Max Richter (Composer)

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Max Richter (b. 1966) is a German-born composer, now living in Great Britain.

[edit] Biography

Richter trained in composition and piano at University of Edinburgh, the Royal Academy of Music, and with Luciano Berio in Florence. The info available on his own website states that his early music was basically hard-core Modernism: much influenced by Xenakis.

After finishing his studies, Richter co-founded the contemporary classical ensemble Piano Circus, where he stayed for ten years, commissioning and performing works by Arvo Pärt, Brian Eno, Philip Glass, Julia Wolfe and Steve Reich. The ensemble was signed to Decca/Argo, producing five CDs.

In 1996 he worked with Future Sound of London on their album Dead Cities, initially starting as a pianist but ending up working on several tracks as well as co-writing one track (titled Max). Richter subsequently collaborated with FSOL over a period of two years, also contributing to the album The Isness. He has also collaborated with Mercury Prize winner Roni Size, with the album In The Mode.

Richter has released three solo albums; Memoryhouse (2002), The Blue Notebooks (2004), and his newest release, Songs From Before (2006).

In 2005, Richter produced the Vashti Bunyan album Lookaftering.