Webber Andrew Lloyd

Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber is undoubtedly the world's most successful living musical composer. He was born in London into a family of music teachers and composers, from whom he inherited his considerable talents. He showed a strong inclination towards the theatre in his childhood and wrote and staged his first naive musicals in his nursery. He left his studies at Oxford when he definitely decided to become a composer. This decision was greatly aided by a meeting with the four-years-older librettist Tim Rice, which gave rise to their first collaborative musical, The Likes of Us, and the oratorio Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat in 1968. Joseph then led directly to their next collaborative work, the rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar. Without Tim Rice, he created the not very successful By Jeeves (1974), but the quality of the writing duo was again confirmed with the musical story of the adored wife of Argentine dictator Perón, Evita (1976). In addition to writing musical melodies, Andrew Lloyd Webber has always been involved in composing classical music. He composed several cello pieces for his brother, and wrote Requiem for his second wife Sarah Brightman and Plácido Domingo. The focus of his work, however, is on musicals: The intimate Tell Me on a Sunday (1980), the highly successful Cats (1981), the unpretentious play about trains with roller-skating actors Starlight Express (1984) and his most successful musical The Phantom of the Opera, which has been playing continuously in London's West End since 1986 and which was adapted into a film a few years ago. But Lloyd Webber continued to work on the musicals Aspects of Love (1989), Sunset Boulevard (1993), Whistle Down the Wind (1998), The Beautiful Game (2000) and The Woman in White (2004). Although the last three works have not received a particularly enthusiastic reception from critics and audiences, Lloyd Webber's latest musical, Love Never Dies, suggests that the composer's glory years are far from over. The musical is a loose sequel to The Phantom of the Opera and premiered in March 2010 at London's Adelphi Theatre. Lloyd Webber also owns the production company The Really Usefull Group, through which he manages several London theatres. He has received many awards throughout his career, including an Academy Award, a TV Emmy, several Laurence Olivier Awards, a Tony, a Grammy and many more. In 1992, he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for his services to the arts and made a Lord in 1997.