Alan Menken s The Whole New World - 1554 Words

Alan Menken, a famous Composer, Actor, and Artist, was born on July 22,1949 in New Rochelle, New York. Alan received a taste of the music life from the start, his mother, Judy Menken, was a young actress/playwright and his father, Norman Menken, DDS, was a piano playing dentist (Biography Comments 1). His whole family loved Broadway musicals and they spent many nights together just listening to his father play piano, Alan once said, â€Å"I showed an interest in piano at a very young age, but I hated to practice, so when my parents left the room I d make up my own version of the piece. That s how I started composing† (The Whole New World of Alan Menken 1). Menken lived a very happy and prosperous childhood at home with his sisters Faye and Leah until 1966 when he moved out to attend college. He attended New York University’s College of Arts and Sciences with a Musicology degree, and was admitted into the BMI Musical Theater Workshop, where he wrote small musicals for th em but would also sneak away to the piano room and compose songs that he kept to himself. In 1968 he wrote his first musical, Separate Ways, for NYU. (Biography Comments 1). When Menken graduated from NYU, he wrote a few musicals for The Downtown Ballet Company that were not very successful, but he considers it one of the best moments of his life because it is where he met a ballet dancer who eventually became his wife of forty-four years, Janis Roswick. Still working for the Musical Theater Workshop, MenkenShow MoreRelatedMusic Is An Identifying Characteristic Of Film And Television1986 Words   |  8 Pageslargely due to the genius creative mind of Alan Menken. Menken is best known for composing the scores for some of the most beloved Disney classics, including Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid, Hercules, Pocahontas, and Tangled. He also made his mark composing for highly acclaimed Broadway musicals, including Little Shop of Horrors and Newsies, as well as the sta ge adaptations of some of his Disney hits. The familiar songs composed by Menken are permanently ingrained in our minds andRead MoreScope of Demography8788 Words   |  36 Pagesimprovement. Such policy involvement did not become controversial until the 3 twentieth century when controversy arose, first over focusses on migrants and differential fertility in response to the eugenic s movement, and later over research appearing to support the call for a curb on Third World fertility (cf. Hodgson 1983; Szreter 1993). 6. Demographers are suspicious of the study of individuals and small groups, feeling that such persons are significant only when it can be shown what fraction of