Coordinates	0°23′24″N9°27′0″N
name	Karen Ziemba
birth date	November 12, 1957
birth place	St. Joseph, Michigan, United States
yearsactive	1980s-present
spouse	Bill Tatum (1984-present)
website	http://www.karenziemba.com
tonyawards	Best Featured Actress in a Musical 2000 ''Contact''}}

Karen Ziemba (born November 12, 1957) is an American actress, singer and dancer, best-known for her work in musical theatre.

Biography

Ziemba was born in St. Joseph, Michigan, and went on to attend the University of Akron (in Ohio), where she studied dance and joined the Ohio Ballet in her sophomore year.

Her Broadway debut was in ''A Chorus Line'' as Diana Morales. Later, she played the lead of Peggy Sawyer in ''42nd Street''. While appearing in "42nd Street", she was featured in the October 1984 issue of Playboy in the article "Babes of Broadway", in which she posed partially nude.

Ziemba went on to win a Drama Desk Award for the Kander and Ebb revue ''And The World Goes 'Round'' (1991) and receive a Drama Desk nomination for ''I Do! I Do!'' (1996). The next year, she was nominated for another Drama Desk Award and a Tony for her role in ''Steel Pier''. In 2000, Ziemba won the Tony for Best Featured Actress in a Musical for her performance in Susan Stroman's ''Contact''. Four years later, she received another Tony nomination for ''Never Gonna Dance''. In 2007, she portrayed the heartwarming lyricist Georgia Hendricks in ''Curtains'', earning her fourth Tony award nomination.

Ziemba's other Broadway roles include Polly Baker in ''Crazy for You'', Roxie Hart in ''Chicago'', and Belle Hagner in ''Teddy & Alice''. In addition, she has performed with the New York City Opera in ''110 in the Shade'' and ''The Most Happy Fella''. She has appeared in several New York City Center Encores! musicals-in-concert. She also starred in the staged reading of Vincent Crapelli's Otherwise, with Beth Leavel and Laura Bonarrigo-Koffman.

On television she has appeared on ''Law & Order'' and on film in ''The Producers (2005)'' and the ill-fated, never released remake of the classic ''The Devil and Daniel Webster''.

External links

Karen Ziemba official site

Category:University of Akron alumni Category:American dancers Category:American film actors Category:American musical theatre actors Category:American television actors Category:Actors from Michigan Category:American people of Polish descent Category:Drama Desk Award winners Category:Tony Award winners Category:People from Berrien County, Michigan Category:1957 births Category:Living people

Coordinates	0°23′24″N9°27′0″N
birth name	Beatrice Neuwirth
birth date	December 31, 1958
birth place	Newark, New Jersey, U.S.
occupation	Actress
years active	1980–present
spouse	Paul Dorman (1984–1991), Chris Calkins (2009–present) }}

Beatrice "Bebe" Neuwirth (; born December 31, 1958) is an American actress, singer and dancer. She has worked in television and is known for her portrayal of Dr. Lilith Sternin, Dr. Frasier Crane's wife (later ex-wife), on both the TV sitcom ''Cheers'' (in a starring role), and its spin-off ''Frasier'' (in a recurring guest role). On stage, she is also known for originating the role of Nickie in the revival of ''Sweet Charity'', the role of Velma Kelly in the revival of ''Chicago'' (both for which she earned a Tony award) and for the role of Morticia Addams in ''The Addams Family'' musical.

Early life

Neuwirth was born in Princeton, New Jersey, the daughter of Russian American Sydney Anne, a painter, and German American Lee Paul Neuwirth, a mathematician. She has an older brother Peter, an actuary. Neuwirth is Jewish and attended Chapin School in New Jersey as well as Princeton Day School (New Jersey) of Princeton, but graduated from Princeton High School (a public school) in 1976. She began to study ballet at the age of five, and chose it as her field of concentration when she attended Juilliard in New York City in 1976 and 1977. During this period, she performed with the Princeton Ballet Company in ''Peter and the Wolf'', ''The Nutcracker'', and ''Coppélia'' and appeared in community theater musicals. Neuwirth always dreamed of becoming a ballet dancer, the only other career she seriously contemplated was being a veterinarian.

