In a musical career that is as celebrated as it is multifaceted, Michael Kamen has distinguished himself as orchestrator, composer, conductor and collaborator extraordinaire. He has worked with everyone from Pavarotti to Dylan, written every kind of music, from number one hits to ballets and composed film scores for a wide variety of films ranging from Lethal Weapon and the Die Hard series to award-winning scores for Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, music-driven, intimate dramas like Neil Jordan's Mona Lisa and Circle of Friends to the blockbusters Mr. Holland's Opus and 101 Dalmations.

The diversity of his accomplishments includes writing Oscar and Grammy nominated hit songs like "Everything I Do (I Do It For You)," the Bryan Adams record which sold six million copies in 1991 and stayed at number one in Britain for 16 weeks (the longest running chart topper of all time) and was also a number one hit in the USA and worldwide. He has also written ten ballets, including works for the Harkness, Louis Falco, Alvin Ailey, Joffrey Ballet and Milan's La Scala.

Michael Kamen's first film score was The Next Man, starring Sean Connery, in 1976. The list is now endless and includes some of the most successful movies of all time. Among Michael Kamen's many credits are the Lethal Weapon films, all three Die Hard films, Terry Gilliam's Brazil and The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, The Three Musketeers, Someone to Watch Over Me, Neil Jordan's Mona Lisa, The Krays, Shining Through, and James Bond: License to Kill.

One of his major contributions to movie music is bringing stars like Eric Clapton, David Sanborn, George Harrison, Queen, Alice In Chains, Orbital and Herbie Hancock into an orchestral setting to create a unique synthesis of pop, rock and a large-scale symphonic sound.

In 1995, Mr. Kamen composed the music for four very diverse films. His lushly romantic score for Don Juan De Marco, starring Johnny Depp and Marlon Brando, earned him a Golden Globe nomination for Best Original Score for a Motion Picture. The number one hit song from Don Juan De Marco, "Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman," sung by Bryan Adams, also garnered Mr. Kamen an Oscar, Golden Globe and Grammy nomination for Best Original Song Written for a Motion Picture. Mr. Kamen's other scores were for the international blockbuster Die Hard: With a Vengeance, the highly acclaimed Circle of Friends, starring Chris O'Donnell and directed by Pat O'Connor (featuring the Chieftains on the score) and Mr. Holland's Opus, featuring Richard Dreyfuss' Oscar-nominated tour de force performance as a high school music teacher.

Mr. Kamen's 1996 and 1997 film projects include Disney's live-action blockbuster 101 Dalmations, Francis Ford Coppola's Jack, starring Robin Williams, director Pat O'Connor's Inventing the Abbotts, starring Liv Tyler, Billy Crudup and Joaquin Phoenix and director Alan Rickman's The Winter Guest, starring Oscar-winner Emma Thompson and Phyllida Law.

His most recent scores have been for Lethal Weapon 4, with Eric Clapton and David Sanborn, the Emmy nominated theme for the major HBO twelve-hour miniseries From the Earth to the Moon,Polygram's What Dreams May Come, starring Robin Williams and Cuba Gooding Jr. and Warner Bros.' critically acclaimed animated science-fiction feature, The Iron Giant, starring Jennifer Aniston and Harry Connick Jr. He recently finished work on New Line Cinema's Frequency, a riveting and original science-fiction thriller starring Dennis Quaid and Jim Caviezel, from director Gregory Hoblit, and Fox's action/sci-fi thriller, X-Men.

Since the massive success of "Everything I Do (I Do It For You)," Michael Kamen has co-written two further best selling singles -- "All For Love," performed by Bryan Adams, Sting and Rod Stewart (from The Three Musketeers) and "It's Probably Me," performed by Sting (from Lethal Weapon III), bringing his Grammy nominations to a total of seven.

In 1995, Mr. Kamen, with Richard Dreyfuss, spearheaded the formation of the Mr. Holland's Opus Foundation, a national nonprofit educational organization dedicated to providing musical instruments and support to children and young musicians whose school programs lack funding to do so. Mr. Kamen is also working with the Mayor of New York to improve music in the five boroughs and recently presented a check to the city from the foundation for $100,000 to support and benefit music in the schools.

Michael Kamen is an artist whose cross-cultural vision stems from a unique upbringing. Born in New York City in 1948, he was raised in a house filled with music. Among his parents' friends were Leadbelly and Pete Seeger. Mr. Kamen started playing the piano at the age of two and soon added the guitar, clarinet and oboe. Ever since he began playing folk-blues in a jug band, while simultaneously studying oboe at New York's famed Juilliard School of Music, he has had his feet in as many different musical camps as he could manage.