Max Richter

Richter was born in Hamelin, Lower Saxony, West Germany. He grew up in Bedford, England, United Kingdom, and his education was at Bedford Modern School and Mander College of Further Education.{{Cite web|url-access=subscription|url=https://www.ukwhoswho.com/view/10.1093/ww/9780199540884.001.0001/ww-9780199540884-e-284091|title=Richter, Max, (born 22 March 1966), composer|website=WHO'S WHO & WHO WAS WHO|year=2015|doi=10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.U284091|isbn=978-0-19-954088-4}} He studied composition and piano at the University of Edinburgh, at the Royal Academy of Music, and with Luciano Berio in Florence.{{cite web|title=Max Richter|url=http://www.fat-cat.co.uk/site/artists/max-richter|work=FatCat Records|access-date=19 August 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141111072813/http://www.fat-cat.co.uk/site/artists/max-richter|archive-date=11 November 2014|url-status=dead}}{{cite web| url = http://www.maxrichtermusic.com/en/about| title = Max Richetr biography| access-date = 27 January 2015| publisher = maxrichtermusic.com| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20180823004155/http://www.maxrichtermusic.com/en/about| archive-date = 23 August 2018| url-status = dead}} After finishing his studies, Richter co-founded the contemporary classical ensemble Piano Circus.{{cite news |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music--many-hands-make-light-work-piano-circus-had-a-problem-six-keyboards-but-only-one-piece-to-play-what-could-they-do-without-steve-reich-1506360.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220512/https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music--many-hands-make-light-work-piano-circus-had-a-problem-six-keyboards-but-only-one-piece-to-play-what-could-they-do-without-steve-reich-1506360.html |archive-date=12 May 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |title=MUSIC / Many hands make light work |newspaper=The Independent |first=Mark |last=Pappenheim |date=24 November 1993 |access-date=19 October 2011 |location=London}} He stayed with the group for ten years, commissioning and performing works by minimalist musicians such as Arvo Pärt, Brian Eno, Philip Glass, Julia Wolfe, and Steve Reich. The ensemble was signed to Decca/Argo, producing five albums.

In 1996, Richter collaborated with Future Sound of London on the album Dead Cities, first as a pianist, but ultimately working on several tracks and co-writing the track "Max". He worked with the band for two years, also contributing to the albums The Isness and The Peppermint Tree and Seeds of Superconsciousness. In 2000, Richter worked with Mercury Prize winner Roni Size on the Reprazent album In the Møde. He produced Vashti Bunyan's 2005 album Lookaftering{{cite web |url=http://www.boomkat.com/article.cfm?id=10 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100913051312/http://www.boomkat.com/article.cfm?id=10 |archive-date=13 September 2010 |title=The Richter Scale |first=Adam |last=Park |publisher=Boomkat |date=11 October 2006 |access-date=24 September 2012}} and Kelli Ali's 2008 album Rocking Horse.{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/artist/e91466e9-e518-4b02-9198-a6c338694c9d |title=Biography Kelli Ali |newspaper=The Guardian |access-date=21 October 2011 |location=London}}[http://www.theaustralian.com.au/arts/review/max-richter-puts-electronic-stamp-on-vivaldis-four-seasons/story-fn9n8gph-1227129370448?nk=e184e9848266cf944990b33914aa45cc] The Australian, 22 November 2014

Richter's solo albums include:

Reviewed by Andy Gill as "a landmark work of contemporary classical music",{{cite news|last1=Gill|first1=Any|title=Album reviews: John Sheppard, Max Richter, Les Vents Francais|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/classical/reviews/album-reviews-john-sheppard-max-richter-les-vents-francais-9082637.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220512/https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/classical/reviews/album-reviews-john-sheppard-max-richter-les-vents-francais-9082637.html |archive-date=12 May 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|access-date=23 July 2015|newspaper=The Independent}} Richter's solo debut, Memoryhouse, an experimental album of "documentary music" recorded with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, explores real and imaginary stories and histories.{{cite web |url=http://fat-cat.co.uk/fatcat/release.php?id=299 |title=Max Richter Memoryhouse |access-date=21 October 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111030134023/http://fat-cat.co.uk/fatcat/release.php?id=299 |archive-date=30 October 2011 |url-status=dead }} Several of the tracks, such as "Sarajevo", "November", "Arbenita", and "Last Days", deal with the aftermath of the Kosovo conflict, while others are of childhood memories (e.g. "Laika's Journey"). The music combines ambient sounds, voices (including that of John Cage), and poetry readings from the work of Marina Tsvetaeva. BBC Music called the album "a masterpiece in neoclassical composition."{{Cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/music/reviews/vrzb/|title=BBC - Music - Review of Max Richter - Memoryhouse|first=Chris|last=Lo|website=Bbc.co.uk}} Memoryhouse was first played live by Richter at the Barbican Centre on 24 January 2014 to coincide with a vinyl re-release of the album.{{Cite web |title=Max Richter: Memoryhouse |url=https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/18864-max-richter-memoryhouse/ |access-date=2023-10-30 |website=Pitchfork |language=en-US}}

Pitchfork gave the re-release an 8.7 rating, commenting on its extensive influence:

