Christchurch-born Anthony Ritchie is a New Zealand composer, academic and educator. He is the son of John Ritchie, a professor who taught composition and orchestration at the University of Canterbury. He took piano lessons from the age of nine, showing early aptitude for improvisation. He began composing while still at school, influenced by the work of Béla Bartók, on whom he completed his Ph.D. in 1987. In 1987 Ritchie was Composer-in-Schools in Christchurch and in 1988–1989 Mozart Fellow at the University of Otago. As a freelance composer his works number over two hundred, including symphonies, operas, concertos, choral works, chamber music, solo works, commissions, as well as works for many performers such as Matthew Marshall, Michael Houstoun and Wilma Smith. In 2018 he became "Professor of Composition" at The University of Otago after 18 years of teaching composition, and in 2020, he accepted the position as head of the Otago School of Performing Arts.