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Max Richter

Max Richter stands as one of the most prodigious figures on the contemporary music scene, with ground-breaking work as a composer, pianist, producer, and collaborator. From synthesizers and computers to a full symphony orchestra, Richter’s innovative work encompasses solo albums, ballets, concert hall performances, film and television series, video art installations and theatre works. He is Classically trained, studying at Edinburgh University, the Royal Academy of Music, London, and completing his studies with composer Luciano Berio in Florence,

“Memoryhouse”, Richter’s 2002 debut, has been described by The Independent, and Pitchfork Magazine as a “landmark”, while his 2004 album “The Blue Notebooks” was chosen by The Guardian as one of the best Classical works of the century. “SLEEP”, his eight-and-a-half-hour concert work, has been broadcast and performed worldwide, including at the Sydney Opera House, Berlin’s Kraftwerk, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, the Philharmonie de Paris, and at the Barbican, London. In 2012 Richter “Recomposed” the infamous Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, winning him the prestigious ECHO Classic Award, and an established place in the classical charts.

In recent years Richter’s music has become a mainstay for many of the world’s leading ballet companies, including The Mariinski Ballet, La Scala Milan, The Joffrey Ballet, New York City Ballet, The Paris Opera Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, Semper Oper, and NDT, while his collaborations with Wayne McGregor for The Royal Ballet have been widely acclaimed.

Richter has written prolifically for film and television, with recent projects including Hostiles, Black Mirror, Taboo – which gained him an Emmy nomination, HBO series The Leftovers and My Brilliant Friend and most recently White Boy Rick, Mary Queen of Scots and the sci-fi drama Ad Astra starring Brad Pitt. His music is also featured in Martin Scorsese’s Shutter Island, Ari Folman’s Waltz With Bashir and in the Oscar-winning Arrival by Denis Villeneuve.

Richter’s most recent commissions are from the city of Bonn to mark the Beethoven 250th year anniversary, and a further collaboration between Richter, Margaret Attwood and Wayne McGregor, based on Atwood’s Maddaddam trilogy of novels. His latest recorded project, VOICES, will be released in 2020.

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7
Album Review

Max Richter: Voices 2

Read "Voices 2" reviewed by Nenad Georgievski


Following up on his deeply resonating album Voices (Decca, 2020) which found its inspiration in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and centred on the messages it sent in these problematic, dark political times, composer Max Richter comes up with a follow-up entitled Voices 2, and the results are mesmerizing. Most of the album was recorded during the same sessions that produced Voices, with additional sessions during lockdown when Richter recorded some of the solo piano parts at Abbey Road ...

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Interview

Max Richter: Creativity and Culture are Part of How Society Talks to Itself

Read "Max Richter: Creativity and Culture are Part of How Society Talks to Itself" reviewed by Nenad Georgievski


An accomplished composer working across chamber and orchestral music, ballet, theater, installations, film and TV music, Max Richter has built his career on defying expectations, diversity, and taking chances. Over the course of 20 years, he has continually produced captivatingly idiosyncratic music that seamlessly and imaginatively blends a minimalist aesthetic with gentle ambient music. As such, it sits somewhere between the beautifully tragic, tranquil, life-affirming, and many things in-between. With Richter, music's social and political function is not lost and ...

21
Album Review

Max Richter: Voices

Read "Voices" reviewed by Nenad Georgievski


Music is one of the most powerful means of expression. Artists have always been able to express and channel their innermost thoughts and emotions into their music. Regardless if it's a protest, a response to racism, civil rights songs, debate, speaking truth to power or a universal plea for peace, the artists have been channeling these notions and emotions into their creations to use them as a means to raise awareness and inspire change for the better. As singer and ...

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Album Review

Max Richter: Three Worlds: Music From Woolf Works

Read "Three Worlds: Music From Woolf Works" reviewed by Nenad Georgievski


Since his debut record Memoryhouse, composer Max Richter has consistently delivered music of unquestionable beauty and depth. Over the years, he forged a unique path that saw him melding classical contemporary music with electronic and the result to that was always an engaging progression of various works that went back and forth between the familiar and comfortable with the new and forward-thinking. But it's tricky to try to pigeonhole the music of this composer. There is an unconventional inventiveness where ...

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Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Voices 2

Decca Music Group
2021

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Voices

Decca Music Group
2020

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Three Worlds: Music...

Deutsche Grammophon
2017

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Videos

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