Stephen Schwartz (composer)
Stephen Schwartz ( born March 6, 1948 in New York, NY) is an American musical composer and author.
Biography
Stephen Schwartz studied piano and composition at the Juilliard School of Music in 1968 and took a degree in drama at Carnegie Mellon University.
In New York, he began work as a producer for RCA Records, but soon devoted himself to work on the stages of Broadway. His first success was the title song of the play Butterflies Are Free, which was also used in the film version.
In 1971 he wrote the music and new lyrics for the musical Godspell, for which he received numerous awards, including two Grammys. In the following years he wrote with Leonard Bernstein on the English texts Bernstein's Mass.
Other musical shows are Pippin, The Magic Show and The Baker 's Wife.
After a few more projects Stephen Schwartz wrote the music and lyrics of the successful 1991 musical Children of Eden ( book by John Caird ). Then began his work as a film composer for Disney productions, where he co-wrote with Alan Menken, the soundtrack to the animated film Pocahontas ( for which he won two Oscars ) and The Hunchback of Notre Dame. He also contributed several songs on to The Prince of Egypt, for the song When You Believe he received another Oscar.
2003 Schwartz returned to Broadway and produced there the musical Wicked - The witches of Oz, Gregory Maguire's novel Wicked on the: based The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West. Schwartz received a Grammy Award for his work as a composer / lyricist and producer for the album resulting therefrom.
In April 2008, Schwartz was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.