- Born
- Birth nameBrett Laurence Fishman
- Brett Laurence Fishman began his professional career in music when he was still a boy. At eleven years old, he was singing with the Metropolitan Opera Childrens Chorus in New York City. For three seasons, Brett worked with Placido Domingo, Luciano Pavarotti, James Levine, Zubin Mehta, and many other world class opera singers and musicians. In his last year at the Metropolitan, Brett was fortunate enough to perform several solo roles including the Shepherd Boy in Puccini's, Tosca, and a Midshipman in Benjamin Britten's, Billy Budd.
At the age of thirteen, Brett began writing songs and performing them at school assemblies. After graduating from high school, he entered the music program at Indiana University-Bloomington as a voice major. He studied there with the noted Italian Bass, Nicola Rossi-Lemeni. But after two years at Indiana, Brett felt his musical calling was in pop music. He became 'Brett Laurence' and began playing keyboards with a local funk/rock band in Bloomington, which soon turned into a full-time gig.
After touring with several regional bands, Laurence became more and more interested in songwriting. He landed his first deal as a staff songwriter in 1994 with Notation Music, a publishing company based in New York City helmed by pop producer, Ric Wake (Celine Dion, Jennifer Lopez, Taylor Dayne). During his tenure at Notation, Laurence wrote over 150 songs and traveled often to collaborate with other songwriters. He scored his first top 40 hit with "In The Beginning," a song he produced for the British boy band, E.Y.C. Another song, "Don't Stop Looking For Love," was recorded by the British mega group, Boyzone, and released on their CD, A Different Beat. The CD went on to sell millions worldwide. In 1998, Laurence decided to move west to Los Angeles, and start his own production company.
In late 1999, Laurence signed with DreamWorks Music Publishing, a division of DreamWorks SKG. While at DreamWorks he added to his accomplishments, scoring cuts with artists such as Blaque, Backstreet Boys, Boys II Men, Nina, and Brian Littrell. He also worked with Burt Bacharach, Paula Abdul, Michael Bolton, Jane Krakowski (of Ally McBeal), and Az Yet.
Early in 2005, his friend and frequent collaborator, Composer/Arranger Bill Meyers, asked Laurence to co-write several songs with him and Maurice White (Earth Wind and Fire) for an original musical being assembled for Broadway. The finished show, entitled Hot Feet, is a celebration of the music of legendary R&B group, Earth Wind and Fire. Hot Feet made its Broadway debut on April 30, 2006.
In addition to his career as a songwriter, Laurence also does session work as a vocalist. He has recorded songs for Diane Warren, Burt Bacharach, Shelly Peiken, and Guy Roche, among others. One of these songs, "If I Don't Tell You Now," written by Diane Warren, wound up in the hit teen film, Boys & Girls, starring Freddie Prinze, Jr. Laurence has also recorded background vocals for such artists as Enrique Iglesias, Youngstown, Blaque, Nobody's Angel, Billy Porter, and Northern Line.
Laurence received a BA in Music with honors from the Thornton School of Music at the University of Southern California. His latest project is a collection of personal songs he plans to release independently in early 2007. He currently resides in San Francisco.- IMDb Mini Biography By: A. Smithee
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