Ludovico Einaudi is an Italian composer with a traditional musical education. He has studied for a time with Luciano Berio and also at the Milan Conservatory. As a pianist, most of his compositions involve the piano in some form, either as pieces for solo piano or as part of a small chamber group with piano and strings. His compositions aare relatively simple but heartfelt. As a reference points, his works can be described as belonging to the minimalist school with some similarities to the work of Philip Glass and Michael Nyman, particularly the latter's music for the film The Piano. However Einaudi's lyricism and chord progressions also seem to imply synergies with folk or popular music, perhaps suggesting some affinity with the work of Yann Tiersen and Clint Mansell or ambient composers such as Brian Eno, with some tracks bearing a resemblance to James Horner's music for "Legends of the Fall".
As a contemporary classical pianist/composer, he plays regularly at concerts and has released a number of albums of his work. Indeed his recordings can often be found in the charts of popular classical music or on "classical chillout" collections. The composer has also composed music for film, many of these in his native Italy and with credits including "Luce dei Miei Occhi" (Light of My Eyes), Shane Meadows' award-winning film "This is England" and the TV Movie version of "Doctor Zhivago" starring Sam Neill and Keira Knightley. The composer has a website at EinaudiWebsite.com where it is possible to download some tracks for free.
Several tracks by Einaudi feature prominently in the multi-award winning movie "Nomadland" starring Frances McDormand and directed by Chloé Zhao. Einaudi's credit was "Featuring the music of Ludovico Einaudi" presumably because the music wasn't written to picture but tracks taken from several existing albums.
In addition to the soundtrack album listed below, there are many studio albums released by Ludovico Einaudi. A lot of his tracks sound similar to each other but, like many minimalist composers, there is a great range of moods and his style has evolved somewhat over the years. We suggest the following albums as a good starting point to explore the composer's music:
For pianists there are many sheet music books of Ludovico Einaudi's compositions, and they are technically not too difficult to play. Once you have mastered the pieces technically, concentrate on communicating the feeling in the music:
Here are some YouTube videos of Ludovico Einaudi's music, including one showing the composer playing live:
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