He contributed material to revues like ‘New York’s Back In Town’, ‘Big Apple Country’ and ‘The Present Tense’. He showcased material from early musicals like ‘Midnight’, ‘Harry The Rat’ and ‘Apartment House’. He performed his material at clubs like The Ballroom, Reno Sweeny and Tramps. In the years between graduation and actually earning a living as a composer, Alan worked as a ballet and modern dance accompanist, a musical director for club acts, a jingle writer, arranger, a songwriter for ’Sesame Street’ and a vocal coach. As of November 26th, 2019, they are together 48 years and married for 47. The work itself has mercifully faded into the distant past, but one aspect of that experience became the best moment in his life meeting a beautiful ballet dancer named Janis Roswick. Alan found his first and best network for learning and growing into the composer he now has become.Įarly career Upon graduating from NYU, he took a collection of his songs and wrote a rock-ballet for The Downtown Ballet Company, called ‘Children Of The World’. Even though his plan was to become a rock-star-recording-artist, he would dabble in writing more musicals through that workshop. Most importantly, he escaped to the piano practice room every chance he got and wrote songs and a Musical for the Hall of Fame Players ‘Separate Ways’ (featuring that musical theater classic – “Thank God for Marijuana”.) Most importantly, to appease his parents, he auditioned for (and was admitted into) the BMI Musical Theater Workshop, taught by eminent conductor and composer, Lehman Engel. What could he do? That stress became a peptic ulcer in Junior High School, which Alan didn’t fully cure until those magical, psychedelic, wonderful hippie years of 1967 thru 1971, which just happened to coincide with the period he attended New York University’s College of Arts and Sciences, where Alan drifted from Pre-Med to Anthropology major to Philosophy major to finally graduating with a degree in Musicology. When his piano teacher, Emily Harris, or his violin teacher, Editha Braham realized what he was doing they wisely suggested that this be encouraged, so Alan began composing, as well as pretending to practice.Ĭollege years Too bad he’d never be able to make a living doing that. Instead of learning pieces, Alan would get the basic idea of a Beethoven Sonata or a Bartok Mikrokosmos and spend the rest of his practice time “faking it”. Studying was like pulling teeth (no pun intended) and even practicing piano was a trial. Much as he would have expected to become a dentist, like most of the other men in three generations of his family, he was a very ADHD child. Alan’s ambition, from his earliest memories, was to become a composer. He grew up in a home, filled with music and theater (and comedy and drama) in New Rochelle, New York, along with his sisters, Faye and Leah. Early years Alan Menken was born July 22nd, 1949 at French Hospital in New York City, to young aspiring actress/playwright, Judy Menken and boogie-woogie piano-playing dentist, Norman Menken, DDS.
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