LIVE AT THE MEYERHOFF Max Richter with the American Contemporary Music Ensemble
JOSEPH MEYERHOFF SYMPHONY HALL
Sunday, June 14, 2026 at 7 pm
Max Richter, soloist American Contemporary Music Ensemble Ben Russell, violin George Meyer, violin Kal Sugatski, viola Andrew Janss, cello Caleb van der Swaagh, cello
The Blue Notebooks INTERMISSION In A Landscape
This program is approximately 2 hours, 10 minutes and includes a 20-minute intermission.
Please note the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra does not appear on this program.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Max Richter
Max Richter
Max Richter is one of the most influential and acclaimed composers of all time. His fusion of classical technique and electronic technology, heard across genre-defining solo albums and countless scores for film, dance, art, and fashion, has won him legions of fans around the world and blazed a trail for a generation of musicians.
His ninth solo album, In A Landscape is a record about“ reconciling polarities,” as Richter puts it, bringing together the electronic and the acoustic, the
Marie Sutter human and the natural world, the big questions of life and the quiet pleasures of living. The album began as a natural counterweight to the urgent political tenor of his previous projects: Exiles, a ballet score about the refugee crisis, and Voices, constructed with a“ negative orchestra” and hundreds of readings of the Universal Declaration Of Human Rights. In A Landscape is his first solo album recorded at Studio Richter Mahr, the minimalist, eco-conscious creative retreat designed and operated by Richter and his wife, visual artist Yulia Mahr.
Over the last two decades, Richter has brought his distinctly humane and emotive sensibility to a series of ambitious projects— among them, a reimagining of Vivaldi’ s violin concertos, the landmark nine-hour album Sleep and his score for Wayne McGregor’ s ballet Woolf Works— along with acclaimed solo records tackling human rights, migration and the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
After spending many years grappling with big ideas and thorny social and political questions, making music remains, above all,“ a way to make a kind of alternate reality,” a constructed world“ where everything is in its place.”
American Contemporary Music Ensemble
Since 2004, led by cellist and artistic director Clarice Jensen, the American Contemporary Music Ensemble( ACME) has risen to the highest ranks of American new music through a mix of meticulous musicianship, artistic vision, engaging collaborations, and unwavering standards in every regard. NPR calls them“ contemporary music dynamos,” and Strings reports,“ ACME’ s absorbing playing pulsed with warm energy... Shared glances and inhales triggered transitions in a flow so seamless it seemed learned in a Jedi temple.” ACME has been honored by ASCAP for the“ virtuosity, passion, and commitment with which it performs and champions American composers.” The ensemble has performed at leading international venues including Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, BAM, The Kennedy Center, Washington Performing Arts, UCLA’ s Royce Hall, Stanford Live, Chicago’ s Millennium Park, Duke Performances, STG Presents in Seattle, Melbourne Recital Hall, and Sydney Opera House in Australia, and at festivals including the Sacrum Profanum Festival in Poland, All Tomorrow’ s Parties in England, Auckland Arts Festival in New Zealand, Summer Nostos Festival in Greece, Boston Calling, and Big Ears. In addition to recording the work for Deutsche Grammophon, ACME has performed Max Richter’ s Sleep( an eight-hour lullaby for a sleeping audience) with him around the world, including at the Great Wall of China; on the piers of Auckland, New Zealand; in Hobart, Tasmania; at the Sydney Opera House; and in LA’ s Grand Park, among others. The ensemble’ s recordings appear on Deutsche Grammophon, Sono Luminus, New World Records, and New Amsterdam Records. www. acmemusic. org.
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