Michael J. Lewis (composer)

Michael John Lewis (born 11 January 1939) is a Welsh-born eclectic composer of film, theatre, television, and choral music.

At age six, Lewis became a choirboy and by age 10, a church organist. Welsh hymns and German chorales became his joy and inspiration. Later, Lewis moved to London, studying Harmony, Counterpoint and Composition at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. After a brief teaching career in North London, where his pupils introduced him to The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, Lewis retired at age 24 to devote himself to a lifetime of composition.

His first major work was Please, Sir, a stage musical that attracted the attention of English writer/director Brian Forbes and actor Richard Attenborough. In 1968, Forbes invited Lewis to score his high-profile movie, The Madwoman of Chaillot, starring Katharine Hepburn. Lewis's first film score won him England’s prestigious Ivor Novello Award in 1969/1970. Subsequently, he composed the scores for |Upon This Rock, a dramatized documentary of St. Peter’s Basilica starring Orson Welles, which premiered at the 1970 Venice Film Festival, and Julius Caesar starring Charlton Heston, Jason Robards and John Gielgud. 1973 saw Lewis' Broadway musical debut with Cyrano starring Christopher Plummer, who won a Tony Award for his stellar performance. The show was co-written with Anthony Burgess, author of the novel, A Clockwork Orange.

Through the late 1970s and early 80s, Michael J. Lewis scored a host of films including the British cult horror film, Theatre of Blood, starring Vincent Price, The Medusa Touch, starring Richard Burton and the animated film, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, which earned Lewis an Emmy Award.

In 1982, Lewis scored Oscar-winning director Franklin J Schaffner’s thriller, Sphinx, starring Frank Langella and Lesley-Anne Down. Lewis worked with Franklin J. Schaffner a second time on MGM/UA ’s musical, Yes, Giorgio, starring Luciano Pavarotti. The music credit was shared with John Williams. Williams wrote the music for the song, If We Were in Love, lyrics written by Alan and Marilyn Bergman. Lewis wrote the underscore along with Verdi, Puccini, Rossini, Leoncavallo.

Later, Lewis began writing British TV commercials, (British Rail, Tesco, 7 Up, Ford, Audi), and subsequently relocated to the United States in 1986, where he scored national TV campaigns including IBM, Lipton, Kentucky Fried Chicken, 3M, and Connecticut National Bank. Lewis's first US TV score, Rose and the Jackel, starring Christopher Reeve, won him a Cable ACE Award nomination. In 1998, Lewis's music was featured on the Academy Awards In Memoriam segment, which honored the passing of actors Robert Mitchum and James Stuart, and which was hosted by Whoopi Goldberg.  

Following the death of his daughter Susannah in 1994, Lewis gravitated away from film, devoting himself to writing and adapting the music, sacred and secular, of his native Wales. He issued The Romantic Splendour of Wales (Gogoniant Rhamantaidd Cymru) CD in 1997, recorded totally in Welsh. The success of this project spawned further recordings in subsequent years including, In the Language of Heaven, a collection of Welsh Folk songs performed a cappella in Welsh), The Golden Harp, Hearts Afire, Piano Moon, Celtic Moon, and others.

Michael J. Lewis now lives in Mississippi, 'birthplace of America’s music', where he is currently writing a stage show and recording the score in New Orleans.