Tilman Ritter

Tilman Ritter was born in Berlin in 1976. Since studying at the Musicians Institute in Los Angeles (Keyboard Jazz/Pop/Rock) and at the Hanns Eisler School of Music Berlin (Composition for Media), he has been composing, arranging and producing music for the stage as well as for film and television productions and audiovisual art installations, such as those by the Canadian artist duo Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller. He also performs live on stage as a musical director, pianist, and keyboardist. He has composed numerous theatre scores and has worked, among others, at the Deutsches Theater Berlin, Maxim Gorki Theater, GRIPS Theater, Hebbel am Ufer (HAU), Hans Otto Theater Potsdam, Anhaltisches Theater Dessau, Theater Bonn, Staatstheater Stuttgart, Konzert Theater Bern, Neues Globe Theater Potsdam, Deutsches Theater Göttingen, Vorarlberger Landestheater Bregenz, Staatstheater Mainz and Staatstheater Wiesbaden. Since 2010, he has continuously been responsible for compositions and musical direction for various productions at the Kabarett Theater Distel in Berlin.

Education:

1993: Summer Session at the Musicians Institute, Hollywood, Los Angeles
1996: Abitur (German high school diploma)
1996–1997: Studies at the Musicians Institute, Hollywood, Los Angeles
1999–2005: Studies in Composition (Media Music) at the School of Music Hanns Eisler Berlin with Prof. Bernd Wefelmeyer
Since then: freelance composer, arranger, orchestrator, musical director, pianist, and keyboardist

Awards

Award for Best Short Film Score by the European Film Institute Karlsruhe for Sing, Sing, Sing (2002)
Franz Grothe Award for Young Film Composers (2004)
Golden Bobby for the recording In the Woods for strings and woodwind quartet (2006)
Invitation to the ASCAP Film Composers Workshop with Richard Bellis, Los Angeles (2008); recording of a composition with the Hollywood Studio Symphony at the Newman Scoring Stage

Teaching

Lecturer in Piano and Harmony & Theory/Ear training in the Sound Studies program at the Konrad Wolf Film University of Babelsberg
Accompanist (répétiteur) in the acting program
Orchestration coach for participants of the Score Competition at the Berlinale Talent Campus
Private instruction in composition, theory, and piano, including preparatory studies