STEPHEN JAMES TAYLOR
Composer
Stephen James Taylor has a unique musical identity. His style represents a
blend of classical, rock, blues, gospel, African, and avante garde. His most
recent projects are Universal's The Adventures of Brer Rabbit, Disney’s
Mickey’s Twice Upon a Christmas (for which he won Best Original Score at the
2004 DVDX Awards), Teachers Pet, a Disney animated feature with wide
theatrical release January, 2004, and Charles Burnett’s blues documentary,
Warming By the Devil’s Fire produced by Martin Scorsese. In May 2004 he
composed the score for Brothers of the Borderland a short film starring Oprah
Winfrey for the new National Freedom Center in Cincinnati. In 2001 he wrote
underscore and produced some of the songs for Clark Johnson’s Boycott (HBO
films).
In 1996 he was commissioned to write an orchestral suite for Opening
Ceremonies of the Olympics and was one of the conductors of the Atlanta
Symphony for that occasion. In 1993, Stephen received an Emmy nomination for
an R&B song he wrote for I’ll Fly Away as well as a Daytime Emmy nomination
for his classical orchestral score for an episode of the animated series, The Lion
King’s Timon and Pumbaa. Other Emmy nominations have been for the PBS
movie Brother Future (1991), and Raw Toonage an animated series for Disney.
In 1999 and 2000 he has received Annie nominations for his work on Disney’s
Mickey Mouseworks. He has also done string arrangements for James Taylor
and for Crosby, Stills, and Nash.
After graduating from Stanford University in 1976 with a B.A. in music, he studied
composition for four years with Henri Lazarof, professor of music at UCLA. He
has studied microtonality with Erv Wilson since 1989 with whom he has
developed a new 810 key microtonal keyboard. Taylor’s second chamber
symphony was commissioned and premiered by the Pasadena Chamber
Orchestra in 1983. The Detroit Symphony later performed it in 1990. His various
chamber works have been performed throughout the country.
His ongoing projects include co-writing and producing songs with his wife, Mary
Lou, for a sequel to their 1991 children’s album, Little Binky Baker
(www.littlebinkybaker.com), as well as working on a microtonal pop album
entitled Vertical Horizon, and recording with experimental women’s vocal group
Brides of The Wind. The latter group can be heard on many of his scores.
Representation:
SOUNDTRACK MUSIC ASSOCIATES
2229 Cloverfield Blvd, Santa Monica, CA 90405
(310) 392-1401 • email: info@soundtrk.com
www.stephenjamestaylor.com