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Topic: Michael Kamen has passed away
Bond1965
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While reading Michael Kamen's obituary in today's Los Angeles Times I saw that "in lieu of flowers" the family has asked that memorial donations be made to the:Mr. Holland's Opus Foundation
15125 Ventura Blvd., Suite 204
Sherman Oaks, CA 91403In case you don't know, this foundation is a national nonprofit educational organization for providing musical instruments and support to children and young musicians whose school programs lack funding.
I know this was a Foundation that Mr. Kamen was deeply involved in.
James
posted 11-19-2003 09:25 AM PT (US) PeterK
FishChip
A portion of the proceeds from the sale of "Michael Kamen's Opus" CD goes to the Opus Foundation:
http://www.moviemusic.com/CD/michaelkamen.htmlA perfect memorial album if there ever was one.
posted 11-19-2003 11:16 AM PT (US) PeterK
FishChip
Mr Holland's Opus Foundation website:
http://www.mhopus.org/
posted 11-19-2003 11:19 AM PT (US) justin boggan
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...I am not sure what to say.
It's like Phil Hartman's death - It just doesn't feel right. Like it wasn't his time.
People die all the time, even famous people, but sometimes it seems as if certain people weren't meant to part us so early.
55. It hardly seems true. To finally be in the groove, do what you want to be doing, being happy as reasonably possible and then to have your life taken from you abruptly. I am sure it was painful. Shooting through his arms, or his side before he hit the floor.
Just doesn't seem right.
Was he in the middle of scoring a movie? I know the late, great Georges Delerue died shortly aftering finishing one.
Who will get his future projects? Such a bittersweet thing to know you'd be scoring a movie Kamen was meant for.
I hope what ever movies he was booked to do credit at the beginning of the end credits with
"In memory of Michael Kamen"
and I wish his friends and family well.
I never even got to know his music beyond a few minutes of The Last OF The Mohicans" and [b]Die Hard.
Could this year get any worse?
posted 11-19-2003 03:09 PM PT (US) Ed
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The LA Times Obit:MICHAEL KAMEN, GRAMMY-WINNING COMPOSER
By Dennis McLellan, Times Staff Writer
Michael Kamen, whose numerous movie scores, including those for "Mr. Holland's Opus," the "Die Hard" and "Lethal Weapon" films and the HBO series "Band of Brothers," made him one of Hollywood's most successful composers, has died. He was 55.Kamen, who had multiple sclerosis, died Tuesday of an apparent heart attack at his home in London, according to his publicist.
Kamen's career was multifaceted. He wrote and directed the music for the opening ceremony of the 2002 Winter Olympics; served as musical director for Queen Elizabeth's Golden Jubilee at Buckingham Palace; and orchestrated, arranged and conducted a collaboration of the heavy metal band Metallica with the San Francisco Symphony. A 1999 live album, "S&M: Metallica With the San Francisco Symphony, Conducted by Michael Kamen," has sold more than 4 million copies.
Beginning in the mid-1970s, Kamen wrote scores for 28 films, from offbeat films such as "Polyester" and "Brazil" to more mainstream fare such as "X-Men," "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves," Disney's live-action "101 Dalmatians" and, most recently, Kevin Costner's "Open Range."
"He had a phenomenal talent for motion pictures," producer-director Richard Donner told The Times on Tuesday. "Michael is like a fixture in your life because who do you turn to when you need great music? You turn to Michael Kamen." Donner worked with Kamen on five movies, including the four "Lethal Weapon" films.
Added Donner of his friend, whose frizzy gray hair and impish brown eyes recently prompted a Times reporter to liken him to an Edward Koren cartoon character: "He looked like the lion in 'The Wizard of Oz.' He never was anything but the happiest, sweetest, gentlest guy you ever met. He was a very special human being and we're all going to miss him desperately."