In 2002, Richter’s ability to weave subtle electronics against the grand BBC Philharmonic Orchestra helped suggest new possibilities and locate fresh audiences that composers such as Nico Muhly and Michał Jacaszek have since pursued. As you listen to new work by Julianna Barwick or Jóhann Jóhannsson, thank Richter; just as Sigur Rós did with its widescreen rock, Richter showed that crossover wasn't necessarily an artistic curse.{{cite web|last=Currin|first=Grayson|title=Max Richter : Memoryhouse|url=http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/18864-max-richter-memoryhouse/|work=Album Review|access-date=30 April 2014}}

Named by The Guardian as one of the best classical works of the century,{{cite web|last1=Lewis|first1=John|title=The best classical music works of the 21st century|url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/sep/12/best-classical-music-works-of-the-21st-century?CMP=share_btn_tw|website=The Guardian|date=12 September 2019|access-date=12 September 2019}} The Blue Notebooks, released in 2004, featured the actress Tilda Swinton reading from Kafka's The Blue Octavo Notebooks and the work of Czesław Miłosz. Richter has said that The Blue Notebooks is a protest album about the Iraq War, as well as a meditation on his own troubled childhood.{{cite web|last1=Richter|first1=Max|title=Millions of us knew the Iraq War would be a catastrophe. Why didn't Tony Blair?|url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jul/08/iraq-war-tony-blair-creativity-chilcot-inquiry|website=Guardian|date=8 July 2016|access-date=7 February 2017}} Pitchfork described the album as "Not only one of the finest record of the last six months, but one of the most affecting and universal contemporary classical records in recent memory."{{cite web| url = http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/6917-the-blue-notebooks/| title = Max Richter: The Blue Notebooks| first = Mark| last = Pytlik| date = 1 July 2004| access-date = 28 January 2015| publisher = pitchfork.com}} To mark the 10th anniversary of its release, Richter created a track-by-track commentary for Drowned in Sound, in which he described the album as a series of interconnected dreams and an exploration of the chasm between lived experience and imagination.{{cite web|last1=Cleeve|first1=Sam|title=Max Richter on The Blue Notebooks: A Track-by-Track Guide|url=http://drownedinsound.com/in_depth/4148277-max-richter-on-the-blue-notebooks--a-10th-anniversary-track-by-track-guide|website=Drowned in Sound|access-date=15 October 2014|archive-date=15 January 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210115205500/https://drownedinsound.com/in_depth/4148277-max-richter-on-the-blue-notebooks--a-10th-anniversary-track-by-track-guide|url-status=dead}} The second track, "On the Nature of Daylight", is used in both the opening and closing sequences of the sci-fi film Arrival{{cite web|url=http://www.indiewire.com/2016/11/arrival-soundtrack-listen-johann-johannsson-score-1201745666/|title='Arrival' Soundtrack: Listen to Jóhann Jóhannsson's Moving Score – IndieWire|first=Liz|last=Calvario|website=Indiewire.com|date=11 November 2016}} and on the soundtrack of Martin Scorsese's Shutter Island. It is also used in episode 3, "Long, Long Time", of the HBO series The Last of Us.

On the eve of its 2018 reissue, marking the 15th anniversary of its release, Fact named the album "one of the most iconic pieces of classical and protest music of the 21st century."{{cite web |last1=Bowe |first1=Miles |title=Max Richter announces Blue Notebooks anniversary reissue with new music and remixes |date=19 April 2018 |url=http://www.factmag.com/2018/04/19/max-richter-blue-notebooks-anniversary-reissue-new-music/}} The re-release included a new cover design and several new tracks that were originally composed for the project. Richter also released another single, "Cypher", an 8-minute classical-electronic track based upon the theme of "On the Nature of Daylight".

In 2006, Richter released his third solo album, Songs from Before, which features Robert Wyatt reading texts by Haruki Murakami.{{cite web |url=http://www.puremusic.com/71max.html |title=SONGS FROM BEFORE • Max Richter |publisher=Puremusic |access-date=21 October 2011}}

Richter released his fourth solo album 24 Postcards in Full Colour, a collection of 24 classically composed miniatures for ringtones, in 2008.{{cite web |url=http://www.dustedmagazine.com/reviews/4621 |title=Max Richter – "Berlin By Overnight" (24 Postcards in Full Colour) |date=22 October 2008 |first=Michael |last=Crumsho |work=Dusted Magazine |access-date=21 October 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111026171852/http://dustedmagazine.com/reviews/4621 |archive-date=26 October 2011 |url-status=dead }} The pieces are a series of variations on the basic material, scored for strings, piano, and electronics.

Discussing the album with NPR Classical in 2017,{{cite news|last1=Huizenga|first1=Tom|title=What's Composer Max Richter Listening To? Pretty Much Everything|url=https://www.npr.org/sections/deceptivecadence/2017/04/05/520406762/whats-composer-max-richter-listening-to-pretty-much-everything|website=Npr.org|access-date=17 March 2018}} Richter said: "People were downloading ringtones at the time and I felt this was a missed opportunity for composers—that there was a space opening up, maybe a billion little loudspeakers walking around the planet, but nobody was really thinking of this as a space for creative music. So I set out to make these tiny little fragments and then, of course, in the poetic sense, the idea of these little sounds carrying objects traversing the planet—I started to think of these as a connection, as a sort of postcard into somebody's life, into their space."

