Biography of alan menken
•
Alan Menken is one of the most successful songwriters of the modern Musical Theatre era. He is an eight-time Oscar Winner, eleven time Grammy winner, and has composed some of the most notable songs and scores of the last thirty years.
Early Years
Alan Irwin Menken was born on 22nd July 1949 in New York. His father, Norman, was a Dentist, his mother, Judith a housewife. He had an early fascination of music studying both the piano and violin but didn't relish the hours of practising so, when heads were turned, he would develop ideas of his own. He was a pre-med lärling at NYU before turning his attention to the one thing that focussed his mind, music, once he graduated. He joined the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop to appease his parents. The group included Maury Yeston (Titanic, Phantom) and Susan Birkenhead (Working, Jelly's Last Jam) and this is where Alan began to learn his art of writing for Musical Theatre. He met Howard Ashman, his long time collaborator, throug
•
Alan Menken
American composer (born 1949)
Musical artist
Alan Irwin Menken[1] (born July 22, 1949) is an American composer and conductor. Over his career he has received numerous accolades including winning eight Academy Awards, a Tony Award, eleven Grammy Awards, seven Golden Globe Awards, and a Daytime Emmy Award. He is one of 21 recipients to have won the competitive EGOT (Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony).[2]
He is best known for his scores and songs for films produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios. Menken's contributions to The Little Mermaid (1989), Beauty and the Beast (1991), Aladdin (1992), and Pocahontas (1995) won him two Academy Awards for each film. He also composed the scores and songs for Little Shop of Horrors (1986), Newsies (1992), The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996), Hercules (1997), Home on the Range (2004), Enchanted (2007), Tangled (2010), Disenchanted (2022), and Spellbound (2024), among others.
He i
•
Alan Menken
* Alan Menken was also the 2017 recipient of The Johnny Mercer Award, the SHOF’s highest honor
Alan Menken has composed some of the most beloved songs and musical scores of our time. His work has introduced an entire generation to the world of musicals; both stage and screen.
Born on July 22nd, 1949, Alan grew up as a child of the 60's, dreaming of a career as a singer-songwriter, while assuming he'd become a dentist like most of the other men in his family. While enjoying a spectacularly unsuccessful stint as a pre-med student at NYU, he was introduced to the BMI Musical Theater Workshop, run by the great conductor, Lehman Engel. There, Alan found his calling as a musical theater composer-lyricist. Along with performing on the New York cabaret circuit and writing and producing jingles and Sesame Street songs, some of the musicals and revues that Menken wrote songs for in this period are Atina: Evil Queen of the Galaxy, Real Life Funn