Sylvester Levay
Sylvester Levay ( born May 16, 1945 in Subotica in Vojvodina, Serbia) is a Hungarian composer.
Life
With eight years Sylvester Levay began his education at a music school. From 1962 he worked in all of Europe. In 1971 he took ( on organ and keyboards) with Eddy Marron and Christian Hoffmann of the Progressive album Vita nova on. In 1972 he moved to Munich. During this time he met Michael Kunze, with whom he still works successfully together. Their first big successes were the joint productions for Silver Convention and Penny McLean in "Munich disco sound " ( "Save Me ", " Fly Robin Fly ", " Get Up And Boogie " and " Lady Bump "). "Fly Robin Fly" was also the first produced in Germany at number one on the U.S. Billboard charts. " From 1980 to 2000 Sylvester Levay spent a lot of time in Hollywood and concentrated on composing film music. Nowadays he lives near Munich and in Vienna, has been married to his wife Monika for 25 years and has a daughter and a son.
Work
15 years old won his first composition competition Sylvester Levay. In Munich he worked with Udo Jürgens and Katja Ebstein. Composed between 1977 and 1980 and produced for Elton John, Donna Summer and others. He conducts and orchestrates all his works himself and mastered several instruments, including piano, saxophone, clarinet, flute and organ. From 1980 he worked in Hollywood with the likes of Michael Douglas, Charlie Sheen, George Lucas and many others combined. He was a member of the National Academy of Recording Arts Sciences ( NARAS ) and the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences ( ATAS ). At American universities University of California, Los Angeles and University of Southern California, he lectured on film composition. Since the 1990s, Levay dedicated a new genre: the musical. Most recently, he wrote with Michael Kunze together the musical Rebecca, which premiered in September 2006 at Vienna's Raimund Theater, and has since been the great success.
Compositions (selection )
- The Witches (1991, performance on open-air theater in Heilbronn)
- Elisabeth (1992, world premiere at the Theater an der Wien)
- Mozart! (1999, world premiere at the Theater an der Wien)
- Rebecca (2006, world premiere at the Raimund Theater in Vienna)
- Marie Antoinette (2006, world premiere at the Imperial Garden Theater in Tokyo )
- Telegram ( German contribution to the Euro Vision Song Contest in 1977, reached the eighth place with the group Silver Convention )
- Fly Robin Fly (title of Silver Convention reached # 1 on the U.S. charts )
- Music for the German TV Award
- Music for Bambi
- 1984: The fatal affair of Katherine G. (A Touch of Scandal )
- 1984-1986: Airwolf
- 1985: The Professor or How I resurrected my wife ( Creator)
- 1986: The City Cobra (Cobra )
- 1986: Gangster Kid ( Touch and Go )
- 1987: Mannequin
- 1987: The Thieving Magpie ( Burglar )
- 1988: The merciless hunter ( The Tracker )
- 1989: Heidi on the run (Courage Mountain)
- 1990: Navy Seals - The hardest elite force in the world ( Navy Seals )
- 1991: Hot Shots! - The mother of all films ( Hot Shots! )
- 1991: Cry in the Wild ( Cry in the Wild: The Taking of Peggy Ann )
- 1991: Stone Cold - Cold as Stone ( Stone Cold )
- 1993: Laura's Shadow (I Can Make You Love Me)
- 1997-2002: Medicopter 117 - Every life counts
Awards
- Fly Robin Fly for Grammy (1976 )
- Golden Tuning Fork (2002)
- Goldene Europa (2002)
- Honorary Medal of Vienna ( 2006)