Michael Nyman

Biography

23 March 1944, London, England. A highly acclaimed composer, pianist, orchestra leader, and author, Nyman studied at the London Academy of Music (of which he is a Fellow) and at King’s College, London. He subsequently worked as a music critic before founding the Campiello Band (later renamed the Michael Nyman Band) in 1977. To the public at large, Nyman is probably best known for his music to Jane Campion’s award-winning 1993 movie The Piano, and for several ‘propulsively pounding’ scores he composed for the idiosyncratic director and screenwriter, Peter Greenaway. Most notable among these are The Draughtsman’s Contract (1982), A Zed & Two Noughts (1985), Drowning By Numbers (1988), The Cook, The Thief, His Wife & Her Lover (1989), and Prospero’s Books (1991). The two men parted after Nyman discovered that his original score for Prospero’s Books had been overlaid with what he called ‘awful phoney electronic...

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