“My Luis and Clark carbon fiber cello stays with me every step of the way. From the most intimate recording session to the raucous demands of performing and traveling. I’m a believer.”
Michael Bacon, The Bacon Brothers
Michael Bacon is an accomplished composer for film and television, with numerous awards to his credit. His recent film score projects include: The Buddha for PBS by David Grubin. Teddy: In His Own Words for HBO (Emmy Winner for HBO), Gloria Steinem: In Her Own Words, Boy Interrupted (Sundance selection) for HBO, The Trials of J. Robert Oppenheimer for PBS, the theme for Bill Moyer’s Journal, and African American Lives (1 and 2). Broadcasts this year included This Emotional Life, Faces of America, Rescuing Russia.
Other credits include: Carl Colby: The Rise and Fall of a Spy by Carl Colby, Oprah’s Roots by Kuhnhardt Productions, The Jewish Americans and Marie Antoinette, by David Grubin, Berga: Soldiers of Another War, by Charles Guggenheim, the features Loverboy and Red Betsy (with Sheldon Mirowitz), and Downtown Express soon to be released. Others include King Gimp (the Academy Award Winner in the Short Documentary category) RFK and Secret Life of the Brain, by David Grubin, (Emmy winner) the critically acclaimed five hour documentary on PBS. Bacon was nominated for an Emmy for his score for the David Grubin’s PBS documentary Young Dr. Freud. Ernest Shackleton’s Voyage of Endurance an Emmy winner recently re-aired on PBS. The Hampton’s a four hour show directed by Barbara Kopple was broadcast in 2003 on ABC. The four-hour Emmy Award winning documentary Truman was shown on PBS. Others include TR, Reagan, America 1900, The Wright Stuff, Carnegie and MacArthur. Peter Jennings’ series The Century, 26 hours for ABC was broadcast in 1999. Abraham and Mary Lincoln was broadcast in 2000 as well as numerous other shows on all major networks. The feature film Losing Chase premiered at Sundance and won 2 Golden Globe Awards.
Bacon won an Emmy for his original score for The Kennedy’s, an Ace Award nomination for his original score for The Man Who Loved Sharks, as well as the BMI Television Music Award and The Chicago International Film Festival Gold Plaque Award for music in LBJ. Shows he has scored have won three Academy Awards (The Johnstown Flood, A Time For Justice, and King Gimp) and numerous Emmy Awards. Jerry Lee Lewis, Carlene Carter, Peter Yarrow and Claude Francois are just a few of the artists that have recorded songs written by Bacon. He and his brother, Kevin, perform music live as “The Bacon Brothers.” They have appeared on The Tonight Show, Rosie O’Donnell, The Early Show, The View, Vibe, Prime Time Country, Conan O’Brian, Donny and Marie, The Howard Stern Show, Bravo on Broadway and The Today Show. Their live DVD was released in the fall of 2004 and their 6th CD was released in 2009. Bacon has a degree in music from Lehman College where he studied composition and orchestration with John Corigliano.
He is now a Distinguished Lecturer teaching film scoring at Lehman College.
He lives in New York City with his wife, Betsy, and son, Neil.