Kamen earned an Oscar nomination in 1991 for "(Everything I Do) I Do It For You," the Bryan Adams hit song from "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves." The song, with lyrics by Adams and Robert John "Mutt" Lange, won two Grammy Awards.
"An American Symphony" from the 1995 film "Mr. Holland's Opus" won a Grammy for best instrumental arrangement.
Over the years, Kamen orchestrated music for a range of artists including Pink Floyd, Eric Clapton and the Eurythmics.
"Maybe I should have a shingle in front of my house that says, 'String arranger to the stars,' " he told the Boston Globe in 1992. "But really, I've been very fortunate to work with many of my heroes."
Born April 15, 1948, in New York City, Kamen grew up in Queens, where his parents were liberal activists.
"There was music in my house all the time," he told the Washington Post in 2000. "Like most left-wing families in Queens, my parents played a healthy diet of Leadbelly and Pete Seeger records, the Weavers, in addition to Bach."
Kamen, who began playing the piano at age 2, studied the oboe at the Juilliard School of Music in New York City in the 1960s.
"By then, rock 'n' roll had become the thing, and the Beatles were happening," he told the Post. "They changed my life; there's no question about it. So at Juilliard I started a band called the New York Rock and Roll Ensemble."
The group was one of the first rock/classical fusion groups. It "made its name by wearing tuxedos, playing society gigs and trying to adapt Bach to rock," according to the New Rolling Stone Record Guide. "They failed miserably at all that overblown stuff, then went out and made this tremendous rock 'n' roll album" — "Roll Over" (1970).
When the group began being invited to perform with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra and other large symphony orchestras, Kamen began writing the orchestrations.
When the group disbanded after seven years and five albums, Kamen was asked to write a score for the Harkness Ballet, the first of eight scores for various ballet companies.
"I was just a rock 'n' roll oboist," he told the London Independent in 1994. "But it seemed within my grasp to do it."
An impressed David Bowie, who attended the premiere of the ballet, asked Kamen to become music director for the "Diamond Dog" tour, one of the first theatrical rock tours.
Kamen also brought Bob Dylan together with an orchestra at a temple in Japan in 1994, for which Kamen composed and conducted an overture for 350 performers.
Kamen also provided orchestral arrangements for Pink Floyd's "The Wall" and co-produced Pink Floyd's "The Final Cut" album.
Kamen, who has had a home in London since 1982, was diagnosed in 1996 with multiple sclerosis, an inflammatory disease of the central nervous system that causes various disabilities.
However, he did not publicly reveal his illness until September when he was awarded the Dorothy Corwin Spirit of Life Award at a fund-raiser for the Southern California chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.
"When I first saw the diagnosis, I nearly hit the bottom," he told the Hollywood Reporter in September. "But I just bounced right back. I thought: Well, I don't feel so bad, and I'm not about to feel so bad. And, if I do, I'll get better."
At the time of the interview, Kamen was working on musical stage versions of the films "Mr. Holland's Opus" and "Don Juan DeMarco."
He is survived by his wife, Sandra Keenan-Kamen; his daughters, Sasha and Zoe; his father, Saul; and his brothers, Jon, Paul and Dr. Len Kamen.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests memorial donations be made to the Mr. Holland's Opus Foundation, 15125 Ventura Blvd., Suite 204, Sherman Oaks, CA 91403.
The foundation is a national nonprofit educational organization for providing musical instruments and support to children and young musicians whose school programs lack funding.
posted 11-19-2003 06:18 PM PT (US) rachmaninov
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Terrible news. Michael was so young.
Well, we, the birds, the earth, the sun, the stars, we all die sooner or later, but we are part of something bigger, we are part of some sort of universal balance, where the energy is not destroyed, and it is only modified and morphed, and the beautiful transcendental energy that Kamen gave us with his music, music that warmed and will always warm our hearts, will always remain in the existence, on a dimension that is never destroyed.
