Michael J McEvoy (born 29 August 1961, Camden County, New Jersey, USA) is a screen composer, orchestrator and multi-instrumentalist. He began studying music as a child but his music education developed quickly after his family relocated to London, England in 1973. McEvoy attended the William Ellis Boys Grammar School in London and was a member of the London Schools Symphony Orchestra, attending the Centre for Young Musicians Saturday music school studying Viola and Piano. McEvoy went to the Leeds College of Music but left after one term, choosing instead to perform with saxophonist Dick Heckstall-Smith, in his then band Big Chief.
Contents |
He worked as an apprentice studio recording engineer at Matrix Studio in London where he came into contact with legendary African percussionist, Reebop Kwaku Baah (Jimmy Cliff, Traffic, Can). After much professional experience as a session musician and arranger, working with producer Adam Kidron on a range of projects including albums by Delta 5, Orange Juice, Scritti Politti, and Ian Dury. In 1988 he met the No.1 Pop group Curiosity Killed The Cat and joined the group for their second album Getahead as a co-writer and keyboard player. In 1989 he scored his first feature film, Vroom, (Dir. Beeban Kidron, 1989) followed by Bearskin in 1990.
He was signed to Sony Music Publishing as a songwriter from 1990-1994 during which time he wrote songs with Soul II Soul for their album Volume II: 1990 New Decade and soul diva Teena Marie ('Since Day One', Ivory (album). Throughout the 1990s McEvoy scored a number of long form documentaries and was the Musical Director on tours with Soul II Soul and Steve Winwood, playing keyboards and guitar. During this period he recorded extensively in the studio, arranging strings on several Soul II Soul tracks and playing keyboards and guitar on the hit record by Mark Morrison, Return of the Mack (1995). His involvement with Steve Winwood started when Winwood decided in 1994 to reform Traffic. One of the original musicians in the group, bass player Rosko Gee, recommended McEvoy.
Many of McEvoy's long form documentary work has been done with director Gary Johnstone. Documentaries with Johnstone and include ITN Factuals Battle of Hood and Bismarck and Einstein's Big Idea for the PBS series Nova series. Other notable documentaries include BBCs Storyville: French Beauty directed by Pascale Lamche.
In 2003, McEvoy attended The Royal College of Music where he was the PRS Sir Arthur Bliss Memorial Scholar and gained a MMus in Composition for Screen. On graduating in July 2005 he was awarded the Joseph Horovitz Prize for Screen Composition, the first time it had been awarded since 2001. McEvoy then took on the role of Area Leader for the Screen Composition at The Royal College of Music, a post he held from September 2005 until August 2008.
In 2007 he worked closely as an orchestrator and co-writer with DJ and record producer Paul Oakenfold on the score for an award winning Japanese anime feature film called Vexille, directed by Fumihiko Sori and the following year Nothing Like the Holidays directed by Alfredo De Villa. In 2008 Michael had the opportunity to work with filmmaker Richard Linklater on Me and Orson Welles. Michael wrote original music, coached Zac Efron in ukelele and had an acting role playing Orson Welles' musical director for the Mercury Theater production of Caesar. Other credits include the title music theme for Series 3 (2009) of the British live music TV series Live From Abbey Road.
In 2010 McEvoy scored two Independent UK features, Forget Me Not (2010, Dir. Alex Holt & Lance Roehrig) and Just Inès.
Since 2010 TV work in the UK has included scores for a new 20 part Nickelodean TV series called Summer in Transylvania and series 4 of the UK BAFTA nominated BBC series Dani's House.