Personal life

Neuwirth is more multi-faceted than her ''Cheers'' character Lilith Sternin, but admits they do have something in common. Like Lilith, Neuwirth admits being shy and socially awkward with limited interpersonal skills. She is not easy in groups, and the thought of a cocktail party where she must meet a lot of new people strikes terror in her soul. Neuwirth is a very cerebral intellectual, but although she may appear unapproachable and radiates callousness behind a wall of reserve, she is a loving, funny and giving person.

In 1986, she was introduced to pottery, and has immersed herself in this craft through the years. Besides this hobby Neuwirth dances every day, which has been a ritual ever since she was a child. She rarely drinks alcohol, though occasionally enjoys a glass of champagne or wine at birthday parties, premieres or openings.

Neuwirth is an animal lover, and supports many animal organizations, including raising money to help stray cats and dogs.

Career

Early work

Neuwirth, who has been associated with the work of Bob Fosse, made her Broadway debut in the role of Sheila in ''A Chorus Line'' in 1980. She has been featured in revivals of ''Little Me'' (1982) ''Sweet Charity'' (1986), for which she received a Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical, and ''Damn Yankees'' (1994). It was with the 1996 revival of Chicago, in which she starred as showgirl and killer Velma Kelly, that she gained her greatest stage recognition. Her performance garnered her Tony and Drama Desk Awards as Best Lead Actress in a Musical.

She appeared in a musical revue, ''Here Lies Jenny'', that featured songs by Kurt Weill, sung and danced by Neuwirth and a four-person supporting cast, as part of an unspoken ambiguous story in an anonymous seedy bar possibly in Berlin in the 1930s. The show ran from May 7, 2004 through October 3 in the Zipper Theater in New York City. ''Here Lies Jenny'' was also presented by Ms. Neuwirth in San Francisco in 2005. On December 31, 2006, her 48th birthday, Neuwirth returned to the still-running Broadway production of ''Chicago'', this time in the role of Roxie Hart.

Film and television

Her screen credits include ''Green Card'', ''Bugsy'', ''Say Anything...'', ''Jumanji'', ''Summer of Sam'', ''Liberty Heights'', ''Tadpole'' (for which the Seattle Film Critics named her Best Supporting Actress), ''The Associate'', ''How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days'', ''Malice'', ''The Big Bounce'', ''The Faculty'' and Woody Allen's ''Celebrity''.

On television, from 1986 to 1993 Neuwirth played Dr. Lilith Sternin, the conservatively dressed and emotionally repressed psychiatrist who married Dr. Frasier Crane on the hit comedy series ''Cheers.'' From the fourth to the seventh season Neuwirth portrayed Lilith in a regular recurring role, and she appeared on the show as a main star from season eight to the final season, season eleven. Like Kelsey Grammer when he started on the show as Frasier Crane, she was not immediately given star billing in the opening credits, but at the end for seasons eight and nine; she appeared in the opening credits with her own portrait in seasons ten and eleven. She auditioned for this role with her arm in a sling, following a fall a week earlier. She won two Emmy Awards for the role, in 1990 and 1991. The character also made an appearance in the series ''Wings'' and 11 episodes of the ''Cheers'' spin-off ''Frasier'', which earned her a 1995 Emmy Award nomination as Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series. Her additional small screen credits include a guest appearance in the first season of ''NewsRadio'' on an episode called "Friends", voicing the villainess Mirage, a recurring character in the spin-off television series from Disney's ''Aladdin'', a small role on ''The Adventures of Pete and Pete'' (episode: The Call), ''Deadline'' (2000), ''Hack'' (2003), ''Law & Order: Trial by Jury'' in (2005), ''Law & Order: Special Victims Unit'' in 1999 as a modeling agent/suspect, and again in 2005 as A.D.A Tracey Kibre, as well as the miniseries ''Wild Palms'' and an episode of ''Star Trek: The Next Generation''. She has appeared as herself in episodes of ''Will and Grace'', ''Strangers with Candy'' and ''Celebrity Jeopardy!''. She also had a small role in ''An Extremely Goofy Movie'' in which she voices Sylvia Marpole, the college librarian and Goofy's new love interest. In 2009 she co-starred as Ms. Kraft in the remake of ''Fame''.

