Rate My Professor Anthony Ritchie

Professor Anthony Ritchie is an Emeritus Professor in the School of Performing Arts at the University of Otago, where he served in the Music programme for over 23 years until his retirement in 2026. He holds a MusB(Hons) and PhD from the University of Canterbury, with his doctorate focused on the music of Béla Bartók, completed after study at the Bartók Archives in Budapest and composition training at the Liszt Academy in Hungary. Ritchie first joined Otago as Mozart Fellow in composition in 1988-1989, freelanced thereafter, and became a full-time staff member in 2001, gaining a permanent position in 2003. He joined the staff formally in 2002, teaching composition, music theory, 20th-century music, and New Zealand music. Ritchie conducted the Dunedin Youth Orchestra since 1993, co-founded the Southern Youth Choir and Southern Children’s Choir, curated new music concerts, and performed piano accompaniments for student works. His research interests include composition, 20th-century classical music, and New Zealand music. He supervised postgraduate theses on topics such as composing for synthesizers, brass wind embouchure myths, polycyclic comprovisation, and viola scordatura extensions.

Ritchie has composed over 200 works, spanning symphonies, operas, concertos, chamber and choral music, often inspired by New Zealand history and wildlife. Key compositions include five symphonies, such as Symphony No. 5 Childhood premiered by the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra, Symphony No. 4 Stations, and Symphony No. 3 premiered by the Southern Sinfonia; the oratorio Gallipoli to the Somme for soprano, bass, choir, and orchestra, performed in New Zealand, Oxford, and London, and voted New Zealand’s most popular classical recording in the 2020 RNZ Concert ‘Settling the Score’; Violin Concerto premiered by Bella Hristova and the Dunedin Symphony Orchestra; six operas including The God Boy and Quartet; and chamber works like Piano Trio Childhood and Octopus. His music has been performed by the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, Ulster Orchestra, Takács Quartet, and soloists including Alexa Still, and recorded on twelve albums since 2005, such as A Bugle Will Do, Survivors: Choral Music, and Fjarren: In the Distance, which won Best Classical Album at the 2016 NZ Music Awards alongside Purakaunui at Dawn. Ritchie mentored composers like Michael Norris, Tecwyn Evans, and Nathaniel Otley, judged The Big Sing and Lilburn Trust competitions, and served as Composer Mentor for the NZSO Todd Young Composers Awards and Nelson Composers Workshop.