Max Richter

Straddling the line between electronic music and the contemporary minimalist movement, composer Max Richter has achieved widespread international success with several albums that have charted. Born in Hamelin, Germany, on March 22, 1966, he founded the band Piano Circus in 1989 and later collaborated with Future Sound of London and Roni Size. Following the experimental album Memoryhouse (2002), created with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Max Richter flourished in a wide variety of projects. As a film composer, he wrote the score for Waltz with Bashir, followed by other soundtracks including Unforgiven (2010), The Lunchbox (2013), and La French (2015). At the same time, he worked on personal compositions, which were released on the albums 24 Postcards in Full Color (2008) and Infra (2010). In 2012, he reinterpreted Vivaldi’s Four Seasons concertos in his own style for the Recomposed Series collection on the Deutsche Grammophon label. In 2015, an eight-hour suite titled Sleep was premiered in Berlin and released on CD in both its complete and abridged versions (From Sleep). In 2017, Out of the Dark Room was released, compiling various film scores. The composer focused on this work, successively composing music for ballet (Three Worlds - Music from Woolf Works), films, and TV series such as Taboo, Henry May Long (2017), White Boy Rick, Never Look Away, and Mary Queen of Scots (2018). Following the score for the film Ad Astra (2019), his new original piece Voices (2020) was released, focusing on the vocal realm—both spoken and sung. In 2022, ten years after his first experience with recomposition, Max Richter teamed up with violinist Elena Urioste and the Chineke! Orchestra for the new version titled The New Four Seasons. Between commissions from film and television and his personal works, the prolific composer expanded his catalog with the soundtracks for the film Spaceman, the series The Veil, and the album In a Landscape, all released in 2024. Featured on the classical charts, the latter reached No. 2 in the United States and No. 1 in the United Kingdom and France. In 2025, he collaborated with violinist Louisa Fuller and cellist Max Ruisi on a minimalist, chamber-music-style album, Sleep Circle, followed by the ambient soundtrack for the film Hammet.  In 2026, Max Richter’s score for Hamnet earned him an Oscar nomination for Best Original Score; he also received the Berlinale Camera and was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for services to music. In February, Max Richter: Hamnet Live was released, an EP featuring three arrangements recorded live in concert. Finally, on October 16, 2026, Max Richter released While The Flood Rages, an album of 15 pieces drawn from his collaboration with choreographer Wayne McGregor for the ballet MaddAddam, inspired by Margaret Atwood’s trilogy. Its first single, “Now We Can Sing”, was released ahead of the album.