Composer Max Richter has been much beloved by music enthusiasts and cinephiles for years. And now the Academy has also echoed that acclaim, with Richter earning his first Oscar nomination for his score for Chloé Zhao’s Hamnet, one of the film’s eight Academy Award–nominated achievements.
Awards Buzz’s Shadan Larki spoke with Richter just hours after his nomination was announced. In conversation, Richter celebrates his nomination and reflects on the privileges of a life lived in creative pursuit.
Read a transcript of full conversation below:
Shadan Larki/Awards Buzz: I’m here with Max Richter, newly minted Oscar nominee for his work in Hamnet. Congratulations, Max!Max Richter: Oh, thank you so much! Yeah, it’s a wonderful, wonderful thing.Shadan Larki: Where were you when you heard the news? What was your initial reaction? Were you watching the nominations?Max Richter: I wasn’t watching, I’m in the UK. I was running around. My phone kind of blew up, and then you know something’s up. It’s a thrill. It’s a beautiful project to be part of, and it’s always nice to hear that people are listening.Shadan Larki: And this is your first nomination in an absolutely legendary career. What does it mean that it’s connected to Hamnet in particular?Max Richter: Well, I mean, I couldn’t be happier, really. I think Hamnet is a really, really special film. Chloé [Zhao] is a special filmmaker, the leads, Jessie [Buckley] and Paul [Mescal], and all the other crew and cast. The Hamnet Village is full of amazing people, and I feel like the film really deserves the love it’s getting. And I’m so happy about that because sometimes great projects can go unnoticed for one reason or another, but, in this case, people are really getting it and connecting to it. And I just couldn’t be happier.Shadan Larki: Max, your music has been a big part of my life. Of course, “On the Nature of Daylight.” And the scores from The Leftovers, Ad Astra, and now Hamnet. I think they all have this thread of humanity and grief. Obviously, you’ve worked on so many things, but what is it about those themes that you may be drawn toward?Max Richter: I guess I’m attracted to the kind of big stories, the stories which are about the really important human events in life and the questions we all wrestle with. And we encounter, inevitably, the great joys and sorrows of being a human being.And I think Hamnet also lives in that register. The stakes are very high in the film, love and death and the beyond. I think those stories are worth telling, they’re worth exploring, and they’re worth reflecting on.Shadan Larki: Do you find that, in that reflection, and in Hamnet, you’ve been able to maybe unlock something new? I feel like every experience teaches you a little something new. What has Hamnet given you?Max Richter: One of the great things about doing creative work is that you are always able to learn new things, right? Every project brings its own universe with it, maybe its own texture, and has its own properties. And for us as artists, spending time in a new world is an opportunity to learn things about our own craft, our own way of thinking, our own way of being as a person as well. Honestly, I think that’s really a privilege, that those of us who are lucky enough to do creative work—it’s a great privilege that we have.Shadan Larki: Tell me more about your collaboration with Chloé? You’ve described it as being very much in lockstep with each other. Have you heard from her so far today?Max Richter: Have I heard from her? I don’t think I have, actually. She’s probably swamped. [Laughs].Collaborating with Chloé was just pure joy, honestly. Sometimes it happens that you meet someone, and you’re just kind of tuned in with them straight away, and I really felt that with her on a creative level.We just completely saw the project in very similar terms. The big ideas and themes that I was interested in exploring with the project were completely aligned with what she thought it should be. It was just a very easygoing, organic conversation. The whole creative process really was just fantastic.Shadan Larki: And Max, given that you have had this long, storied career, what is it that keeps you inspired and keeps you interested in the work that you do?Max Richter: I love just playing music, being around music in all ways. Whether it’s my own music or going to concerts or hearing other people’s things, whatever it might be. For me, music is just one of the great pleasures of being alive. So there’s that.But in terms of projects, what I love about composing is that you are always working with something you don’t know. You don’t yet know what the project is. You don’t know how that piece is going to turn out. You don’t know if you’ll manage to write it. You’re surrounded by questions all the time. So, curiosity and a sense of openness and inquiry are really fundamental to it. I really enjoy that aspect of writing music and being around creative work, this feeling of being in dialogue all the time with things you don’t know.Shadan Larki: And are there other things that engage that curiosity and might inform your music, however big or small?Max Richter: For me, having great collaborators, being around great musicians, is an amazing thing. When you hear, for example, Grace Davidson singing. She and I have worked together since Sleep (2015), so that’s more than 10 years now. She’s a solo vocalist on Sleep, and when I first heard her singing, I really felt like a new window had opened up in my life that I didn’t really know about before. And a thing like that is so special. It’s an experience that’s rare and precious, and spending time with someone like that, who can do those things, is just amazing.I guess the other thing for me is that the studio Yulia [Mahr] and I have built is out in the woods. So, outside my window are trees and meadows. And that has been really impactful in terms of my work generally, just to be in touch with something a bit bigger than us.Shadan Larki: And that connects very much to Hamnet and the themes of Mother Nature and motherhood.Max Richter: Yeah, exactly.Shadan Larki: How does Oscar-nominee Max Richter celebrate? What’s next?
Max Richter: Well, we had a glass of champagne this afternoon, which was nice, with the crew here in the studio and all the team, so that was fantastic. What is next? I’m riding the wave, working on other things, writing a cello concerto right now, so lots of other stuff going on.
