Michael
Kosarin

Michael Kosarin has had a happy collaboration with honoree Alan Menken as his music director for nearly thirty years, beginning with the musical stage adaptation of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast in 1993, and it continues strong to this day.

He first picked up his baton for Alan Menken on the animated film POCAHONTAS (1995) and conducted and arranged many of the motion picture scores.Those films include HERCULES, ENCHANTED, TANGLED, HOME ON THE RANGE,WRECK-IT RALPH II, and the live-action films of BEAUTY AND THE BEAST and ALADDIN. They are also currently at work on ENCHANTED'S SEQUEL, DISENCHANTED, as well as Skydance Animation’s SPELLBOUND. Michael Kosarin’s overture to the live-action BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, which he conducted a combination of the New York Philharmonic and the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra for the film’s New York premiere, is included whenever that score is performed live to picture.

His concert and recording work as conductor and arranger spans many decades, and he still maintains a very active career in that medium. He has arranged for and performed with the legendary Boston Pops several times, and has guest conducted the New York Pops and St. Luke’s Orchestra, among others. He has conducted films live to picture in venues ranging from The Hollywood Bowl to Tokyo’s Budokan. Michael Kosarin is a three-time Grammy-nominated recording artist and producer, where his work ranges from dozens of theatre albums and motion picture soundtracks to long-time partnerships with such celebrated artists as Carly Simon and Barbara Cook. Most recently, he collaborated with acclaimed piano virtuoso Lang Lang on his new album »The Disney Book«.

Broadway beckoned directly after graduating from university, and his theater work began with the original production of NINE (1982). He has worked there steadily ever since, as arranger and conductor/music director/supervisor on original productions of such shows as GRAND HOTEL, THE SECRET GARDEN, BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, KING DAVID, A CHORUS LINE, LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS, THE LITTLE MERMAID, LEAP OF FAITH, SISTER ACT, NEWSIES and ALADDIN, with others currently in development with Alan Menken, includinga musical version of the film NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM, a stage adaption of HERCULES. He was also the original music supervisor and arranger for the theater adaptation of DER GLÖCKNER VON NOTRE DAME, which premiered in Berlin in 1999. 

An Emmy-award-winning television music producer and arranger, he produced and arranged all the songs for the musical series Galavant, and arranged and music directed the TV adaptation of A CHRISTMAS CAROL, among many others. Michael Kosarin has also composed songs and scores of his own for such children’s shows as Sesame Street, THE WONDER PETS, and the BBC show THIRD AND BIRD.