psychic wounds which history can leave on a community. Duykers' thrilling and wonderfully enjoyable score evokes the past in order to speak to our world today. He and Gotanda have created a stunning new opera which will make audiences think and uplift their hearts.”
-David Henry Hwang, playwright

"'Both Eyes Open' demonstrates the strength of opera as an art form and its contemporary relevance. The audience gets crushed by history throughout Duykers' and Gotanda’s opera. It hurts to think about it, and it is challenging not to feel ashamed. It is unusual to hear nothing at all when a show ends. So it was in the Flea Theater. Until the cast took their bows to resounding applause, it appeared like few in the crowd knew how to react."
-OperaWire

"Sharp juxtapositions abound. The music can move from one movement to another that’s a complete contrast. But somehow these shifts don’t sound arbitrary. They seem prepared, even if they are still surprising. A very satisfying portrait of a composer hitting his mid-career stride. The performances by Ispe and its individual musicians are all the composer could hope for. Highly recommended.” 
-Fanfare

“It combines intellectual rigor with sheer physical pleasure as well as metaphysical transcendence. It is music that is deeply conscious of all the music that has come before it, but is very clearly music of our time while also offering some intriguing suggestions about where the music of the future might beckon.”
-Frank J. Oteri

“Highly inventive…The variety of instrumental chamber configurations helps allow Duykers' to reinvent himself nicely with each chamber gem.”
-Gapplegate Classical-Modern Music Review

“An absolutely original voice within the variegated horizon of contemporary music. His is a language that feeds on different styles and multiple influences, combining them in a singular, fluid and extremely effective way.”
-Kathodik

“For such a small group it contains a surprisingly wide variety of instrumental colors, which Duykers ably exploits.”
-Avant Music News

"His work is smart and interesting."
-SoundWordSight

"[Glass Blue Cleft] provides the contrast and respite that much contemporary music seems to lack."
-Audiophile Audition

"[Glass Blue Cleft] is a piece for lovers of the string quartet, those amazed by how fiery and how dulcet these four-stringed instruments can range in expression."
-Three Village Patch

"...lyrical, lucid and fun to hear...[the work was] fresh in the way [he] employed syncopation, cross-rhythms and timbres..."
-Seattle Post Intelligencer
 
"...full of surprises..."
-Seattle Weekly
 
"'Twilight for Adored and Breathless Moments'...breathed the past in and out..."
-crosscut.com
 
"The one gem on the program,...was Twilight for Adored and Breathless Moments ...it constantly ventured away...on these tonal and rhythmic adventures that were an absolute pleasure to hear. Each separate adventure took the listeners farther away from where they had previously been...the cumulative effect was quite wonderful. This was a beautiful piece of music and its composer has some serious chops"
-artdish.com

"'Stunning"
-nytheatre.com

"His music has already achieved a distinctive style. Its main interest is rhythmic, and he's developed an engaging knack for shifting between tempos, setting up unusual rhythmic grooves, and creating metric ambiguity in a beat-oriented context. His harmonic techniques are...lively, and create surprising variety with simple means. I regard him as an excellent example of the new generation of composers who have corralled influences of pop music and minimalism into a rich and lively genre of chamber music."
-Kyle Gann, composer; new music critic, The Village Voice; Professor of Music, Bard College
 
"His harmonic language is fresh, his rhythmic language vital, and his sense of form...is unerring...he has a flair for writing idiomatic and virtuosic music that performers enjoy playing and singing."
[As a teacher,] he creates an excellent rapport with his class, excites them with his enthusiasm, and expends countless hours in creating the best course possible."
-Perry Goldstein, composer; Professor of Music, Stony Brook University
 
"With the concentrated study he's done at Stony Brook, he's added...[a] muscular formal sense and a willingness to let unexpected shapes emerge from his materials."
"I believe Max to be a born teacher."
"In terms of sureness of expression, control of form, and sheer beauty of sound his [concert music] work is in a class with the leading young composers of his generation."
"Max's work for Proto-type [is] some of the best theatre music I have heard in downtown New York experimental theatre productions. The music is extensive in duration, essential to the experience, often the motivator of dramatic action...with each production the richness and inventiveness of the music [has] increased."
-Conrad Cummings, composer; The Juilliard School composition faculty
 
"Elk River's Edge [is] inspired, fresh and beautifully conceived...Max exhibit[s] skill in writing lyrical, complex rhythmic and evocative sections for both voice and instruments...a tremendous natural talent."
-Lisa Sylvester, pianist, conductor; Vocal Coach and Music Director, California Institute of the Arts
 
"I am quite impressed with what he has done."
-John Adams, composer, conductor
 
"This music is about today!"
-Wendell Logan, composer; Professor of Music, Oberlin Conservatory
 
"He has imagination, fluency, and craftsmanship..."
-Ed Miller, composer; Professor of Music, Oberlin Conservatory
 
"...a talented musician and an exceptionally gifted composer."
-Samuel Christler, Artistic Director and Conductor, Sinfonia-San Francisco