Anthony Ritchie is the son of composer and conductor, John Ritchie. He studied composition at The University of Canterbury and the Liszt Academy in Hungary, and completed a PhD on the music of Bartok. He was Composer-in-Schools in Christchurch 1987, Mozart Fellow at Otago University in 1988-9, and Composer-in-Residence with the Dunedin Symphony Orchestra in 1993-94. His many commissioned works include concertos for violin, viola, flute, guitar and euphonium, four symphonies, chamber music, and six operas. His work has been performed by renowned ensembles such as The Ulster Orchestra and The Takacs Quartet, and soloists such as Bella Hristhova and Alexa Still. Eleven albums of his music have been released since 2005, and his Symphony No.4, Stations, was selected as one of the recordings of the year by MusicWeb International in 2015.
He and Ross Harris were joint-winners of the Classical Album of the Year in 2016 for Fjarran: In the Distance, works for clarinet quintet recorded by The Dalecarlia Quintet. That same year he was Composer-in-Residence at the Visby International Centre for Composition where he composed a substantial amount of his Symphony No.5. In 2018 his oratorio Gallipoli to the Somme was performed in London and Oxford, and that same year he completed his fifth symphony. Anthony has also written journal articles and book chapters focusing on New Zealand music, including ‘Gallipoli to the Somme: A Musical Witness to History’ in Studies in History and Sociology of Music (2020). He is currently Professor of Music at Otago University, and Head of the School of Performing Arts.
