8/3/2019 Seen on the Green - Michael Nyman

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Seen on the GreenFamous Faces From Chingfordby Thom Goddard

This Month: Michael Nyman

To write operas, concerti, string quartets and BAFTA Award nominated film scores you needinspiration. So where did composer, pianist, librettist, minimalist and musicologist MichaelNyman find his passion? You guessed it: Chingford!

Michael Laurence Nyman C.B.E. was born on 23rd March 1944 in Stratford, East London. TheNymans owned a fur making business that became successful after the Second World War andthe Jewish family moved to Chingford in 1946. Young Michael was enrolled in local bar mitzvahclasses but instead of going to them he liked to ride buses through war torn East London,collecting the bus tickets as he travelled. But it was not all fun and games as while attendingYardley Lane School, Chingford, he was rejected by the choir as a tuneless growler.

Luckily Michael Nymans musical talent was spotted later in his childhood when he moved to Sir

George Monoux Grammar School, Walthamstow, and he won a place at the Royal Academy ofMusic in 1961. The Howard Carr Memorial Prize for Composition was awarded to Nyman at theRoyal Academy but he chose to become a music critic rather than a composer. Although thistoo proved successful as Michael is generally accepted to be the first person to apply the termminimalism to music.

In the 1970s Michael Nyman started to create music for motion pictures, starting by working withchildhood friend, another Chingford old boy, director Peter Greenaway. The early films did notbring fame and fortune but brought back his passion for composing. In the 1980s the Nymanname achieved critical success while working with Greenaway on The DraughtsmansContract and The Cook, the Thief, his Wife and her Lover. Michael hit global fame afterwriting the score to Jane Campions multi-award winning film The Piano. The album topped the

classical music charts and sold over 3 million copies. The Piano won 3 Oscars and althoughNymans music was central to the film and was nominated, he did not receive the award. Nymanwas also nominated for a BAFTA and Golden Globe.

Michael Nymans true passion is writing operas and he didnt have to look far for the 2003critically acclaimed hit Man and Boy: Dada. Although it does not mention Chingford directly, thestory focuses on a boy growing up in war torn East London who rides the bus and collects thetickets. So keep a look out (on the bus or otherwise) for anyone you meet in the Mount or haveseen on the Green!

If you spot anyone contact: seenonthegreen@allstartalent.co.uk