Stage work

In 2009, Neuwirth toured a one-woman cabaret show titled: Bebe Neuwirth: Stories with Piano accompanied by pianist Scott Cady. Neuwirth performed songs by Kurt Weill, Stephen Sondheim, Tom Waits, John Lennon & Paul McCartney and John Kander & Fred Ebb. A partial list of the songs performed are: Kurt Weill's "Here Lies Jenny," "Bilbao Song, "Susan's Dream,” "Surabaya Johnny," and "Je Ne T'Aime Pas," Herman Hupfeld’s "As Time Goes By," Stephen Sondheim's "Another Hundred People," (from “Company”), John Kander and Fred Ebb's "And the World Goes 'Round," and “Ring Them Bells” (from “Liza with a Z”), Edith Piaf's "Simply a Waltz," Weill-Ogden Nash "How Much I Love You," Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane’s "The Trolley Song," Frank Loesser "On a Slow Boat to China," Tom Waits' "A Foreign Affair" and "Shiver Me Timbers," Lennon & McCartney’s “Black Bird,” Irving Berlin's "It Only Happens When I Dance With You," and Sammy Fain & Irving Kahal’s "I'll Be Seeing You."

In 2010, she starred on Broadway as Morticia Addams in ''The Addams Family'' musical, opposite Nathan Lane who played her husband Gomez.

Marriage

Her 1984 marriage to Paul Dorman ended in divorce. In May 2009 she married Chris Calkins.

References

External links

Bebe Neuwirth – ''Downstage Center'' interview at American Theatre Wing.org

Star File: Bebe Neuwirth at Broadway.com

Category:American contraltos Category:American dancers Category:American female singers Category:American film actors Category:American Jews Category:American musical theatre actors Category:American television actors Category:American people of German descent Category:American people of Russian descent Category:Emmy Award winners Category:Jewish actors Category:Juilliard School alumni Category:People from Princeton, New Jersey Category:Tony Award winners Category:1958 births Category:Living people

de:Bebe Neuwirth fr:Bebe Neuwirth it:Bebe Neuwirth nl:Bebe Neuwirth ja:ビビ・ニューワース no:Bebe Neuwirth pl:Bebe Neuwirth pt:Bebe Neuwirth sh:Bebe Neuwirth fi:Bebe Neuwirth sv:Bebe Neuwirth tl:Bebe Neuwirth

Coordinates	0°23′24″N9°27′0″N
name	Scott Wise
birth date
birth place
occupation	Actor, director, choreographer
spouse	Elizabeth H. Parkinson (1999-present) Kiel Junius (div.)
website	}}

Scott Wise is an American actor, director and choreographer.

Life and career

Although a life-trained dancer, Wise first became seriously interested in dance as a career while studying to become an accountant. He performed with the Joffrey II, then moved into musical theater in the early 1980s after auditioning for ''A Chorus Line'' "as a dare more than anything."

Wise won his Tony Award in 1989 in the category of Best Featured Actor in a Musical for his performance in the dance revue ''Jerome Robbins' Broadway''. Wise played multiple roles, including "Riff" in ''West Side Story'' and "Chip" in ''On the Town''. Wise was nominated twice more in the same category for his performances in ''State Fair'' and ''Fosse''.

