Max Richter

Composer

Max Richter was born in Hamelin in 1966 and grew up in England. He is one of the most influential music makers of his generation. He first completed a classical music education and studied composition and piano at Edinburgh University and later at the London Royal Academy of Music. He then became a student of the composer Luciano Berio in Florence. After returning to London in 1989, he co-founded the six-piano ensemble "Piano Circus" and intensively studied representatives of minimalism such as Arvo Pärt, Steve Reich, Terry Riley and Michael Nyman. His musical language, which gradually crystallised, encompasses a broad stylistic spectrum that includes musical structures from the Renaissance to Romanticism on the one hand, and on the other, incorporates the latest developments from electronic and experimental music as well as sounds from rock music. Numerous recordings and soundtracks have been made in recent years, including the album Recomposed:Vivaldi - The Four Seasons, released in 2012 on Deutsche Grammophon. Choreographer Wayne McGregor used the music for the ballet Kairos, which is in the repertoire of the Bayerisches Staatsballett. This album was followed in 2015 by Sleep, a concept album stretching over more than eight hours and drawing on scientific findings from sleep research. The ballet Schmetterling by Sol León and Paul Lightfoot features music by Max Richter from the albums Memoryhouse (2002) and The Blue Notebooks (2004).

(Information as of 2023)