Biography

Born in Louisville, Kentucky, Martin Erskine started studying music from the age of 9. Upon moving to New York in 1983, he immediately began working on Broadway with Alan Jay Lerner and Charles Strouse. Soon after He worked with John Kander and Fred Ebb on the musical "The Rink" starring Liza Minnelli and Chita Rivera, immediately followed by a stint as music researcher on the Tony Award winning play "The Real Thing", starring Jeremy Irons and Glenn Close and directed by Mike Nichols. From there he worked in regional theatre, composing scores for "Peter Pan", John Don Pasos' "U.S.A." and "Cold Comfort Farm", among others. Serving as an arranger for a few years for Alan Menken , Stephen Schwartz, Stephen Sondheim, and Hans Zimmer he contributed to the Oscar winning music for "Pocahontas" (Best Song and Score 1995) and "The Prince of Egypt" (Oscar Winner for Best Song, 1998). His work as arranger/orchestrator and additional composer on the Wonderful World of Disney's "Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella" starring Whitney Huston and Brandy brought him to Los Angeles, where he immediately went to work on Jim Henson Picture's "The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland", for which he wrote and produced two songs, one of which was performed by Mandy Patinkin (Grammy Winner: Best Childrens Album, 1999). After arranging/orchestrating and conducting the songs for Walt DisneyPictures "The Tigger Movie" he composed original music for the Wonerful World of Disney's "Annie" and "Geppetto", as well as Walt Disney Picture's "Lady and the Tramp II, Scamp's Adventure". Martin has also worked on numerous other projects with with Barry Manilow, Bernadette Peters, Kathy Bates, Drew Carey,Molly Shannon, Julia Louis-Dreyfuss, Christine Baranski, and Barbra Streisand. He is currently at work on Jungle Book II, starring John Goodman and Haley Joel Osment, "Lion King I 1/2" Starring Nathan Lane and Ernie Sabella,Mulan II, "Chicago", Starring Cathrine Zeta-Jones, Renee Zellweger, and Richard Gere, and "The Music Man", starring Matthew Broderick, and Christen Chenoweth.
- IMDb mini biography by: Martin Erskine