Rest in peace Michael Kamen.
posted 11-20-2003 01:17 AM PT (US) Laurence Page
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I had the pleasure of talking to Michael after a concert he did here in London with students at the Royal Academy of Music. I wrote to his website the following day and he replied personally with very best wishes. He seemed to be a very warm and generous man.
posted 11-20-2003 01:36 AM PT (US) Camillu
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This is terrible. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw this thread title.May we all remember him every time we hear that lovely Newline logo music on screen.
posted 11-20-2003 07:59 AM PT (US) Kris
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I was shocked when I read the article at Music From The Movies. 55 is just to young to go. For me Michael Kamen belonged to the group of composers that made me listen to film music in the first place. Robin Hood is still one of my favorite scores. The Die Hard and Lethal Weapon themes will be heard and remembered for years to come.I wish his family and friends all the best.
posted 11-20-2003 08:40 AM PT (US) skellington
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I really couldn't believe the shocking news when I heard about what happened to Mr.Kamen, can you believe it, this man was only 55 years old.
A great loss indeed but he left us some wonderful musical memories, let's cherish them, forever!
posted 11-20-2003 12:50 PM PT (US) nightwing
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Actually, when I come to think of it, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves was the score that got me into this! Wow. I know that like many of you this seems different, because he touched me much more than when, say, an actor dies. I've been listening to his scores in remembrance for the last few days, especially Band of Brothers and Open Range. They seem to have a pretty good sense of the mood.
posted 11-20-2003 09:38 PM PT (US) Pete M
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Wow. It scarcely seems real. I just put on the theme from "Circle of Friends" - a meldy I have always loved - and was unable to control a brief outburst of tears. He will be sorely missed indeed.NP The Michael Kamen Soundtrack Album
posted 11-21-2003 03:54 AM PT (US) KyleS
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I just learned of this sad news today and my heart aches even though I never met him. Of all his wonderful scores the one that touched me the most was for 'The Iron Giant.' He will be missed.God's speed to Maestro Kamen.
posted 11-21-2003 10:56 AM PT (US) Kimiakane
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An enormous loss to us all. 55...much too young.the filmscore gal,
Galinaposted 11-21-2003 02:04 PM PT (US) Graham Watt
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This was quite a shock. I'd been out of the filmic circle for a few days, overloaded with work, so I only learned of Michael Kamen's passing when I clicked on FSM's Friday page a couple of hours ago. Peter K's link to the composer's own site is particularly poignant - a reply to some comments from a poster, and a reply so full of life and hopes for the future - written the very day before he died.
posted 11-23-2003 01:20 PM PT (US) Camillu
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Today I remembered Michael Kamen becuase I got to see 3 of the songs he wrote performed live - because Bryan Adams decided to pop over to tiny Malta during his Anthology tour. He played the songs from Three Musketeers, Don Juan and (of course) Robin Hood POT.
posted 06-28-2007 06:43 PM PT (US) franz_conrad
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Interesting this topic should come up. I was just musing on Kamen while listening to his concert work - THE NEW MOON IN THE OLD MOON'S ARMS. His finest work?
posted 06-28-2007 06:57 PM PT (US) Jeron
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Definitely a great work by Kamen. I'm thinkin' it's time to listen to some License to Kill - me loves some Kamen 007 music. The Three Musketeers is also one of my absolute favorites. Robin Hood was his Titanic, overplayed and universally well known, but still a great score. 101 Dalmations was terrific too. I miss Michael Kamen.
posted 06-28-2007 09:21 PM PT (US) Marian Schedenig
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quote:
Originally posted by Camillu:
Today I remembered Michael Kamen becuase I got to see 3 of the songs he wrote performed live - because Bryan Adams decided to pop over to tiny Malta during his Anthology tour. He played the songs from Three Musketeers, Don Juan and (of course) Robin Hood POT.My father recently showed me some excerpts of David Gilmour's live DVD, and there, sitting at the piano, was none other than Michael Kamen.
posted 06-29-2007 06:26 AM PT (US) Old Infopop Software by UBB