SOMEBODY WHO SHOULD KNOW
bio
“A consummate artist/composer whose songs target the human condition with a simplicity, honesty and directness which make them into contemporary classics."
Photo: MaryAnn Halpin
Michele Brourman is an award-winning singer/songwriter whose best-known song, “My Favorite Year” has been recorded by Michael Feinstein, Margaret Whiting, Dame Cleo Laine, and more.
With lyricist Amanda McBroom, she’s written the songs for 18 animated features for Universal Studios, including the beloved “Land Before Time” series, writing for artists like Reba McIntyre, Michael York, David Carradine, Jodi Benson, Olivia Newton-John, Donny Osmond, Corbin Bleu and a host of others.
Her work has been featured in television and film and performed by countless cabaret artists, garnering numerous awards and critical acclaim.
I think I was born with music in my being.
It was there, surrounding me, probably even pre-birth.
My very young parents had beautiful voices and loved to sing together. Given their rather turbulent relationship, those moments of song were probably the only times they were in tender harmony.
My first year of life, we lived with my father’s mother, my bubbie. She would carry me around, singing to me, ”It’s a big, wide, wonderful world we live in….”
When I was 2 ½, my mother sneaked me into the Montefiore Hospital where Bubbie was dying, and I sang that song to her, sitting on the edge of her bed. Decades later, I still can’t sing it without crying.
I started playing the piano with two hands at 3, learned my left hand from my right by looking at which one played the low notes on the piano.
We had a Baldwin Acrosonic spinet; I would haul my tiny self up over the keyboard, hook my toes behind a wooden rail that ran underneath, so that I could reach the keys.
To this day, I cannot keep my feet on the ground when I play. There’s too much joy in it!
Photo: MaryAnn Halpin
Visit Michele's blog!
film
Michele Brourman composed the score and, with her long-time collaborator Amanda McBroom, wrote the title song for the documentary Show Her the Money. The picture has won "Best Documentary" in several film festivals.
Click on the player at left to hear the title song sung by Kacey Clanton.
animation
theatre
Michele is currently represented on London's West End by Bronco Billy the Musical at the Charing Cross Theatre, for which she wrote additional lyrics. The musical won LA's Ovation Awards for Best Musical Score and Best Book of a Musical.
Michele is the composer of the musicals The Belle of Tombstone (formerly titled I Married Wyatt Earp, book by Thomas Edward West and Sheilah Rae, lyrics by Sheilah Rae) which has been seen Off-Broadway and in many regional and university productions. She composed the score for Dangerous Beauty (lyrics by Amanda McBroom, book by Jeannine Dominy) which was produced by the Pasadena Playhouse in February of 2011.
Brourman and Rae also wrote Table Turns, an evening of five short musicals for four actors, three of which have been finalists for the Heideman Award, given by the Actors’ Theatre of Louisville. Michele composed the dance and incidental music for the original Broadway production of Working.
New York Theatre Barn presents "Unpacking Dreams" from The Belle of Tombstone (formerly I Married Wyatt Earp)
Michele Brourman has composed and produced the songs for eighteen animated features for Universal Studios, as well as all the songs for The Land Before Time television series. That's a lot of songs that little kids have been singing for well over two decades. Her songs for these films have been performed by such artists as Michael York, Reba McIntyre, Lucy Lawless, David Carradine, Jodi Benson, Kenneth Mars, Donny Osmond and Olivia Newton-John.
in performance
Michele will be at the Pheasantry in London May 19th!
Click on the image below to book tickets!
reviews
“Miss Brourman is the most talented of a new breed of nightclub arranger who understands Broadway, country, and rock-and-roll equally well, and her settings run from classy pop-chamber music to lilting country jazz.”
Stephen Holden, New York Times
“Michele Brourman is a gift to the American pop community. Her songs target the human condition with a simplicity, honesty and directness which make them into contemporary classics.”
Back Stage
“Miss Brourman is glorious in her delicacy but firm in her experiences of the heart.”
New York Post
“The heart of her set consists of original songs ranging in style from new wave rock to ballads that Barbra Streisand or Melissa Manchester could probably make modern standards.”
New York Times
Brourman’s delivery of her own songs proved that she is a triple threat-performance artist as well as composer/lyricist. “
Darien News-Review
“Songwriter Michele Brourman, whose material has been covered by Cleo Laine, Amanda McBroom, and Michael Feinstein, enjoyed a spectacular evening topped with her biggest hit, the haunting My Favorite Year. Brourman is a superb talent.”
Drama-Logue
