Mike Townend – Orchestrations
Since 1978 Mike has been a professional arranger and composer working for many artists in Television, Recording, Films, Theatre and Cabaret. He has received numerous credits as an arranger and orchestrator, a composer, or as a conductor, musical director and record producer. He co-composed, arranged and conducted the music for the award-winning animated television series for children, SuperTed, which won world-wide acclaim.
He has been closely associated with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in recent years as an arranger, and his arrangements for this orchestra and others are often hired out and performed by Concert and Radio Orchestras in many countries worldwide. During his career he has developed his talent for writing in a variety of musical styles, from string quartets and light classical pieces to full-scale symphonic film scores and from jazz, big band and pop/rock, to country-and-western, music-hall/variety and folk.
Unfortunately, Mike's involvement with the 2008 production of Plague! The Musical seems to have blighted his career. His computer broke out in a nasty display of boils and buboes and, in a desperate attempt to salvage what he could of his reputation, Mike was forced to accept a commission from the BBC Concert Orchestra to write arrangements for them to accompany the unknown but up-and-coming songwriter Burt Bacharach at his performance during the Autumn 2008 season of the Electric Proms series of concerts. Mike's career nose-dived further when he was forced to write new orchestral arrangements of the entire Beatles Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band Album for the RPO which was recorded in July 2009, and released on the RPO's own label last December. As if to emphasise his declining status, the BBC Concert Orchestra invited him to write ten orchestrations to accompany Smokey Robinson and his band during the 2009 Electric Proms season!
Now, when Mike thought things couldn't possibly get worse, his orchestrations are again being used for this new production of Plague! The Musical in Edinburgh. Oh the shame...
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