Arts Preview: Max Richter's U.S. tour will stop at El Rey Theatre

Composer Max Richteris embarking on a U.S. tour that will stop at the El Rey. He has written scores for film and TV, including "The Leftovers" on HBO.

March 13, 2015 9 AM PT

Max Richter has been composing inventive orchestral music for years, but naturally, American audiences really began noticing him en masse only when his compositions began appearing in movies and television.

His music was featured prominently in Martin Scorsese’s “Shutter Island,” and he wrote the score for the animated movie “Waltz With Bashir.” More recently, the German-born composer has worked on HBO’s metaphysical drama series “The Leftovers,” which debuted last year.

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Richter will embark on a U.S. tour this spring, with a stop in Los Angeles at the El Rey Theatre scheduled for March 22. The program will feature his music from “The Leftovers” as well as pieces from his popular 2004 album “The Blue Notebooks.”

Like Michael Nyman and Philip Glass before him, Richter is a new-music composer whose accessible style has been embraced by the public at large. His compositions combine elements of minimalism and neo-classicism, and he has made forays into the meta-classical as well.

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His reimagining of Vivaldi’s “The Four Seasons” is one of his most popular recent works — it was performed at the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara last year with violinist Daniel Hope.

Richter fans can further their fix with the second season of “The Leftovers,” expected to air on HBO this year.