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Michael J McEvoy

American composer and musician based in London, UK.

About Me

Michael is an award-winning composer with many film, television and pop music credits to his name including the score for Richard Loncraine’s feature Finding Your Feet starring Imelda Staunton, Timothy Spall and Celia Imrie. Other projects of note include the evocative jazz score to the acclaimed BBC/PBS documentary Jazz Ambassadors and Churchill and the Movie Mogul for BBCFour.

In 2019 Michael received an Ivors Composer nomination for Jazz Composition for Small Ensemble for his piece Mother Medusae. Performed by Thomas Gould (violin), Kristjan Randalu (piano) and Stephan Braun (cello). The work mixes jazz and classical harmonies with rich melodies and percussive rhythms.

Michael’s film and TV composing credits also include Richard Linklater’s Me and Orson Welles starring Zac Efron and Clare Danes and indie feature Forget Me Not (Winner London Independent Film Festival) starring Tobias Menzies. He is an accomplished arranger and provided string orchestrations for Ricky Gervais’ David Brent: Life On The Road. Michael’s music also appears in films including Wild Card starring Jason Statham, Wild Target with Emily Blunt, plus TV drama, The Wire.

Michael also works in partnership with DJ-producer Paul Oakenfold on film and documentary scores including Overture Pictures’ Nothing Like the Holidays starring Alfred Molina, and the award-winning Japanese anime feature, Vexille. He is also a member of the ZeroVU team with Nick and Mitch Taylor whose credits include Balls of Steel and Risk, nominated in 2019 for Best Music at the Idyllwild Festival, California.

Michael has scored many prestigious long-form documentaries including BAFTA-winning J’accuse, Einstein’s Big Idea and Battle of the Hood and Bismarck and National Geographic’s landmark ocean series Alien Deep and many others. He has three regional Emmy nominations, winning Best Instrumental Music for PBS’s ‘Tennessee Yearbook’ and an Ivors Composer Award nomination.

Michael studied piano and viola at the Centre for Young Musicians and Leeds College of Music. He also plays guitar, mandolin and assorted stringed instruments which often feature in his scores. In 2006 he gained a Masters in Composition for Screen from the Royal College of Music in London and was awarded the prestigious Joseph Horovitz Prize in Composition for Screen. As well as music for screen, Michael has composed for jazz, classical and choral ensembles.

His pop music credits span work with artists from Steve Winwood to Soul II Soul, Ian Dury and many others as a musician, songwriter and producer. As a jazz composer, he has written and produced three albums including The Long Way Home (2014) which received glowing praise and featured a stellar line up of British jazz stars including Nigel Hitchcock, Gerard Presencer, Jason Rebello, Ben Castle and James Maddren. More information about his recordings and live work is available on the Mike McEvoy Band page.

My Jazz Story

Jazz encompasses the total freedom of musical expression. It's beyond style. Artists like Weather Report, The Crusaders and George Duke were my first major jazz influences.