Alan Menken

Alan Menken. . , Alan Menken is best known for his scores of films produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios and as the composer for the musical, Little Shop of Horrors. His scores for The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and Pocahontas have each won him two Academy Awards (for Best Original Score and Best Original Song). He also composed the scores for The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Hercules, Home on the Range, The Shaggy Dog, Enchanged and Tangled. With eight Academy Award wins, Menkin is the second most prolific Oscar winner in a music category., Alan IRwin Menken was born in New York City on July 22, 1949. He grew up in the Northfield section of New Rochelle and lived at 11 Stratford Road. He attended Roosevelt Elementary School, Albert Leonard Junior High School and New Rochelle High School. A budding musical talent, he developed an early interest in Beethoven and Brahms., "Growing up, I was surrounded by a family that loved Broadway musicals," says Menken, "Regularly, we gathered around my father at the piano, and as he played and we sang, the house was filled with the sounds of Rodgers and Hart, the Gershwins, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Frank Loesser, Lerner and Lowe, and all the other great Broadway songwriters. As a child, I was introduced to the power of the American musical through shows like My Fair Lady, Fiorello, and The Sound of Music.", "I showed an interest in piano at a very young age, but I hated to practice, so when my parents left the room I'd make up my own version of the piece. That's how I started composing," he says.