Per Lichtman has had a lifelong relationship with music. In Sweden, his mother played notes to him by name in the womb. Within hours of being born, he was exposed to Vangelis' score to Chariots of Fire and his infatuation with synthesizers began. That infatuation continued as he blended genres as diverse as world music, avante garde piano compositions, orchestral writing and lyric driven work with electronica in his compositions.
In 2000 and 2001, Per started to go public with his music on sites like Javamusic.com (where he reached 3 on the daily charts) and MP3.com (where he placed in top 50 for avante-garde classical) and garnered glowing praise in his first review from GodsOfMusic.com (recently refashioned into Consensus Music Reviews).
Per's success continued into the academic realm as he won a Reflections award for his piece "I Hold in my Hands the Keys to the Other Side", a piece that also garnered him one of only 7 composer spots in the California State Summer School for the Arts - Inner Spark program with the chance to briefly study with John Adams. That same year, he was accepted to the music program at Whitman College.
While at Whitman College, he spent his summers studying with his good friend Rob Woo. Woo helped him develop as a composer and audio engineer and said "I cannot recommend Per Lichtman highly enough as an artist... He takes in and absorbs what can be learned from his peers and history, but the trajectory of his work is his own." It was through Woo that Per Lichtman later came to work with , Nimrod Nol and .
Since graduating from Whitman College with a degree in Music Theory and Composition, he has been composing and mixing his debut album "Liquid" for BBMC and mixing Joanna St. Claire's album "Stream" for Dreamtown Music, both slated for release in 2008. In the summer of 2008 he began collaborating with Grammy winning classical vocalist as lead producer on her first original solo album in Los Angeles, California.
His music has once again garnered chart attention, including two Top 20 hits on the the overall electronica charts on with "Are You Gonna Win? - feat. Katlin Rivers" and "Not Here - feat. Nimrod Nol", as well as four Top 5 and three #1 hits in the electronica sub-genre charts, including tribal and techno. He has also been heavily involved with since April, 2008, having gone from proof-reader to assistant editor to managing editor and finally Chief of Marketing/PR/Developer relation before the start of 2009 and provided that magazine's first NAMM coverage and established their YouTube presence.
In addition to his own work, Per has helped to test and consulted on the development of music software for both independent developers and established companies (including business, marketing, consulting for five companies concurrently), been a constant presence on various online composition and music technology forums working to help young composers to get past technical difficulties to find their voice and exposing them to new sounds with collections of his own templates and presets.
I am most influenced by classical/concert/art music, video game scores, film scores, world music and electronica. Some of my favorite artists include Juno Reactor, John Adams, Vangelis, Rob Woo, Nobuo Uematsu, Yasunori Mitsuda, Yoko Shimomura, Eric Whitacre, Hybrid, Andy Hunter, Junkie XL, Orbital, Rob Dougan, Trevor Horn and Seal.
A Windows XP Pro PC, UAD-1 PCI card, Focusrite Liquid Mix, Yamaha P-60 and Behringer BCF-2000. In terms of microphones, my favorites at home are a Neumann KM 184 D and the surprisingly versatile Rode NT-2A. For field recording I use an M-Audio MicroTrack II.
Editing Software: Sonar 7 PE, Jeskola Buzz, Noteworthy Composer, Cool Edit 2000, Audacity, Pro Tools.
Virtual Instruments and Sample Libraries: Arturia CS-80v; AudioRealism Bassline; BlÃthner Digital Model One; Cakewalk Rapture and Z3ta+; East West/Quantum Leap Rare Instruments, Storm Drum, Symphonic Orchestra, and Voices of the Apocaypse; Garritan Orchestral Strings Advanced, Personal Orchestra, Stradivari Solo Violin; PMI Emperor and Hybrid Pianos; ProjectSAM Horns, reFX Slayer 2 and Vanguard; Sonic Charge MicroTonic; Trombones; Spectrasonics Atmosphere and Stylus RMX; Tascam GigaStudio 3 Orchestra and GVI; Ugo Metallurgy; Wusikstation 5.7.