In addition to playing the Drill Sergeant and Sergeant O'Leary in the rock ballet, ''Movin' Out'', Wise was also Twyla Tharp's assistant choreographer and assistant director. Wise has also choreographed the Off-Broadway musical ''A Class Act'', a regional production of The Who's Tommy and the national tour of ''Leader of the Pack''.

Personal life

Wise is married to dancer Elizabeth Parkinson and together have one son. His daughter, actress Savannah Wise is from his previous marriage to dancer and choreographer Kiel Junius.

In October 2006, Wise and Parkinson opened up their studio, FineLine Theatre Arts, in New Milford, Connecticut.

Stage productions

1982 ''A Chorus Line''

1984 ''Cats''

1985 ''Song and Dance''

1988 ''Carrie''

1989 ''Jerome Robbins' Broadway''

1992 ''Guys and Dolls''

1993 ''The Goodbye Girl''

1994 ''Damn Yankees''

1995 ''Victor/Victoria''

1996 ''State Fair''

1999 ''Fosse''

2002 ''Movin' Out''

References

External links

FineLine Theatre Arts

Category:Year of birth missing (living people) Category:Living people Category:American actors Category:American musical theatre actors Category:American dancers Category:Tony Award winners

:''For the rugby league footballer, see Billy Cunliffe''

Coordinates	0°23′24″N9°27′0″N
name	Bill Cunliffe
background	non_vocal_instrumentalist
birth name	Bill Cunliffe
born	June 26, 1956Andover, MassachusettsUnited States
origin	Andover, MA, United States
instrument	Piano
genre	Jazz
occupation	Musician, Composer, Arranger
years active	1978–present
associated acts	Bill Cunliffe septet
website	Bill Cunliffe.com
notable instruments	}}

Bill Cunliffe (b. June 26, 1956) is an American jazz pianist and composer based in Los Angeles who is notable for achieving numerous Grammy and Emmy awards. He has been described by ''The New York Times'' as being in the "modern jazz mainstream" and as an "accomplished pianist and composer." Ernie Rideout of Keyboard Magazine described Cunliffe's playing as "inventive, melodic, and soulful." He has written books on jazz for Alfred Publications, and teaches at California State University.

Early life

Cunliffe was born in Andover, Massachusetts. He explained in an interview with ''All About Jazz'' writer Fred Jung:

My mother was a good pianist and she had a piano at home. My dad played the phonograph all the time. So there was music in the house all the time. I started just copying little things that I would hear my mom play and I would sit next to her and listen. I was very fascinated with it. ... When I was a kid, I was listening mostly to classical music because my dad had a lot of it in the house. I listened to all the stuff that was on the radio in the Sixties and Seventies. The stuff I liked was really the jazz oriented stuff. I loved Burt Bacharach. I loved Sergio Mendes. I loved anything with hip harmony in it. I've always been drawn to great harmony and secondarily to great melody, not so much rock and roll, although I liked rock and roll. I didn't hate it, but it didn't really interest me as much as the piano oriented music. Herb Alpert, I really liked his music. The 5th Dimension, their harmonic concept. I loved the black vocal groups that got into hipper harmony and interesting songs.––Bill Cunliffe

Cunliffe attended Phillips Academy, and graduated in 1974 in the school's first co–educational class. His fellow classmates classmates included software financier Peter Currie, actor Dana Delany, painter Julian Hatton, poet Karl Kirchwey, writer Nate Lee, political commentator Heather Mac Donald, restauranteur Priscilla Martel, TV producer Jonathan Meath, editor Sara Nelson, and sculptor Gar Waterman. Cunliffe initially liked rock–and–roll music, particularly by groups such as Fleetwood Mac. In college, he performed rock–and–roll gigs at the Prince Spaghetti House in Saugus, Massachusetts. He attended Wesleyan University for several years. During this time, a friend named Michael Sizaitchik introduced him to a jazz record of Oscar Peterson, and after listening to this record, Cunliffe became a "jazz player overnight", he recalled later. He explained:

When I was in school, I was thinking about other types of careers. I was pre-med for a few months. I was a psych major for two years. It wasn't until junior year of college that I finally said that music was it and I wasn't going to do anything else.––Bill Cunliffe

After graduating from Duke University with the academic distinction of summa cum laude, he received his masters degree from the Eastman School of Music where he studied with Mary Lou Williams.