Richter's 2010 album Infra takes as its central theme the 2005 terrorist bombings in London,{{cite web|last1=Smith|first1=Sid|title=Infra, A powerful response to the London bombings|url=http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/theater/ct-ent-0217-joffrey-ballet-review-20120216-story.html|website=Chicago Tribune|date=16 February 2012 |access-date=10 February 2017}} and is an extension of his 25-minute score for a ballet of the same name choreographed by Wayne McGregor and staged at the Royal Opera House.{{cite news| url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/reviews/royal-ballet-royal-opera-house-londonbrrambert-dance-company-sadlers-wells-london-1020245.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220512/https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/reviews/royal-ballet-royal-opera-house-londonbrrambert-dance-company-sadlers-wells-london-1020245.html |archive-date=12 May 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |location=London |work=The Independent |first=Jenny |last=Gilbert |date=16 November 2008 |title=Royal Ballet, Royal Opera House, London Rambert Dance Company, Sadler's Wells, London}} Infra comprises music written for piano, electronics, and string quintet, plus the full performance score and material that developed from the construction of the album.{{cite web |last=Walby |first=Sam |url=http://drownedinsound.com/releases/15534/reviews/4140557 |title=Album Review: Max Richter – Infra / Releases / Releases // Drowned In Sound |publisher=Drownedinsound.com |date=21 July 2010 |access-date=29 November 2013 |archive-date=19 February 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200219232206/http://drownedinsound.com/releases/15534/reviews/4140557 |url-status=dead }}

Pitchfork called the album "achingly gorgeous"{{Cite web|url=http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/14452-infra/|title=Max Richter: Infra Album Review|website=Pitchfork.com|language=en|access-date=20 November 2017}} and The Independent characterised it as "a journey in 13 episodes, emerging from a blur of static and finding its way in a repeated phrase that grows in loveliness".{{cite news| url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/classical/reviews/album-max-richter-infra-fat-cat-records-2046930.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220512/https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/classical/reviews/album-max-richter-infra-fat-cat-records-2046930.html |archive-date=12 May 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live | location=London | work=The Independent | first=Claudia | last=Pritchard | title=Album: Max Richter, Infra (Fat Cat Records) | date=8 August 2010}}

Richter's 'recomposed' version of Vivaldi's The Four Seasons, Recomposed by Max Richter: Vivaldi – The Four Seasons, was premiered in the UK at the Barbican Centre on 31 October 2012 by the Britten Sinfonia, conducted by André de Ridder with violinist Daniel Hope.{{cite web |url=http://www.barbican.org.uk/music/event-detail.asp?ID=13711 |title=Max Richter: Vivaldi Recomposed |date=31 October 2012 |access-date=10 December 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121109044457/http://www.barbican.org.uk/music/event-detail.asp?ID=13711 |archive-date=9 November 2012 }} Richter said he had discarded 75% of Vivaldi's original material,{{cite web |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTapNp-31rU |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211213/qTapNp-31rU| archive-date=13 December 2021 |url-status=live|title=Recomposed by Max Richter: Vivaldi, The Four Seasons |website=YouTube|date=19 July 2012 |access-date=27 December 2012}}{{cbignore}} but the parts he kept are phased and looped, emphasising his grounding in postmodern and minimalist music,{{cite web |url=http://notesonnotes.org/2012/11/28/recomposed-or-refragmented/ |title=Recomposed or refragmented? |date=28 November 2012 |first=Tania |last=Halban |access-date=1 February 2013}} and leading one critic to quip parenthetically, "(Perhaps you could call Richter a baroque decomposer?)."{{cite news|title=REVIEW: Opera Atelier's Angel.|last=Nestruck|first=Kelly|date=30 October 2021|newspaper=The Globe and Mail|location=Toronto|url=https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/theatre-and-performance/reviews/article-opera-ateliers-angel-will-be-heavenly-for-lovers-of-music-but/}} The album topped the iTunes classical chart in the UK, Germany, and the US.{{cite web|url=http://www.klassikakzente.de/aktuell/uebersicht/news/article:210836/chart-erfolg-fuer-max-richters-vivaldi-recomposed-in-den-usa |title=RECOMPOSED | Chart-Erfolg für Max Richters "Vivaldi Recomposed" in den USA | News |publisher=Klassikakzente.de |access-date=29 November 2013}} The US launch concert in New York at Le Poisson Rouge was recorded by NPR and streamed.{{cite news|title=Max Richter In Concert: Reimagining Vivaldi|url=https://www.npr.org/event/music/171307782/max-richter-in-concert-reimagining-vivaldi|access-date=26 July 2016|date=7 February 2013}}

In 2015, Richter released his most ambitious project to date, a collaboration with visual artist and creative partner Yulia Mahr{{cite web|url=https://www.holeandcorner.com/long-reads/sleep|title=Hole & Corner longreads: Sleep – a restorative lullaby of our times...|website=Hole & Corner}} titled Sleep, an 8.5-hour listening experience targeted to fit a full night's rest. The album contains 31 compositions, most of them 20–30 minutes in duration, all based on variations of 4-5 themes. The music is calm, slow, and mellow, and composed for piano, cello, two violas, two violins, organ, soprano vocals, synthesisers, and electronics. Strings are played by the American Contemporary Music Ensemble (Ben Russell, Yuki Numata Resnik, Caleb Burhans, Clarice Jensen and Brian Snow), vocals are by Grace Davidson, and the piano, synthesisers, and electronics are played by Richter.

