Michael Kamen


Michael Arnold Kamen was an American composer, arranger, conductor, songwriter, and musician. He began his work as a pop and rock music arranger, notably for Pink Floyd, and was a member of the New York [Rock & Roll Ensemble] and the Roger Waters Band. Starting in the mid-1980s, he achieved further prominence as a composer of film scores.
Kamen's best known scores include the Die Hard and Lethal Weapon franchises, the Terry Gilliam films [Brazil (1985 film)|Brazil] and The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, Highlander, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, Don Juan DeMarco, What Dreams May Come, The Iron Giant, [X-Men (film)|X-Men], and the television series Edge of Darkness, ''Tales from the Crypt, and Band of Brothers''.
During his career, Kamen won four Grammy Awards, out of nine total nominations, and a BAFTA TV Award, and was nominated for two Academy Awards for Best Original Song, four Golden Globe Awards, and a Primetime [Emmy Award].

Early life

Michael Arnold Kamen was born in New York City, the second of four sons. His father, Saul Kamen, was a dentist and his mother, Helen, was a teacher. He was of Jewish heritage.
While attending the High [School of Music & Art] near Harlem in Manhattan, New York. Kamen became friends with Martin Fulterman, who later composed the theme music for The X-Files, among other projects. While studying oboe, Kamen formed a rock-classical fusion band called New York Rock & Roll Ensemble, together with classmates Fulterman and Dorian Rudnytsky, along with Clifton Nivison and Brian Corrigan of Toms River, New Jersey. The group released five albums from 1968 to 1972. They performed in white tie, as typically worn by classical musicians. In the middle of their concerts, Fulterman and Kamen played an oboe duet. The group backed friend and classmate Janis Ian in a concert at Alice Tully Hall in Lincoln Center in late 1967.
After graduating from high school, Kamen attended The Juilliard School in Manhattan. His early work concentrated on ballets before extending to Cinema of [the United States|Hollywood] with the score for The Next Man in 1976, and then to pop and rock arranging, collaborating with Pink Floyd on their album The Wall.

Career

Popular music

Kamen became a highly sought-after arranger in the realms of pop and rock music. His contemporaries in this field included Academy Award winner Anne Dudley, Richard Niles, and Nick Ingman.
His successes include his work with Pink Floyd, David Gilmour and Roger Waters, as well as Queen, Roger Daltrey, Aerosmith, Kiss, Tom Petty, Bon Jovi, David Bowie, Bryan Ferry, Eurythmics, Queensrÿche, Rush, Metallica, Def Leppard, Herbie Hancock, Tim Curry, the Cranberries, Bryan Adams, Jim Croce, Coldplay, Sting, Guns N' Roses and Kate Bush. For Bush, Kamen delivered an orchestral backing for "Moments of Pleasure" from The Red Shoes album, substantially building upon a simple piano theme Bush had composed. In this instance and many others, he conducted the orchestra personally for the recording. In 1984, two years after moving to London, Kamen had similarly heightened the effect of a pop recording for the Eurythmics "Here Comes the Rain Again", the score relied as much on his compositional skills as his arranging talents.
In 1990, Kamen joined many other guests for Roger Waters' performance of The Wall in Berlin, and led the National Philharmonic Orchestra during the 24 Nights sessions with Eric Clapton in 1991. Lenny Kravitz recorded a cover of "Fields of Joy", a song co-written by Kamen and Hal Fredricks, on his 1991 CD Mama Said. In 2002, Kamen took part in the Concert for George as strings conductor.
Kamen had a successful partnership with Bryan Adams and "Mutt" Lange composing scores and songs. The ballad "(Everything I Do) I Do It for You" for the 1991 film Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves was the number one song that year worldwide. Their other songs were "All for Love" for the film The Three Musketeers in 1993, "Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman?" for the film Don Juan DeMarco in 1994, and "Star" for the film Jack in 1996.

