ABOUT
Richard Einhorn's unique music has been described as "hauntingly beautiful", "sensational", and "overwhelming in its emotional power". He is one of a small handful of composers who not only reaches a large, world-wide audience, but whose music receives widespread critical praise for its integrity, emotional depth, and craft.
Richard Einhorn’s Voices of Light, described as an "opera with silent film" has been hailed as "a great masterpiece of contemporary music" and "a work of meticulous genius." The piece has been performed over 230 times, selling out such venues as the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Next Wave Festival; David Geffen Hall; Kennedy Center (with the National Symphony); Disney Hall in Los Angeles (with the Los Angeles Master Chorale and Grant Gershon); the Esplanade in Singapore; the Barbican (with the London Symphony and Marin Alsop); Meyerhoff Hall (with the Baltimore Symphony and Marin Alsop) and the Sydney Opera House in Australia. The Sony Classical CD of Voices of Light, featuring the vocal group Anonymous 4, was a Billboard classical bestseller, earning Einhorn the distinction of being one of only a few living composers to have made "the charts." Voices of Light has attracted national media attention including articles in the Wall Street Journal, segments on All Things Considered and Performance Today, and an extended profile on CBS television network's magazine show, CBS Sunday Morning.
Einhorn has written opera, orchestral and chamber music, song cycles, multimedia events, film music, and dance scores. The wildly popular Red Angels for New York City Ballet, with choreography by Ulysses Dove, was featured on Live From Lincoln Center on PBS and is in the New York City Ballet’s permanent repertory. The Shooting Gallery, a multimedia collaboration with filmmaker Bill Morrison premiered at the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Next Wave Festival. Einhorn’s 90-minute oratorio about Charles Darwin, The Origin (original films by Bill Morrison), was broadcast in its entirety by WCNY-TV in Syracuse, NY, and received its European premiere at Die Glocke in Bremen, German. Other notable works include The Spires, The City, The Field, a 9/11 memorial premiered by the Albany Symphony under David Allan Miller; A Carnival of Miracles, commissioned by Anonymous 4 and premiered to a sold-out crowd at New Sounds Live; and My Many Colored Days, an orchestral commission from the Minnesota Orchestra. Upcoming projects include HeLa, a multimedia work for orchestra and film in celebration of Henrietta Lacks, and a piece for Trio 180. Richard Einhorn’s extensive film music catalog includes scores for the Academy Award-winning documentary short Educating Peter (HBO); Arthur Penn's thriller Dead of Winter starring Mary Steenburgen (MGM); and Fire-Eater directed by Pirjo Honkasalo, for which Einhorn won the Jussi (Finnish Academy Award) for Best Musical Score.
Born in 1952, Richard Einhorn graduated summa cum laude in music from Columbia University, where he studied with, among others, Vladimir Ussachevsky, Jack Beeson, and Mario Davidovsky. Before turning his attention exclusively to composition, Einhorn worked as a record producer for such artists as Meredith Monk, the New York Philharmonic, and the Philadelphia Orchestra. His production of the Bach Cello Suites with Yo-Yo Ma won a Grammy for Best Instrumental Performance.
Einhorn has received numerous awards and grants from Meet the Composer, NYSCA, NEA, the New York State Music Fund, and many others. He is a well-known advocate for persons with serious hearing losses. He lives in New York with his daughter Miranda and wife Amy Singer.