MICHAELJ LEWIS
COMPOSER
Composer, pianist, producer, Michael J Lewis was born in Aberystwyth, Ceredigion, Wales. He was a choirboy at six and church organist at ten. Later, he studied harmony, counterpoint and composition at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London. His numerous film scores include Julius Caesar, The Medusa Touch, Theatre of Blood, Hound of the Baskervilles, Running Scared, Upon This Rock and Sphinx. He won the Ivor Novello Award (Britain’s premier music prize) for his first film score, The Madwoman of Chaillot, starring Katharine Hepburn. His Broadway musical, Cyrano, earned its star, Christopher Plummer, a Tony Award and the writers, Anthony Burgess and Michael J Lewis, a Grammy nomination. The TV film The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe won Michael an Emmy and his first American TV score, Rose and the Jackal, starring Christopher Reeve, won an American Cable Excellence nomination. In addition to his film and TV work, Michael has written tracks for hundreds of international commercials, including IBM, Ford, Chevrolet, Black and Decker, 3M, 7UP and Nescafe.
In 1989 his music was featured on the Academy Awards. It is estimated that 1.2 billion people around the world heard his music that night. Michael currently lives and composes amidst the pines of Mississippi, the birthplace of America’s music, and spends what little spare time he has landscaping...
...and exploring the pleasures and delights of nearby New Orleans.