Richter also released a one-hour version of the project, From Sleep, that contains roughly one shortened version of every "theme" from Sleep (hence its title) and is supposed to act as a shorter listening experience for the Sleep project.Sleep liner notes: The complete version of Sleep is an eight-hour work, intended to be heard—experienced—in one sitting, from start to finish, while the listener is asleep. Conversely, the one-hour recording, From Sleep, is designed to be listened to while awake. "They are two separate objects," explains Richter.

Richter has called Sleep an eight-hour-long lullaby. The work was strongly influenced by Gustav Mahler's symphonic works.{{cite web|url=https://www.amazon.de/SLEEP-Limited-Edition-Max-Richter/dp/B00ZJQ3FMA#productDescription_secondary_view_div_1442955298597|title=Description | Beschreibung von Max Richters Sleep|website=Amazon Germany|access-date=22 September 2015}}

The entire composition was performed from midnight to 8 A.M. on 27 September 2015 as the climax of the "Science and Music" weekend on BBC Radio 3.{{cite web|url=http://www.sinfinimusic.com/uk/features/news/bbc-radio-3-wellcome-trust-why-music-weekend-max-richter-sleep-september-2015|title=Sinfinimusic – Deutsche Grammophon|website=Sinfinimusic.com}} The performance broke several records, including the longest live broadcast of a single musical composition in the network's history.{{cite magazine|url=https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/music-to-sleep-by|title=Music to Sleep By|first=Anwen|last=Crawford|magazine=The New Yorker |date=12 October 2015}}

Jarvis Cocker chose Sleep as the BBC Radio 6 album of the year for 2015.{{cite web|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/4ySmtJWFXVfwFwPJYqnzv8Z/6-music-recommends-albums-of-the-year|title=BBC – 6 Music Recommends Albums of the Year|website=BBC}} Pitchfork named it one of the 50 best ambient albums of all time.{{cite web|url=http://pitchfork.com/features/lists-and-guides/9948-the-50-best-ambient-albums-of-all-time/|title=The 50 Best Ambient Albums of All Time – Pitchfork|website=Pitchfork.com|date=26 September 2016 }}

Richter has performed the full-length Sleep live at the Concertgebouw (Grote Zaal) Amsterdam;{{cite news|last1=Galema|first1=Joost|title=Eindelijk mag je gapen en slapen in het Concertgebouw |url=https://www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2017/07/16/eindelijk-mag-je-gapen-en-slapen-in-het-concertgebouw-12110171-a1566832 |website=nrc|date=16 July 2017 |access-date=31 July 2017}} the Sydney Opera House;{{cite web|last1=Hennessy|first1=Kate|title=Max Richter's Sleep review – exquisitely soundtracked sleepover at the Sydney Opera House |url=https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2016/jun/06/max-richters-sleep-review-an-exquisitely-soundtracked-sleepover-at-the-sydney-opera-house|website=The Guardian|date=6 June 2016|access-date=31 July 2017}} in Berlin (as part of Berliner Festspiele's Maerz Musik Festival);{{cite web|title=Max Richter's Sleep lulls slumbering concert-goers in Berlin |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2016/mar/17/max-richter-premiere-sleep-berlin-festspieles-maerz-musik-festival |website=The Guardian|date=17 March 2016 |access-date=31 July 2017}} in Madrid (as part of Veranos de la Villa);{{cite news|last1=Neira|first1=Fernando|title=De cabezadita en cabezadita, gentileza de Max Richter |url=https://elpais.com/cultura/2017/07/09/actualidad/1499615829_446579.html |website=El Pais|date=11 July 2017|access-date=31 July 2017}} and in London (at the Barbican).{{cite news|last1=haider|first1=Arwa|title=Music to dream to: Max Richter's Sleep, London|url=https://www.ft.com/content/1f9c41c4-33d1-11e7-99bd-13beb0903fa3|website=Financial Times|date=8 May 2017}} In November 2017, Sleep was played at the Philharmonie de Paris.{{cite web|title=MAX RICHTER – SLEEP|url=https://philharmoniedeparis.fr/en/activity/concert-performance/17848-max-richter-sleep|website=Philharmonie de Paris|date=18 November 2017 }}

Sleep was performed for its first outdoor performance and largest performance to date in Los Angeles on 27–28 July and 28–29 July 2018. The performances took place in Grand Park, opposite Los Angeles Music Center. Each performance had 560 beds and was timed so the final movement, "Dream 0 (till break of day)", would occur at dawn. Richter played with members of the American Contemporary Music Ensemble.{{Cite web|url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/max-richter-bringing-overnight-concert-sleep-la-why-sushi-helps-him-stay-awake-1127525/|title=Max Richter on Bringing Overnight Concert "Sleep" to L.A. and Why Sushi Helps Him Stay Awake|first1=Chris|last1=Gardner|website=The Hollywood Reporter|date=24 July 2018}}

In September 2018, Sleep was played in the Antwerp cathedral{{cite web|last1=Lannoo|first1=Benoit|title='Sleep' in de Antwerpse kathedraal|url=https://www.kerknet.be/kerknet-redactie/artikel/%E2%80%98sleep%E2%80%99-de-antwerpse-kathedraal|website=Kerknet|access-date=8 September 2018}} for an audience of 400, who were given beds for the night. In August 2019 it was performed in Helsinki, as part of the Helsinki Festival, in the tent arena, with half the audience in two-person tents.

