Michael Kamen

American composer born in New York on April 15, 1948, Michael Kamen is the author of some fifty soundtracks, including some for cult action films. He studied music at art school and played the oboe, before forming the New York Rock & Roll Ensemble with fellow musician Mark Snow, a group that pioneered the fusion of rock and classical music, recording five albums between 1968 and 1972. A graduate of the Juilliard School, Kamen began composing for ballet and recorded the solo album New York Rock (1976), before turning to music for the screen with The Next Man, in addition to collaborations as arranger for Pink Floyd(The Wall), Queen, Eric Clapton Aerosmith, Kiss, Bon Jovi, David Bowie, Eurythmics, Rush, Def Leppard, Herbie Hancock, George Harrison, Bryan Adams, Coldplay, Sting, Kate Bush and Guns N' Roses. Often regarded as a composer of action films with grand orchestral effects for L'Arme fatale (1987), Die Hard (1988), Permis de tuer (1989), Road House (1989) or Last Action Hero (1993), Kamen has also worked on cinematic adventure projects, or comedies, including the soundtracks for The Dead Zone (1983), Brazil (1985), Highlander (1986), The Adventures of Baron Münchausen (1988), Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves (1991), Don Juan DeMarco (1995), The101 Dalmatians (1996), Event Horizon (1997), X-Men (2000) and the TV series Band of Brothers (2001). In 1999, he collaborated with Metallica and the San Francisco Symphony on the concerts that gave rise to the album S&M, which reached No. 2 on the US charts and won a Grammy Award. Composer of a Saxophone Concerto (1990) and a Quintet premiered by Canadian Brass in 2002, Michael Kamen, suffering from multiple sclerosis since 1997, died of a heart attack on November 18, 2003, at the age of 55.

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