Alan Menken (born July 22, 1949) is an American musical theatre and film composer and pianist. Menken has collaborated with lyricists including Howard Ashman, Tim Rice and Stephen Schwartz. For his work he has won eight Academy Awards as well as ten additional nominations.
Menken was born into a Jewish family in New Rochelle, New York, the son of Judith and Norman Menken, a dentist. He developed an interest in music at an early age, studying pian...
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Alan Menken (born July 22, 1949) is an American musical theatre and film composer and pianist. Menken has collaborated with lyricists including Howard Ashman, Tim Rice and Stephen Schwartz. For his work he has won eight Academy Awards as well as ten additional nominations.
Menken was born into a Jewish family in New Rochelle, New York, the son of Judith and Norman Menken, a dentist. He developed an interest in music at an early age, studying piano and violin. He went to New Rochelle High School in New Rochelle, New York. He attended New York University as a pre-med student, but later changed his focus to music. After college, he attended the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theater Workshop. He performed frequently in local clubs and worked as a composer of jingles and songs and as an accompanist.
In the late 1970s, Menken wrote several shows that were successfully showcased, but were not produced. Menken's first major professional work was with Ashman for the Off-Broadway 1979 WPA Theatre...
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