Simon Hale

Simon Hale
Born 1964
Origin Birmingham, England
Genres Orchestral, alternative rock, jazz
Occupation(s) Composer, musician
Instruments Piano, keyboards
Years active 1985–present
Associated acts Duncan Sheik, Jamiroquai, Björk, Ian Brown, The Bays, Madness, Ray Davies
Website www.simonhale.co.uk

Simon Hale is a British composer, arranger, and keyboardist.

Life

Hale was born in Birmingham, England in 1964, being dually raised there and in South Manchester before moving to London, where he studied performance and composition at Goldsmiths College, University of London between 1982-85. He is married to Claire Moore.[1] His father is Tony Hale, formerly Head of Music and Programming at Capital Radio.

Work

He is best known for his arrangements on CDs for Jamiroquai, Björk, BT, Duncan Sheik, Madness, Incognito, Supergrass, The Beautiful South, George Benson, Josh Groban, Charlotte Church and Robin Gibb. As well as arranging on Duncan Sheik's solo CDs, Simon has also done orchestrations on Duncan's songs for the film "A Home at the end of the world" and the Broadway Musical "Spring Awakening" which won 8 Tony awards in June 2007, including "Best Orchestrations" by Duncan and Simon. The original cast recording won the Grammy for Best Musical Show album in 2008. He has released one solo CD "East Fifteen", written for piano, trumpet/flugelhorn, tenor saxophone, percussion and strings. He appeared with The Bays at their performance as part of the Fresh Festival in Liverpool's Philharmonic Hall in January 2008. The concert was entirely improvised, including all the orchestral parts, written live on stage by Simon and John Metcalfe.[2] In 2009, he orchestrated Songs of Love & Loss the seventh studio album, and first cover album, by Australian singer and songwriter Tina Arena. He orchestrated the Lincoln Center Theater production of the new musical Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (musical), that opened on 4 November 2010 at the Belasco Theater on Broadway.[3] This production was nominated for a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Orchestrations in May 2011.[4] He orchestrated and wrote choir arrangements for Ray Davies' performance at the Royal Festival Hall as part of the Meltdown Festival in June 2011. He co-wrote (with Andrew Hale) the soundtrack of L.A. Noire as well as playing solo piano, orchestrating and conducting the recordings. The score won a BAFTA award for 'Original Music'.[5][6] He orchestrated a new production of Stephen Sondheim's "Company" at Sheffield Theatres at the end of 2011.[7] He orchestrated Finding Neverland (musical) at American Repertory Theater in Boston in the summer of 2014 and again for the Broadway production on 2015. He received a Grammy nomination in 2015 for his contribution to the Sam Smith album In the Lonely Hour and also arranged and orchestrated Writing's on the Wall (Sam Smith song), the theme song for the James Bond film Spectre.

Quotes

"I need to thank Simon Hale, who should be up here with me tonight because he did these amazing string arrangements for our show, and we worked together for ten years and he is awesome." Duncan Sheik acceptance speech for Tony Award "Best Orchestrations" on Spring Awakening 2007.[8]

"with the Middle-Eastern tonalities replaced by the swirling string arrangements of Simon Hale, which lends the album a melodramatic politicized tone akin to Curtis Mayfield's mid-Seventies work." Andy Gill, The Independent 23 September 2007[9]

Solo releases

"East Fifteen" EFZ Records 1994

References

  1. ↑ "Cotswold news & latest information | Cotswold Life". Oxfordshire-life.co.uk. Retrieved 23 June 2014.
  2. ↑ Wyse, Pascal (4 January 2008). "It's totally liberating. And scary as hell". The Guardian (London).
  3. ↑ "Lincoln Center Theater : Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown". Lct.org. Retrieved 23 June 2014.
  4. ↑ http://dramadeskawardsgala.com/nominations_01.php
  5. ↑ "Explore the Awards | BAFTA Awards". Bafta.org. Retrieved 23 June 2014.
  6. ↑ Rosenberg, Adam. "'L.A. Noire' Five-Movement Soundtrack Draws Heavily from Film Noir | Adam Rosenberg". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 23 June 2014.
  7. ↑
  8. ↑ Archived 12 October 2007 at the Wayback Machine
  9. ↑ Gill, Andy (21 September 2007). The Independent (London) http://arts.independent.co.uk/music/reviews/article2984243.ece. Missing or empty |title= (help)

External links

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