Career

Cunliffe taught music at Central State University in Wilberforce, Ohio. He toured as pianist and arranger with the Buddy Rich Big Band, and worked with Frank Sinatra. He returned to Southern Ohio for a few years, where he played piano in various hotels, and wrote jingles for several music production houses. He was the "house pianist" at the Greenwich Tavern in Ohio. He moved to Los Angeles and worked with jazz notables including Ray Brown, Joe Henderson, Freddie Hubbard, Benny Golson and James Moody. He was the pianist for The Clayton Brothers, the musical group started by saxophonist Jefferey Clayton.

Cunliffe commented on how a jazz piece should be structured:

I like jazz to have a beginning, a middle and an end ... an arc, like a symphony that builds to a big climax.––Bill Cunliffe

In the 1990s, Cunliffe wrote educational publications. His books ''Jazz Keyboard Toolbox'' and ''Jazz Piano Inventions'' were published by Alfred Publications and have achieved recognition as standard references in jazz. He made an educational DVD and book on beginning jazz piano for Alfred. His most recent publication was a book of 50 Jazz Inventions, short pieces in the style of the Chopin Preludes and Bach Inventions, with an accompanying audio CD.

Cunliffe was influenced by numerous musicians, particularly Bud Powell:

Bud Powell is the most important pianist in jazz and one of the most underrated because he spent over a third of his life in mental and medical hospitals. He was beaten by the police when he was twenty and he never fully recovered from that beating and as a result, he suffered pain and had to take drugs to alleviate the pain. So he never fully recovered from that and in spite of that, he created a whole lot of wonderful music. He was really the first guy, before Bud Powell, pianists were playing boom, chuck in the left hand and a lot of melodic figures in the right hand that tended to be arpeggios ... Bud Powell was imitating Charlie Parker. So Bud was the first pianist to take Charlie Parker's language and adapt it successfully to the piano. That's why he is the most important pianist in music today because everybody plays like that now. -- Bill Cunliffe

Cunliffe made three jazz albums for Warner/Discovery Records which achieved recognition in nationwide jazz polls. He recorded ''Bill in Brazil'' during a stint in Rio De Janeiro which was well received. He recorded several albums for Azica Records, including several with flutist Holly Hofmann. In 2000, he recorded with Torii Records. There is a sextet session of Earl Zindars’ music, and the first recording of his Latin octet, ''Imaginacion'', which reached #2 in nationwide radio jazz charts. He described Zindars:

He was an interesting composer in that he was one of the first, along with Brubeck, to write songs where the time signature changes. For example, on ''How My Heart Sings,'' the first part of the song is in a waltz feel, but the middle part of the tune is in a 4/4, medium, swing jazz feel. That was very, very innovative for the fifties. Very few guys were doing that. His music is very interesting harmonically as well and he has a really strong melodic sense. He's a very good composer.––Bill Cunliffe

Bill documented his working trio of ten years with ''Live at Bernies'' which was released on both CD and vinyl, and which highlighted his work with bassist Darek Oleszkiewicz and former Bill Evans drummer Joe LaBarbera. He commented on working with LaBarbera:

Joe was able to give me a traditional rhythmic approach, which I sometimes really love and then other times, he is able to be very avant-garde rhythmically, not play rhythms, maybe play colors, lose the time, get it back, and be very innovative. In the sextet, that is really important because there are times in the band that we will actually play free for a little while. We won't have any tempo or any format. We're playing songs, but sometimes we stop playing the songs altogether and just play whatever we want. Joe has the maturity to do both of those things and know to splice them together. There are many great musicians that when they play free, they don't know how to get out of it and back to the music.––Bill Cunliffe

