Biography
Steve studied trumpet, piano, composition and orchestration at the Royal College of Music and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.
Steve?s orchestrations and compositions feature on numerous albums, television shows, advertising campaigns and films.
Album credits include orchestrating and conducting Robbie Williams? best selling album ?Swing When You?re Winning?, the acclaimed live television recording ?Robbie Williams Live At The Albert? and ?The Robbie Williams TV Special?. Recent album projects include Sarah Brightman with the LSO, Rock Swings for Paul Young, The Pet Shop Boys, Seal, Amaral, Tony Christie, Shirley Bassey, Kerry Ellis & Paul Carrack.
Television credits include performing his specially commissioned piece ?Elements & Motion? at the 2007 Academy Awards with the Hollywood Chorale, The BBC Olympic Handover Concert, composing the score for the recent series Victoria?s Empire, MD and arranger for Children In Need, The BBC Teaching Awards, The VE Day Concert 2005, The Olympic Torch Concert, The Children?s Party at the Palace, ITV?s 50 Years Of Television and Ant & Dec?s Xmas Takeaway. He has also contributed arrangements to The Royal Variety Performance, Live 8, Stars In Their Eyes, X-Factor, Britain?s Got Talent, Soapstar Superstar, Star For a Night, Reborn In The USA and Tina Turner?s 60th Birthday and was music supervisor for UK Music Hall of Fame 2006.
Steve was recently commissioned to write a choir piece for the opening of Heathrow Terminal 5. He performed ?Heathrow Overture? with his choir live at the opening ceremony in the presence of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth. Other recent live events include the hugely successful Viva La Diva tours featuring Katherine Jenkins & Darcey Bussell for which Steve was supervisor, arranger and MD.
Steve?s theatrical credits include orchestrating the worldwide hit musical We Will Rock You with Queen, the Madness musical Our House, the Boney M musical Daddy Cool and the European tour of Hairspray. He orchestrated and conducted the 2007 Disneyland Paris parade sequence with the RPO, which is also available on CD and has contributed arrangements for the last three Holiday On Ice tours.
Recent advertising campaigns include the award winning Honda Choir, (in which he is also the featured conductor), M&S Christmas, Virgin Holidays featuring Charlotte Church, Nokia Navigator, Heineken, Orange, Bounty, Boots Summer, Dulux, Lotto, Walkers, Morrisons, McDonalds, Supernoodles, Coca Cola, Capital Radio & Guinness.
He has contributed arrangements to films including Moulin Rouge, Romeo & Juliet, Bridget Jones Diary, Teachers Pet, Spongebob Squarepants, Finding Nemo, Mona Lisa Smiles & 101 Dalmations 2.
Steve has performed with many artists including George Michael, Robbie Williams, Amy Winehouse, Tom Jones, Sting, Sir Elton John, Sir Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger, Mark Knopfler, The Feeling, McFly, Will Young, Bryan Ferry, Joss Stone, Eric Clapton, Rod Stewart, Stevie Wonder, The Who, Ian Dury, Wet Wet Wet, Charlie Watts, Henry Mancini & Michael Nyman.
Steve recently supervised, arranged and conducted the Olympic Handover Concert from the Mall. The live TV broadcast was watched by millions around the world and featured many of the UK?s top artistes.
Steve conducted his choir in the world premier of ?Heathrow Overture? at the opening ceremony of Terminal 5 in the presence of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth. The event was hugely acclaimed and some the choir even managed to get their bags back within a couple of weeks. The piece can be seen under ?Movies? and the live performance under ?Concerts?.
Work with director Kim Gavin has kept him busy. The sell-out arena tour of Viva La Diva and live events for General Motors in Cologne and Toyota in London involved Steve arranging and conducting a cross section of styles and genres. A DVD of Viva La Diva will be released in the near future.
He has also been in the studio with Brian May and Kerry Ellis. They recorded new versions of a couple of songs from the hit musical Wicked with a 70 piece orchestra. Brian recorded guitars and Taylor Hawkins was the drummer. The tracks ?Defying Gravity? and ?I?m Not That Girl? are on the website under ?Recordings?. They are available on Kerry?s new EP. Kerry is now playing the lead role of Elpheba in Wicked on Broadway. He?s also been in Abbey Road with Sarah Brightman and producer Frank Peterson recording with the LSO & RPO for Sarah?s forthcoming ?seasonal? album. The song ?Father Christmas? is under ?Recordings? on this website.
Steve has been working on some commercials including Virgin Holidays - featuring Charlotte Church, Nokia Navigator ? his arrangement of Clair de Lune was recorded at Abbey Road, & Heineken ?Concert?, which involved a rooftop film shoot in Downtown LA where he rehearsed a 50 strong ?choir? of bottle-blowers. All three can be seen on this website under ?Commercials?
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© Copyright 2007 Steve Sidwell | Website by Copious Ltd