About

Zachary James Ritter (he/they) is a composer who wants to work with you. Driven by making music with his friends and making friends with his music, Ritter strives to create works that resonate with his collaborators and audience through shared human experience. Zach's work incorporates the voice, electronics, and the quintessentially human aesthetics of failure. He is influenced most by electronica, minimalism, and traditional music of Ireland and America. Spare, raw musical landscapes invite calm, meditative listening experiences punctuated by layered textures with playfully unpredictable rhythms. He likes to make music people want to listen to, music made in sincerity.

Ritter holds an MM in classical composition from Purchase Conservatory where he studied with Gregory Spears and Laura Kaminsky, and a BA in Music from Binghamton University where he studied composition with Daniel Thomas Davis, and voice with Professor Mary Burgess. He has written for ensembles including Ficino Ensemble, Quartetto Zuena, Choral Chameleon, The Cassatt Quartet, Fifth House Ensemble, Opera Elect, ModernMedieval, Contemporaneous, Momenta Quartet, and Yarn/Wire. He has also arranged works for Contemporaneous, Choral Chameleon, Present Music, Infrasound, and the Binghamton University Symphony Orchestra.

Ritter is currently a member of the Choral Chameleon (choralchameleon.com) volunteer chorus, and ECHOensemble (echoensemble.com). His upcoming projects include a new work for fixed media and ukulele for Brian Ellis, and a solo for Brooklyn Motion Capture Dance Ensemble made in collaboration with dancer and choreographer Erin Landers, as well as a new work being premiered by Choral Chameleon early in 2023.