Cunliffe played with bassist Martin Wind and drummer Tim Horner in New York City in 2008. He played with Martin Wind as well as saxophonist Scott Robinson in 2007 at the Kitano Hotel in Manhattan. He performed with the Clayton Brothers Quintet at the Kennedy Center. He performed with trombonist Luis Bonilla at the Jazz Standard in Manhattan in 2009. He played at the ''Vail Jazz Festival'' in 2010. He performed with jazz-cabaret singer Ann Hampton Callaway in Manhattan at Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola in March 2011.

His big band compositions have been published by Kendor Music and the University of Northern Colorado Jazz Press. His choral music was published by Santa Barbara Music Press. He is a Baldwin Pianos artist, and was Marian McPartland's guest on her famed ''Piano Jazz'' radio show in 1998. As a composer and arranger, Cunliffe's music has been performed by many orchestras, including the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra, the Illinois Philharmonic, the Reading Symphony, and the Henry Mancini Institute Orchestra. He composed ''Fantasy for piano jazz trio and orchestra'' which was performed in 2006 by the Manhattan School of Music Symphony. He composed a festive overture entitled ''Viva Mexico,'' which was premiered by the Illinois Philharmonic in 1999. He has composed numerous works for big band, orchestra, chamber groups, and choir. He has written extensively for television, and his music was in the Miramax feature ''Comic Book-The Movie'', the Susan Sarandon film ''The Banger Sisters,'' and the James Caan television show ''Las Vegas''. His concerto for trumpet and orchestra entitled ''fourth stream... La Banda'' was recently premiered by Terell Stafford. It was performed by the Temple University Symphony Orchestra, which was conducted by Luis Biava, at Verizon Hall in Philadelphia, and at Alice Tully Hall in New York City. He is playing with singer Melissa Sweeney and produced her first album. In April 2010, his band, termed ''Bill Cunliffe's Big Band'', played with musicians including Rob Lockhart, Willie Murillo, and reviewer Tony Gieske wrote:

The magnificent Bill Cunliffe orchestra played an interesting encore before leaving the bandstand at Vitello’s Saturday, a classic Count Basie number that you’d think would be hard to mess up. ... Everything was full and ringing. It was the icing on the various baked goods that Cunliffe was offering, keeping the ears a-tingle all evening. ... ''West Side Story'', in Cunliffe’s Grammy-winning chart, was the evening’s wide-ranging centerpiece, and it was certainly impressive, particularly the ''I Feel Pretty'' part, taken at breakneck speed. ... Again, it was a gas to hear this great band tackle Cunliffe’s challenging creation and make it sing. At the end, it had become a memorable night brimming with musicianship... another feather in the Vitello cap.––reviewer Tony Gieske in ''The International Review of Music''

Cunliffe played at the Playboy Jazz Festival in Beverly Hills, California in May 2010.

In 2010, Mr. Cunliffe has been working on what he calls ''fourth stream'' which he defines as "jazz plus classical plus world Latin percussion". He described the piece ''La Banda'' as having a salsa vein injecting itself into the orchestra which "ends in a frenzy of double time percussion" and which involves an inversion of a Rachmaninoff melody.

Teaching

In 2010, Cunliffe is associate professor of music at California State University Fullerton. In addition, Cunliffe has taught at such institutions as Central State University, Musicians Institute in Hollywood, California State University, Northridge, the University of Southern California, and Temple University.