In March 2025, a full-length performance took place in the Vienna Arsenal, in the Malersaal,{{Cite web |title=Sleep mit Max Richter |url=https://www.johannstrauss2025.at/event/sleep-mit-max-richter/ |url-status=live}} a location normally used as a painter’s workshop for opera and stage production decor and backdrops.{{Cite web |date=10 March 2025 |title=Eventlocation Malersäle |url=https://artforart.at/event-location |url-status=live}}

"I think of it as a piece of protest music", Richter has said. "It's protest music against this sort of very super-industrialised, intense, mechanised way of living right now. It's a political work in that sense. It's a call to arms to stop what we're doing.{{cite web|last1=Laban|first1=Linda|title=Exploring the Science of Sleep with Max Richter|url=https://www.sxsw.com/world/profile/2018/exploring-science-sleep-max-richter/|website=Sxsw.com|date=February 2018|access-date=16 March 2018}}

Three Worlds: Music From Woolf Works is Richter’s eighth album, released in January 2017. The music is taken from his score for the ballet Woolf Works, choreographed by Wayne McGregor at the Royal Opera House in London, which follows a three-part structure offering evocations of three books by Virginia Woolf: Mrs Dalloway, Orlando, and The Waves. The album features classical and electronic sound as well as a voice recording of Woolf herself.{{cite web|url=http://www.popmatters.com/review/max-richter-three-worlds/|title=Max Richter: Three Worlds – Music From Woolf Works|date=27 January 2017}}

Richter's Voices project, a collaboration with visual artist Yulia Mahr,{{cite web |title=BFI At Home Voices: Max Richter and Yulia Mahr in conversation with Mark Kermode |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kO1Gbl740ac&ab_channel=BFI |website=BFI YouTube| date=30 November 2020 }} is inspired by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and features an 'upside down' orchestra, a concept he developed to reflect his dismay about post-truth politics in the 21st century. The album contains readings of the declaration by Eleanor Roosevelt and actress KiKi Layne, with another 70 readings crowd-sourced from around the world.{{cite web |first1=Sharon |last1=Kelly |title=Max Richter Announces New Album 'Voices' |url=https://www.udiscovermusic.com/classical-news/max-richter-voices/#:~:text=Over%20a%20decade%20after%20its,music%20video,%20was%20released%20today |website=Udiscovermusic |date=25 June 2020 |access-date=10 November 2020}}

Mahr's accompanying videos{{cite web |title=Yulia Mahr's video for Max Richter's new single calls for human compassion |url=https://www.creativeboom.com/inspiration/bafta-award-winner-yulia-mahrs-video-for-max-richters-new-single/I |website= Creative Boom}} deal with the artist's own experiences of migration. The video 'Mercy'{{cite web |title=Max Richter - Mercy (Official Music Video by Yulia Mahr) |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWrc6ihmaE0&ab_channel=MaxRichterVEVO |website= Max Richter YouTube| date=10 July 2020 }} won a BAFTA award.{{cite web |title=BAFTA AWARD WINNER YULIA MAHR'S NEW VIDEO FOR MAX RICHTER'S "MERCY" OUT NOW|url=https://www.umusic.ca/press-releases/bafta-award-winner-yulia-mahrs-new-video-for-max-richters-mercy-out-now/|website= UMusic}}

Yo-Yo Ma played the album's opening piece at his concert "A New Equilibrium"{{cite web |title=Yo-Yo Ma Honors UN with Live Virtual Concert |url=https://www.yo-yoma.com/news/yo-yo-ma-a-new-equilibrium/ |website=Yo-Yo Ma Official Website |access-date=10 November 2020}} honouring the 75th anniversary of the UN's creation.

On 6 August 2021, the album Exiles was released. It was recorded in 2019, in Tallinn, Estonia, with the collaboration of conductor Kristjan Järvi and the Baltic Sea Philharmonic.{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2021/aug/02/max-richter-album-exiles|title=Composer-pianist Max Richter: 'Creativity is activism'|date=2 August 2021|author-first=Kat|author-last=Lister|work=The Guardian|access-date=29 March 2022}} Exiles includes extended versions of previously released works such as "The Haunted Ocean", "Infra 5", "Flowers Of Herself", "On The Nature Of Daylight" and "Sunlight".{{cite web|url=https://limelightmagazine.com.au/reviews/exiles-max-richter-baltic-sea-philharmonic-kristjan-jarvi/|title=Exiles (Max Richter, Baltic Sea Philharmonic, Kristjan Järvi)|date=20 November 2021|author-first=Angus|author-last=Angus|publisher=Limelight|access-date=29 March 2022}} Richter has called the album a serious work because of its subject, which has an emotional texture.{{cite web|url=https://www.br-klassik.de/aktuell/news-kritik/max-richter-komponist-neoklassik-interview-neues-album-exiles-fluechtlingskrise-100.html|title=DIE WELT MIT ANDEREN AUGEN SEHEN|trans-title=See the world with different eyes|date=6 August 2021|publisher=BR-Klassik|language=de|access-date=29 March 2022|author-first=Kathrin|author-last=Hasselbeck}}