Film and television

Kamen wrote eleven ballets, a saxophone concerto and an electric guitar concerto. Additionally, he wrote a commissioned work, "Quintet", for the Canadian Brass. He also provided scores for the films 101 Dalmatians, The Dead Zone, Queen and Country">Queen (band)">Queen and Country, Polyester, Brazil, Someone to [Watch Over Me (film)|Someone To Watch Over Me], The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, The Three Musketeers, Highlander, X-Men, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, Licence to Kill, the Lethal Weapon series, the first three films of the Die Hard series, Mr. Holland's Opus, The Iron Giant, Splitting Heirs, Frequency and many others. He also scored both the From the Earth [to the Moon (miniseries)|From the Earth to the Moon] and Band of Brothers series on HBO. Trailers for the 2007 release Bee Movie, the 2008 release Nim's Island, the 2008 release WALL-E, and the 2014 release Mr. Peabody & Sherman featured Kamen's "Central Services / The Office" from his score to Brazil.
In television, Kamen composed music for two series of The Manageress produced by Glenn Wilhide, at Zed Productions for Channel 4, and Joan Bakewell's interview series Memento in 1993, also at Zed Productions for Channel 4 directed by Robin Bextor. He also worked on the 1985 BBC Television serial Edge of Darkness, collaborating with Eric Clapton to write the score. The pair received a British Academy Television Award for Best Original Television Music for Edge of Darkness and performed the main theme with the National Philharmonic Orchestra at the Royal Albert Hall in 1990 and 1991. In 1994, Kamen conducted an orchestration of the Who's music for Roger Daltrey's 50th birthday concert series entitled A Celebration: The Music of Pete Townshend and The Who, which was subsequently released on CD and DVD. In the same year he was initially hired to do the soundtrack for the 1994 film Speed, but Jan de Bont, the director of the movie, rejected him because he wanted Mark Mancina, who at the time worked on some Hans Zimmer scores like Days of Thunder, Where Sleeping Dogs Lie and True Romance.
Kamen was nominated for two Academy Awards and won three Grammy Awards, two Golden Globes, two Ivor Novello Awards, an Annie Award, and an Emmy.

Later years

Kamen's involvement with Mr. Holland's Opus, a film about a frustrated composer who finds fulfillment as a high school music teacher, led him to create The Mr. Holland's Opus Foundation in 1996. The foundation supports music education through the donation of new and refurbished musical instruments to underserved school and community music programs and individual students in the United States. In 2005 the foundation created an emergency fund for schools, and students affected by Hurricane Katrina.
In 1998, Kamen composed and conducted the soundtrack for What Dreams May Come. Produced by James Seymour Brett, the score was initially set to be composed by Ennio Morricone. The Italian composer had initially completed and recorded a full score for the film but, after editorial changes were made, his score was rejected and Kamen was hired in his place. Short on time, Kamen took the song "Beside You" from his New York Rock Ensemble's album Roll Over and adapted it as the movie's main musical theme.
In April 1999, Kamen worked with the heavy metal band Metallica, along with the San Francisco Symphony, to record a two-day concert that was held at the Berkeley Community Theatre in Berkeley, California. The concert performance, titled S&M, which is an acronym for "Symphony and Metallica", referencing the collaboration of the two artists, was released on November 23, 1999, on CD, DVD, and VHS formats, debuting at #2 on the Billboard 200 and reaching multi-platinum status by 2001. Later that year, Kamen and Metallica won a Grammy Award For Best Rock Instrumental Performance for the S&M track "The Call Of Ktulu".
In 2001 and 2002, Kamen performed with David Gilmour at Gilmour's semi-unplugged shows at the Royal Festival Hall, playing piano and cor anglais. The 2001 concert and highlights from 2002 were released on DVD as David Gilmour in Concert. In 2002, Kamen, along with Julian Lloyd Webber, Evelyn Glennie and James Galway, launched the Music Education Consortium in the UK. The consortium's efforts led to the injection of £332 million for music education in the UK. He was also commissioned to write a piece for the opening ceremonies of the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.
Kamen's last recorded work appeared on Bryan Adams's album Room Service, on which he played the oboe and wrote the orchestration to "I Was Only Dreamin'". Kamen had also completed the charts for accompaniment to two songs on Kate Bush's album Aerial, which was released in April 2005.

Personal life

Health

Kamen was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1997.

Death

He died in London from a heart attack on November 18, 2003, at age 55.

Legacy

In 2004, when Annie Lennox accepted the Academy Award for Best Original Song, she dedicated her achievement to the memory of Kamen.
The 2004 films Boo, Zino & the Snurks and First Daughter, which Kamen was working on at the time of his death, were dedicated to his memory. David Gilmour's 2006 album On an Island was dedicated to the memory of Kamen and longtime Pink Floyd manager Steve O'Rourke.

Film scores

Concert works