Interviewer Fred Jung of All About Jazz asked him about the difference between melody and harmony, and Cunliffe described it this way:

Melody is kind of the top part of the harmonic chord. In other words, what you sing when you are walking along the street, that's the melody. That's the part that you heard that is usually sung by the singer or played by the instrumentalist. The harmony is kind of the background. There's two types of background. There's rhythmic background and there's harmonic background. Rhythmic background is what the drums are playing primarily. And harmonic background in jazz music is primarily what the pianist is playing. Although, what the pianist is playing is both harmonic and melodic.––Bill Cunliffe

He has conducted numerous workshops and clinics as well. Ongoing residencies include the Skidmore Jazz Institute, and the Vail Jazz Workshop. In 2010 he made a DVD teaching beginning jazz and blues piano. He is composer–in–residence at All Saints Episcopal Church, in Pasadena, California. He composes and performs with flutist Holly Hofmann and the Latin jazz group ''Imaginacion''.

Awards

Cunliffe won the 2010 Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Arrangement of Oscar Peterson's "West Side Story Medley". In 2006 he was nominated for a Grammy award for his jazz arrangement of his song ''Do It Again''. He won several Down Beat Awards for his big band and orchestral pieces. In 1989, Cunliffe won the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Piano Award. He received stipends from the National Endowment for the Arts. He won a grant from the New Zealand School of Music and the Rodger Fox Big Band of New Zealand released a CD of Bill's jazz orchestra compositions. In 2005, he won the Philadelphia Jazz Composer competition sponsored by the American Composer Federation. In the 1990s, he was nominated for two Emmys for best original song on the television shows ''Another World'' and ''Guiding Light''.

Personal life

Cunliffe, according to the ''Chicago Tribune'', loves watching television but he doesn't do it on a TV set, but rather uses his computer. He has been described by fellow faculty members at California State University as "charming, witty, warm, and humble."

Books

''Jazz Keyboard Toolbox'', Alfred Publications ''Jazz Piano Inventions'', Alfred Publications ''Maxx Blues Keyboard'', Alfred Publications

Discography

''Live at Rocco''

''Live at Bernie's''

''Romantic Fantasy'' with orchestra directed by Jeffrey Schindler

''Bill plays Bud''

''Partners in Crime''

''Satisfaction''

''A Rare Connection''

''A Paul Simon Songbook''

''Bill in Brazil''

''Just Duet'' with flutist Holly Hofmann

''Imaginacion''

''Just Duet volume 2'' with flutist Holly Hofmann

''How My Heart Sings''

''Warriors'' with the Rodger Fox Big Band

''The Blues and The Abstract Truth, Take 2''

''Three's Company" with flutist Holly Hofmann, trumpeter Terell Stafford, clarinetist Ken Peplowski, and violinist Regina Carter

''Transformation" with the choir of All Saints Church, Pasadena, James Walker, director

''An NPR Jazz Christmas with Marian McPartland II'', song ''God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen'' by Bill Cunliffe

Awards and nominations

! Year	! Result	! Award	! Category	! Project	! Notes
2011	Nominated	Grammy Award	Best instrumental composition	''La Banda''
2010	Won	Grammy Award	Arrangement	''West Side Story Medley''
2006	Nominated	Grammy Award	Arrangement	''Do It Again''
2005	Won	Kimmel Jazz Center Award	Best Composition	"El Optimista"
2003	Nominated	Grammy Award	Arrangement	"Angel Eyes" written for Alan Kaplan (trombone) and his orchestra
1990s	Nominated	Emmy	Best Original Song
1990s	Nominated	Emmy	Best Original Song		(two nominations in 1990s)
1989	Won	Thelonious Monk International Jazz Piano Award			$10,000 prize
1981	Won	Down Beat Awards	Big band, orchestral pieces

References

External links

His website

Interview at All About Jazz

Bill Cunliffe at Resonance Records

Category:Living people Category:American composers Category:American jazz pianists Category:American music arrangers Category:American music writers Category:Jingle writers Category:Central State University faculty Category:Duke University alumni Category:Wesleyan University alumni Category:Eastman School of Music alumni Category:1956 births

Coordinates	0°23′24″N9°27′0″N
name	Bill Conti
background	non_performing_personnel
born	April 13, 1942Providence, Rhode Island, USA
genre	Film score Disco
occupation	Composer, Conductor
years active	1969–present
website	}}

William "Bill" Conti (born April 13, 1942) is an American film music composer who is frequently the conductor at the Academy Awards ceremony.