Richter has written many film and television soundtracks over the years. He rose to prominence with his score to Ari Folman's Golden Globe-winning film Waltz with Bashir in 2007,{{cite web|url=https://www.pbs.org/newshour/art/blog/2009/02/richters-scale-scoring-waltz-with-bashir.html |title=Richter's Scale: Scoring 'Waltz With Bashir' | Art Beat | PBS NewsHour |publisher=PBS |date=5 February 2009 |access-date=29 November 2013}} which uses synth-based sounds and won him the European Film Award for Best Composer. He also scored the independent feature film Henry May Long, starring Randy Sharp and Brian Barnhart, in 2008, and wrote the music for Feo Aladag's film Die Fremde (with additional music by Stéphane Moucha).{{Cite web|url=http://www.discogs.com/Max-Richter-St%C3%A9phane-Moucha-Die-Fremde-Original-Soundtrack/release/2412419|title=Max Richter / Stéphane Moucha – Die Fremde (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)|website=Discogs|date=12 March 2010 |language=en|access-date=20 November 2017}}

In 2010, Dinah Washington's "This Bitter Earth" was remixed with Richter's "On the Nature of Daylight" for the Martin Scorsese film Shutter Island.{{cite web|url=http://newcityfilm.com/2010/02/17/a-life-in-the-mind-with-shutter-island-scorsese-goes-for-baroque-review/ |title=A Life in the Mind: With "Shutter Island," Scorsese goes for baroque (review) |publisher=Newcity Film |date=17 February 2010 |access-date=29 November 2013}} In July 2010, "On the Nature of Daylight" and "Vladimir's Blues" were featured throughout the BBC Two two-part drama Dive, co-written by Dominic Savage and Simon Stevens. "On the Nature of Daylight" was also featured in an episode of HBO's television series Luck.{{cite web |url=http://www.hbo.com/luck/episodes/01/04-episode-04/music.html |title=Luck: Season 1 Episode 4: Music |publisher=HBO |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151009091352/http://www.hbo.com/luck/episodes/01/04-episode-04/music.html |archive-date=9 October 2015 |url-status=dead }} Four tracks—"Europe, After the Rain", "The Twins (Prague)", "Fragment", and "Embers"—were used in the six-part 2005 BBC documentary Auschwitz: The Nazis and the Final Solution.{{cite web|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0941057/|title=Frenzied Killing|date=8 February 2005|website=IMDb.com}} Richter also wrote the soundtrack to Peter Richardson's documentary How to Die in Oregon{{cite web|url=http://criterioncast.com/2011/03/26/joshua-reviews-peter-richardsons-how-to-die-in-oregon-sxsw-2011-review/ |title=Joshua Reviews Peter Richardson's How To Die in Oregon [SXSW 2011 Review] |publisher=CriterionCast |date=26 March 2011 |access-date=29 November 2013}} and the score to Impardonnables, directed by André Téchiné.{{cite web |url=http://www.arte.tv/de/3911890,CmC=3913052.html |title="Unforgivable" von André Téchiné | Cannes 2011 | Film | de – ARTE |publisher=Arte.tv |access-date=29 November 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131203022553/http://www.arte.tv/de/3911890,CmC=3913052.html |archive-date=3 December 2013 }}

An excerpt of the song "Sarajevo" from Memoryhouse was used in the international trailer for Ridley Scott's film Prometheus. The track "November", from the same album, was featured in the international trailer for Terrence Malick's 2012 film To the Wonder and in the trailer for Clint Eastwood's 2011 film J. Edgar. Films featuring Richter's music released in 2011 include French drama Sarah's Key by Gilles Paquet-Brenner and David MacKenzie's romantic thriller Perfect Sense. In 2012 he composed the scores for Henry Alex Rubin's Disconnect and Cate Shortland's Australian-German war thriller Lore. Richter again collaborated with Folman on The Congress, released in 2013.

Richter composed the original soundtrack for the HBO series The Leftovers, created by Damon Lindelof and Tom Perrotta, which premiered in June 2014. Some of these compositions are included in the albums Memoryhouse and The Blue Notebooks.{{cite web|title=Max Richter to Score HBO's The Leftovers|url=http://filmmusicreporter.com/2014/02/05/max-richter-to-score-hbos-the-leftovers/|website=Filmmusicreporter.com}} He also composed the score for the feature film Testament of Youth in 2014.

In 2016 Richter composed the score to "Nosedive", an episode of Black Mirror. Also that year, he scored Luke Scott's debut feature Morgan and the political thriller Miss Sloane, while his piece "On the Nature of Daylight" opened and closed Denis Villeneuve's film Arrival. "On the Nature Of Daylight" also closes episode 7 of Castle Rock, "The Queen". He composed all the music in BBC One's drama Taboo, broadcast in January and February 2017.{{Cite web|url=http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2017-02-04/what-is-taboos-theme-song|title=What is Taboo's theme song?|last=Fullerton|first=Huw|date=4 February 2017|website=RadioTimes|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170207195612/http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2017-02-04/what-is-taboos-theme-song|archive-date=7 February 2017|url-status=dead}}

In 2017 The Current War used Richter's "Spring 1"{{Cite web|url=https://www.soundtrack.net/movie/the-current-war/|title=The Current War (2019) - Soundtrack.Net|website=Soundtrack.net}} and documentary filmmaker Nancy Buirski used the track combining Dinah Washington's "This Bitter Earth" with Richter's "On The Nature of Daylight", first heard in Shutter Island, in her film Recy Taylor.{{cite magazine| url = https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/rape-of-recy-taylor-venice-2017-1037043| title = 'The Rape of Recy Taylor': Film Review, Venice 2017 | author = Rooney, David| date = 9 September 2017| access-date = 14 March 2018| magazine = The Hollywood Reporter}} In December 2017 an excerpt of Recomposed by Max Richter: Vivaldi – The Four Seasons was used in The Crown as the theme for Princess Margaret's (Vanessa Kirby) turbulent courtship with photographer Anthony Armstrong-Jones (Matthew Goode).

