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Disney's musical Renaissance man.
A composer and songwriter for theater and film. Beginning with The Little Mermaid, for which he wrote both score and songs with lyricist Howard Ashman (the same team who wrote Little Shop of Horrors), he has been the go-to guy for Disney musicals, including Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, Pocahontas, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and Tangled. This has earned him eighteen Academy Award nominations, eight of which he won—more Oscars than any other living individual.
After Mermaid's success, Menken wrote Beauty And The Beast and began Aladdin with Ashman before the latter's death in 1991. Since then, Menken has written with a multitude of lyricists, including Tim Rice (Aladdin, the Screen To Stage Adaptations of Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin), Jack Feldman (Newsies and its Screen to Stage Adaptation), Stephen Schwartz (Pocahontas, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Enchanted, the Screen to Stage Adaptation of Hunchback), David Zippel (Hercules, Captain America: The First Avenger), and Glenn Slater (Home on the Range, Tangled, the Screen To Stage Adaptations of The Little Mermaid and Sister Act).
Due to the cancellation of a Disney adaptation of "The Snow Queen", Menken will provide music for a DreamWorks movie titled Lidsville.
If you want some samples of Alan Menken music, go to Awesome Music (Disney film).