Early life and career

Conti, an Italian American, was born in Providence, Rhode Island, the son of Lucetta and William Conti. He is a graduate of Louisiana State University, and also studied at the Juilliard School of Music. He is a past winner of the Silver Knight Award presented by the Miami Herald.

''Rocky'' series

His big break into celebrity came in 1976, when he was hired to compose the music for a small United Artists film called ''Rocky''. The film became a phenomenon, and Conti's training montage tune, "Gonna Fly Now" topped the Billboard singles chart in 1977. He also composed music for the sequels ''Rocky II'' (1979), ''Rocky III'' (1982), ''Rocky V'' (1990) and ''Rocky Balboa'' (2006).

Other film and television credits

Conti also worked for some other films and, eventually, for television series. In 1981, he wrote the music for the James Bond film, ''For Your Eyes Only'', when John Barry was unwilling to return to the United Kingdom for tax reasons, and provided the score for playwright Jason Miller's film version of his Pulitzer Prize winning play ''That Championship Season'' the following year.

In 1983, he composed the score for HBO's first film, ''The Terry Fox Story''. Conti composed music for the films ''Bad Boys'' and ''Mass Appeal''. Then in 1984, he received an Academy Award for composing the score to 1983's ''The Right Stuff'' followed by composing music for the TV series ''North and South'' in 1985. He also composed the score for ''The Karate Kid'' as well as the ''Masters of the Universe'' live action movie. Another Conti score was the 1987 film ''Happy New Year''.

In 1991, he composed the score for ''Necessary Roughness'', a college football movie starring Scott Bakula, Sinbad and Héctor Elizondo. In 1993, he composed and wrote the music for ''The Adventures of Huck Finn'' starring Elijah Wood and directed by Stephen Sommers. In 1999, he composed the score for ''The Thomas Crown Affair'' remake, starring Pierce Brosnan and Rene Russo; in the same year he composed the original music of ''Inferno'', starring Jean-Claude Van Damme and co-starring late actor Pat Morita from another Conti scored movie, ''The Karate Kid''.

He also composed the classic themes to television's ''Dynasty'' (as well as doing the score for the three hour pilot, and episode after that), ''The Colbys'', ''Falcon Crest'' and its pilot score, ''Cagney & Lacey'', and ''The Lifestyles of The Rich And Famous''. Conti also composed the theme song to the original version of ''American Gladiators'', worked with CBS on the movie jingle, composed one of the early themes to ''Inside Edition'', and wrote the theme to ''Primetime Live'' for ABC News. In addition he composed the score to the studio altered American version of Luc Besson's ''The Big Blue''.

Awards and nominations

Bill Conti has received many award nominations for his work. He received a Best Song nomination for "Gonna Fly Now." He won an Oscar for the largely symphonic score for ''The Right Stuff.'' On April 22, 2008 before a packed house at the LSU Union Theatre at Louisiana State University, Bill Conti was inducted into The Louisiana Music Hall of Fame.

Discography

''Rocky OST'' (1976)

''Gloria OST'' (1980)

''For Your Eyes Only (soundtrack)'' (1981)

''The Karate Kid OST'' (1984)

''North and South / The Right Stuff'' (1985)

''Falcon Crest (TeeVee Tunes Soundtrack)'' (1992)

''Dynasty (TeeVee Tunes Soundtrack)'' (1992)

''8 Seconds (soundtrack)'' (1994)

''Inferno (soundtrack)'' (1999)

''North and South'' (2008)

''North and South, Book II'' (2008)

References

External links

Interview

Category:1942 births Category:American composers Category:American film score composers Category:Best Original Music Score Academy Award winners Category:American people of Italian descent Category:American television composers Category:Living people Category:Louisiana State University alumni Category:People from Providence, Rhode Island Category:Rocky music

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