Anthony Ritchie

Anthony Ritchie is one of New Zealand’s most prolific composers, having written over a hundred works including four operas, three symphonies and several concertos. Ritchie completed his Bachelor of Music with Honours at the University of Canterbury, and went on to study composition with Attila Bozay at the Liszt Academy before completing a Ph.D. on the music of Béla Bartók, studying at the Bartok Archives in Budapest. Ritchie has been the Composer-in-Schools in Christchurch, the Mozart Fellow at the University of Otago and Composer in Residence for the Dunedin Sinfonia. He now teaches composition at the University of Otago.

Anthony is comfortable in both the concert hall and theatre and has received commissions from a diverse range of performers including the NZSO, The Song Company and the Footnote Dance Company. Notable successes have included the premiere of both his Symphony No. 2 and his opera Quartet in the New Zealand International Arts Festival. In 2004 his opera, The God Boy, was premiered in the Otago Festival of the Arts to critical acclaim. Ritchie’s chamber works, songs, 24 preludes for piano, and symphonies have all been commercially recorded and released. Symphony No.3 was premiered in 2010, and recorded by the NZSO on a new Atoll disk of the composer’s work released in 2011. It received The Listener’s ‘Supreme Achievement Award’ for Classical music in 2010. The immense success of his Flute Concerto is also creating an international reputation for this New Zealand composer. Anthony has also written film music, his music for Natural History NZ’s ‘Southern Journeys’ being a notable success. He is currently Associate Professor in composition at Otago University.

For further information and a complete list of compositions, visit anthonyritchie.co.nz.