Richie Arndorfer (b. 1992, Aurora, Illinois) is a composer, performer, and educator. His music draws from diverse influences and varies widely in sound, scope, and style, taking cues from artists as disparate as Grisey and Beach House, and drawing on his experiences performing as an oboist, as a jazz saxophonist, and as a singer-songwriter. Despite this eclecticism, his music retains a signature sound characterized by a subtle dramaticism, often fluid textures and off-kilter phrasing, gradual transformation, and an ever-present (if sometimes masked) playful energy. Richie’s music also regularly draws inspiration from extra-musical sources such as the Northern Lights, Dracula, sleep cycles, civic history, and dancing, even drawing inspiration from the musicians themselves, infusing characteristics of the performers and ensembles into his music, noting their quirks and history, even the phonemic quality of their names, and using these idiosyncrasies as a catalyst for expression.

Richie is currently pursuing a DMA in Composition at the University of Georgia Athens. He has a Masters in Music Composition from Bowling Green State University and he also received a Bachelor of Arts in Music and a Bachelor of Science in Psychology from Grand Valley State University. He has studied with Peter Van Zandt Lane, Marilyn Shrude, Bill Ryan, Christopher Dietz, and Mikel Kuehn, and he studied Contemporary Music Theory in Paris with Robert Hasegawa through the Eastman School of Music and audited at the IRCAM Academy. Additionally, he participated in the Yarn/Wire Summer Institute and Fresh Inc Festival and organized and presented a concert at the Third Annual New Music Gathering.

Richie has had the privilege to have his music read and performed by many respected performers and ensembles, including the Toledo Symphony Orchestra, the Toledo Symphony String Quartet, the Sinta Quartet, the Grand Valley State University New Music Ensemble, the University of Kentucky Guitar Trio, the Signal-to-Noise Ensemble, and the Semiosis Quartet, as well as by members of Fifth House Ensemble and Yarn/Wire. He has written music for band and orchestra, chamber opera, short film, solo instrument with live electronics, for computer (self and live-controlled), as well as for various chamber ensembles and solo instruments, and more.

As an educator, Richie has taught music arranging, composition, and theory courses at Bowling Green State University as an adjunct instructor for four years. And has also taught private composition and theory lessons and has tutored courses in music and in psychology.

When not teaching or writing music he can be found drinking coffee, reading too many books at once, and trying to remember the names of plants.