Composer
Biography
Oboe study at Juilliard and a rock band founded with fellow students set the pattern of Michael Kamen's working life. The New York Rock & Roll Ensemble, whose first album appeared in 1968, put conservatoire-trained players and amplified instruments in the same room. His later work included orchestrations and collaborations with Pink Floyd, David Bowie, Queen, Eric Clapton and Metallica, and scores for Brazil, Highlander, Die Hard, the Lethal Weapon films, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, The Iron Giant, X-Men and Band of Brothers. (Everything I Do) I Do It for You, written with Bryan Adams and Robert John Lange for the Robin Hood score, was among his songs for film; he won four Grammy awards. Scoring Mr. Holland's Opus, a film about a school music teacher, moved him to establish a foundation in 1996 that supplies instruments to under-resourced school music programmes, and it has outlived him. Born in New York in 1948, he died in London in 2003. Ballet scores occupied him in the years before the film work took over.