Michael Nyman

Writing movie soundtracks and operas while a performing artist in his own right, Michael Nyman's wide-ranging talents have not only made him one of Britain's most admired and prolific talents, but one of the most popular too. His collaborations with film-maker Peter Greenaway have been particularly successful and his soundtrack music to the movie The Piano is a modern best-seller. From a Jewish family growing up in the East End of London, Nyman studied under Alan Bush and Thurston Dart and in 1961 specialised in piano and 17th Century baroque music at the Royal Academy of Music in London. In 1964 he won the Howard Carr memorial prize for composition and five years later provided the libretto for the Harrison Birtwistle opera, Down By The Greenwood Side. His early movie soundtracks include The Draughtman's Contract and The Cook, The Thief, His Wife And Her Lover and he is generally credited with introducing the term "minimalism" to musical language. Always in tune with modern culture, Nyman's open-minded approach includes collaborations with Damon Albarn on Ravenous, though his biggest success came with his music for The Piano in 1993. In 1976 he formed the Michael Nyman Band, originally exclusively using early instruments like rebecs and shawms, and was also a member of Portsmouth Sinfonia, an orchestra which enjoyed cult success by playing their instruments deliberately badly.