Born in New York City on April 15, 1948, he showed musical talent from infancy. He played any instrument he came across and sang everything from bluegrass to Bach. He attended New York's High School of Music and Art. Then while studying oboe at Juilliard, together with his friends (one of them composer Mark Snow) he formed a rock-classical fusion band called The New York Rock and Roll Ensemble, which appeared on the first of Leonard Bernstein's Young People's Concerts with the New York Philharmonic; it was Bernstein himself who introduced Kamen to symphonic arranging and composing.

Throughout his career Michael worked on all aspects of making his music. He performed, mainly on the oboe and piano, composed on keyboards and especially his Kurzweil, orchestrated and conducted his music. He then oversaw each stage of the delivery usually with multiple projects overlapping and near impossible deadlines. He created unique collaborations harnessing incredible teams and orchestras across the world.

Kamen's early creative work centered on ballets (he wrote twelve: for the Harkness Ballet, Louis Falco, Alvin Ailey, Joffrey Ballet, Nederlands Dans Theater, Jennifer Muller/The Works and Milan's La Scala). This led him deeper into pop and rock arranging when David Bowie asked him to be Music Director as he developed the Diamond Dogs Tour. His work expanded further into Hollywood film with his score for The Next Man (1976) and he moved to England to continue collaborating with Pink Floyd after his orchestrations on The Wall album. It was his distinctive string arrangements that brought him in to orchestrate, conduct and play for the Eurythmics, Kate Bush, Tim Curry and many others, with their working relationships often continuing on into long term friendships.

With his music gaining a reputation for pulling on heartstrings, and ramping the tension in action scenes especially, Michael established himself among the leading Hollywood film composers, with scores for over eighty movies and television shows - including the Lethal Weapon and Die Hard series, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, 101 Dalmatians, X-Men, Licence To Kill, Band of Brothers, Highlander, Event Horizon, The Dead Zone, Last Action Hero, Frequency, Edge of Darkness, Brazil and The Iron Giant, as well as music for the closing ceremony of the 1996 Summer and 2002 Winter Olympics.

His work garnered two Oscar nominations, two Golden Globe Awards, four Grammys and an Emmy.

In 1996 Kamen, together with Richard Dreyfuss and Stephen Herek, established the non-profit Mr. Holland's Opus Foundation. They were inspired by working together on the acclaimed and Oscar nominated motion picture “Mr Holland’s Opus” and its story of the profound effect that a motivated and dedicated music teacher can have on their students. The Foundation’s mission is to keep music alive in schools and give children access to the proven positive effects of learning and playing music. Several decades later, the foundation continues with a dedicated team headed by Felice Mancini and still works to support under-funded music programs and provide many thousands of students with musical instruments.

www.mhopus.org

Kamen co-wrote hit singles for leading pop and rock artists such as Bryan Adams - 'Everything I Do, I Do It For You' and 'Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman' with Mutt Lang. 'Its Probably Me' - with Sting, David Sanborn, and Eric Clapton, and 'All for Love' with Bryan Adams, Sting and Rod Stewart.

His synthesis of pop, rock, jazz, world, and symphonic music with orchestral settings included two full concertos. Working with David Sanborn, he composed the Saxophone Concerto released in 1990. Then he followed it with a guitar concerto with Eric Clapton and the National Philharmonic Orchestra, performed at the Royal Albert Hall in London. Beginning in 1992 Michael joined Pavarotti & Friends in what became a series of humanitarian benefit concerts melding the worlds of opera and pop. His symphonic arrangements of songs by Bob Dylan for the 1994 Great Music Experience at Todaiji Temple in Japan, benefiting UNESCO, also combined an overture of singing monks, Joni Mitchell, Bon Jovi, INXS, and pieces for the Kodo Drummers of Japan and The Chieftains.

In 1999, he conducted a program of his arrangements combining the rock group Metallica with a symphony orchestra. The concert, titled S&M (Symphony & Metallica), was performed with the Orchestra of St Luke's in New York City, the Berlin Symphony Orchestra and the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra; the recording, with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, went multi-platinum. In January 2000, the National Symphony Orchestra premiered Kamen's Millennium Symphony, 'The New Moon in the Old Moon's Arms', inspired by the vanished Anasazi tribes of the American Southwest. 

Party at the Palace, part of The Queens Golden Jubilee in 2002, was the first public concert on the lawn at Buckingham Palace. Michael was Musical Director, arranging for and conducting a roster of known and new performers. Brian May rocked on the rooftop and an all-star line-up played hits spanning the length of the Queen’s reign.

In the mid-nineties Michael was diagnosed with MS. The progressive disease compelled him to work ever faster and to dedicate more time to projects he most connected to emotionally. He died suddenly on November 18th, 2003 at the age of 55. While the range of his experiences and creativity was exceptional, his weaving of a distinctive personal idiom from several different strands was a major characteristic to his music. Like many of the world’s finest composers, Michael filtered influences from widely varying places, cultures and styles. Most importantly he believed that music is the shared language of emotion, instinctively understandable and relatable. Michael created music that is at once original and stimulating yet deeply rooted in tradition and shared human experience. Through his music, Michael’s spirit lives on and continues to touch and inspire people across the globe.