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.

As a performer, Zach has provided electronics and vocals in NYC’s most vital cultural institutions including MoMA, National Sawdust, Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall, and Brooklyn’s finest basements. Ritter holds an MM in classical composition from Purchase Conservatory and a BA in Music from Binghamton University. He has written for ensembles including Unheard-of//Ensemble, 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 Unheard-of, Contemporaneous, Choral Chameleon, Present Music, Infrasound, and the Binghamton University Symphony Orchestra.

His upcoming projects include a new string quartet for Orange Road as well as new solo recording and sound installation work.