In 2018 Richter composed music for the films Hostiles, White Boy Rick, Never Look Away, and Mary Queen of Scots. He also composed music for the HBO mini-series My Brilliant Friend. In 2019 Richter scored the film Ad Astra, with additional music by Nils Frahm and Lorne Balfe. An excerpt of his rendition of Dona nobis pacem was used for the fifth season of the BBC series Peaky Blinders.{{Cite web|url=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt6229670/soundtrack|title="Peaky Blinders" The Loop (TV Episode 2019) |website=IMDb.com}}

In 2021 "On The Nature of Daylight" was again used in a TV show, The Handmaid's Tale, for a scene in season 4, episode 9. Three years earlier, Elisabeth Moss, the show's lead actress, starred in the video for the piece. As a director of the episode, as well as the star, she specifically chose the piece.{{Cite web|url=https://www.classical-music.com/features/articles/the-handmaids-tale-soundtrack-who-wrote-the-music-and-can-you-buy-the-score/|website=Classical-music.com|title=The Handmaid's Tale soundtrack: Who wrote the music and can you buy the score? }}{{Cite web|url=http://www.npr.org/sections/deceptivecadence/2018/06/21/622283030/max-richters-blue-notebooks-offers-moving-portrait-for-elisabeth-moss|website=Npr.org|title=Max Richter's 'Blue Notebooks' Offers Moving Portrait for Elisabeth Moss |date=21 June 2018 |last1=Huizenga |first1=Tom }} In October 2021 Richter composed the score for the Apple TV series Invasion.{{Cite web|url=https://filmmusicreporter.com/2021/10/22/first-tracks-from-max-richters-invasion-soundtrack-released/|title=First Tracks from Max Richter's 'Invasion' Soundtrack Released| date = 22 October 2021| access-date = 19 March 2022|via=filmmusicreporter.com}}

In 2023 "On The Nature of Daylight" was featured in the third episode of the HBO series The Last of Us.{{Cite web|url=https://collider.com/last-of-us-hbo-episode-3-song/|title=Why 'The Last of Us' Episode 3's Tear-Jerking Song Sounds Familiar and Why It Works| date = 31 January 2023| access-date = 5 February 2023|via=collider.com}}

In November 2024 Richter was a guest on BBC's Later... with Jools Holland.{{Cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m0024zlc/later-with-jools-holland-series-65-episode-4|title=Later... with Jools Holland - Series 65: Episode 4|via=www.bbc.co.uk}}

Richter wrote the score to Infra as part of a Royal Ballet-commissioned collaboration with choreographer Wayne McGregor and artist Julian Opie. The production was staged at the Royal Opera House in London in 2008. In 2011, Richter composed a chamber opera based on neuroscientist David Eagleman's book Sum: Forty Tales from the Afterlives. The opera was choreographed by Wayne McGregor and premiered at the Royal Opera House Linbury Studio Theatre in 2012. The piece received positive reviews, with London's Evening Standard saying "[it] fits together rather beautifully".{{cite web|first=Kieron |last=Quirke |url=https://www.standard.co.uk/goingout/music/sum-royal-opera-house--review-7784730.html/ |title=Sum, Royal Opera House – review – Music – Going Out – London Evening Standard |publisher=Standard.co.uk |date=24 May 2012 |access-date=29 November 2013}} Their collaboration continued in April 2014 with Wayne McGregor's 'Kairos'; a ballet set to Richter's recomposition of the Four Seasons and part of a collaborative program involving three different choreographers titled 'Notations' with Ballett Zürich.{{cite web|title=Dance Festival Steps|url=http://www.steps.ch/Programme/Agenda-Detail?uniqueId=161072_161074_2014042420140424|work=Notations|publisher=Migros Culture Percentage|access-date=30 April 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140502004915/http://www.steps.ch/Programme/Agenda-Detail?uniqueId=161072_161074_2014042420140424|archive-date=2 May 2014|url-status=dead}} In 2015 Richter and McGregor collaborated again on a new full-length ballet, Woolf Works, inspired by three novels by Virginia Woolf.{{cite news|last=Sulcas|first=Rosalyn|title=Virginia Woolf Ballet and New Philip Glass Work Highlight Royal Opera House Season|url=http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/03/31/virginia-woolf-ballet-and-new-philip-glass-work-highlight-royal-opera-house-season/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0|newspaper=The New York Times|date=31 March 2014 |access-date=30 April 2014}}

Crystal Pite has also choreographed a ballet to Richter's Vivaldi Recomposed, titled The Seasons' Canon, which premiered at the Opera National de Paris in 2016.{{cite web|url=https://www.operadeparis.fr/en/magazine/dance-as-a-mother-tongue|title=Dance as a mother tongue|website=Opéra national de Paris|access-date=2 February 2019}} Sol Leon and Paul Lightfoot choreographed a piece to Richter's "Exiles" for the Nederlands Dans Theater.{{cite web|url=https://www.operaballet.nl/en/doublebill/2018-2019/show/nederlands-dans-theater-1|title=Nederlands Dans Theater 1|date=16 February 2018|website=Nederlands Dans Theater 1 - Dutch National Opera & Ballet|access-date=2 February 2019}}

