Michel Legrand

Since 1965, when he received three Academy Award nominations for his score, adaptation and the song "I Will Wait For You" from THE UMBRELLAS OF CHERBOURG, Michel Legrand has become one of the most important names in contemporary music. He has won three Oscars from a total of sixteen nominations, three Grammy Awards and an Emmy nomination for his score to the television movie Brian’s Song. Legrand first came to attention of Americans when, at the age of 22, he arranged and conducted the Columbia recording, I Love Paris, which became one of the best-selling instrumental records ever released. He received his first Oscar in 1968 for Best Song, "The Windmills of Your Mind" from The Thomas Crown Affair, and his second Oscar for Best Original Dramatic Score for Summer of ’42. His third Oscar came in 1984 from Best Original Song Score to Barbra Streisand’s movie Yentl called by Time Magazine, "The most romantic, coherent and sophisticated original movie score since Gigi a quarter-century ago." Mr. Legrand collaborated with lyricist Sheldon Harnick for the stage musical A CHRISTMAS CAROL and with James Lapine and Jeremy Sams for the musical AMOUR in 2002.

Michel Legrand is also a conductor of renown and a virtuoso jazz pianist. He has conducted and appeared with orchestras such as the Pittsburgh Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, Buffalo Philharmonic and symphony orchestras of Vancouver, Montreal, Atlanta, Denver and New Orleans. He has made well over 100 albums and has collaborated with such stars as Maurice Chevalier, Miles Davis, Kiri Te Kanawa, Sarah Vaughan, Stan Getz, Jack Jones, James Galway, Ray Charles, Lena Horne and Barbra Streisand. A few of the many other performers who have recorded Legrand’s compositions are Frank Sinatra, Cleo Laine, Oscar Peterson, Henry Mancini, Tony Bennett and Rosemary Clooney.

In 1989 Legrand achieved his longtime goal of directing and co-writing (as well as scoring) his first feature film, Five Days in June.

Michel Legrand has three children and lives in Paris.