He may be only 8 years old, but Max Ferrer of Brier came out on top in this year’s competition for the honor of singing The Star Spangled Banner to kick off this year’s annual Edmonds fireworks display.

Max’s voice teacher is Edmonds singing instructor and voice coach Malya Muth, who sang the National Anthem at this event for the past two years.

“The chamber asked me again this year, but I thought it was time to open this honor to others,” she said. “I suggested a competition open to anyone living within the Edmonds School District, and offered to organize it.”

The chamber agreed to the plan, and in May a team of seven judges comprised of three professional singing teachers and four chamber members reviewed sample videos of the National Anthem being sung by 16 contestants ranging from 8 to 52 years old. They rated them on tone, diction, pitch, accuracy and artistry/expression. Muth was not one of the judges.

“I’ve been teaching voice in Edmonds for more than 10 years, and several of my students put in for this,” she said. “As anyone who’s sung it knows, The Star Spangled Banner requires an octave and a half range, which not everyone can muster. There’s some amazing talent in our community, but in the end the choice was pretty clear. Max was pitch perfect from D all the way down to G below middle C. He just wowed everyone.”

According to his mom Nicole, Max — who just finished the second grade at Brier Elementary — has been singing “ever since he could string words into sentences.”

“We recognized early on that he not only loved to sing, but was pretty darn good at it,” she added. “It wasn’t long before he started putting together his own performances, complete with sets and costumes, using our stair landing as his stage. After starting school, he participated in every talent show he could, and his passion for singing and performing really took off. As parents, we wanted to nurture this, so we looked around for a great voice coach and luckily found the perfect teacher in Malya.”

“It’s all I think about,” chimed in Max. “I mean, why sit around and watch boring TV when I can be performing? And I want to get really good. I want to sing and perform on Broadway some day, and I want to be famous. I know it will be a lot of work, but I’ll do whatever it takes.”

Look for Max in this year’s Fourth of July parade, and be sure to be on hand for the evening’s fireworks to hear this home-town kid from Brier with the amazing set of pipes do his a cappella version The Star Spangled Banner.

And if you want a preview of Max singing, watch his audition video here.

— Story and photos by Larry Vogel