In 2012/13, Richter contributed music to The National Theatre of Scotland's production of Macbeth, starring Alan Cumming. The play opened at New York's Lincoln Centre and subsequently moved to Broadway.{{cite news| url=http://theater.nytimes.com/2013/04/22/theater/reviews/macbeth-with-alan-cumming-at-the-barrymore-theater.html?pagewanted=all | work=The New York Times | first=Charles | last=Isherwood | title='Macbeth,' With Alan Cumming at the Barrymore Theater | date=21 April 2013}} The company had previously used Richter's "Last Days" in their acclaimed production of Black Watch.

Richter worked on a project based on Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings and Antonio Vivaldi's The Four Seasons and made a ballet with artist Idris Khan.{{Cite web |last=Amadour |date=2022-10-01 |title=An Interview with Idris Khan |url=https://www.riotmaterial.com/interview-with-idris-khan/ |access-date=2024-01-15 |website=Riot Material |language=en-US}}

Richter was called upon again{{cite web | url=https://www.thestar.com/entertainment/stage/review/2022/11/25/national-ballets-maddaddam-is-a-sensory-feast-of-sights-and-sounds.html | title=Review | National Ballet's 'MADDADDAM' is a sensory feast of sights and sounds | website=Toronto Star | date=24 November 2022 }} by past collaborator Wayne McGregor to score and produce an adaptation of Margaret Atwood's MaddAddam trilogy commissioned by the National Ballet of Canada and The Royal Ballet in 2022, wherein his orchestral and electronically produced compositions, both alone and together, help to realize Atwood's dystopian vision.

In 2010, Richter's soundscape The Anthropocene formed part of Darren Almond's film installation at the White Cube gallery in London. The composer has also collaborated with digital art collective Random International on two projects, contributing scores to the installations Future Self (2012),{{cite web|url=http://www.designboom.com/art/random-international-future-self-at-made-space-berlin/ |title=rAndom international: future self at MADE space, berlin |date=11 May 2012 |publisher=Designboom.com |access-date=29 November 2013}} staged at the MADE space in Berlin, and Rain Room (2012/13) at London's Barbican Centre{{cite news| url=https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2012/oct/03/random-international-rain-barbican/ | location=London | work=The Guardian | first=Oliver | last=Wainwright | title=Art (visual arts only), Art and design, Barbican, Culture, Science, UK news | date=3 October 2012}} and MOMA, in New York.{{cite news| url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/11/moma-rain-room-random-international_n_3416692.html/ | work=Huffington Post | first=Katherine | last=Brooks | title=WATCH: Inside The Rain Room | date=11 June 2013}}

Richter met visual artist Yulia Mahr at the Edinburgh Festival in 1988. They began living together, in Islington, London, in 1993 and have three children, born in 1998, 1999 and 2008. They married in 2003.{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2022/dec/30/how-yulia-mahr-met-max-richter-my-first-impression-was-who-is-this-sweaty-man|title=How Yulia Mahr met Max Richter: 'My first impression was, who is this sweaty man?'|first=Lizzie|last=Cernik|date=30 December 2022|newspaper=The Guardian}} The couple live in Oxfordshire{{cite web | url=https://www.wallpaper.com/architecture/studio-richter-mahr-creative-production-oxfordshire-uk | title=Oxfordshire studio blends minimalism and rural architecture|website=Wallpaper.com | date=29 March 2022 }}{{failed verification|date=February 2024}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.banburyguardian.co.uk/whats-on/arts-and-entertainment/leading-composer-max-richter-to-appear-at-blenheim-747045|title=Leading composer Max Richter to appear at Blenheim|website=Banburyguardian.co.uk|access-date=10 September 2024}}{{cite news | url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/music/artists/max-richter-interview-world-has-got-shouty-didnt-want-add/ | title=Max Richter interview: 'As our world has got more shouty, I didn't want to add to that' | newspaper=The Telegraph | date=18 July 2020 | last1=McCormick | first1=Neil }} with their children, two black Labradors called Haku (named after the dragon in Studio Ghibli’s Spirited Away) and Evie, and a cat called Kiki (the character in Kiki’s Delivery Service).{{cite web | url=https://www.alternativeclassical.co.uk/interviews/max-richter | title=Interview: Max Richter|website=Alternativeclassical.co.uk | date=30 May 2022 }} The couple have previously lived in Edinburgh and Berlin.

• List of postminimalist composers
• Music and sleep

{{Reflist}}

• {{Official website}}
• {{IMDb name|2068037}}
• [http://www.tokafi.com/news/max-richter-infra/ Review of Infra in Tokafi Magazine]
• [http://www.nowness.com/day/2010/7/14/776/max-richters-infra Review of Infra in Nowness magazine]
• [http://www.dumbofeather.com/conversation/max-richter-is-a-composer/ Max Richter is a Composer] Dumbo Feather magazine, 2012
• [https://www.whitefungus.com/max-richter-sleep-perchance-hear To Sleep, Perchance to Hear: A Report on Max Richter's SLEEP]

{{Max Richter}}

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