Alan Lazar

Alan Lazar is a South African composer and novelist. He has written music for more than 35 films and TV shows. He was a member of the South African band Mango Groove and is the author of the book, ROAM.

Lazar has worked for the majority of his career in music. He started as a keyboard player, producer and composer for Mango Groove in the late 1980s, playing at a number of notable concerts and events over the next decade. This included the 1994 inauguration of Nelson Mandela and also played at The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert, which was held in London. Following his career with Mango Groove, Lazar moved to California as a Fulbright scholar, where he became involved in music production for film and television. His work has led him to work on numerous scores, including An American Crime and Gangster's Paradise: Jerusalema. His assistance in production for National Geographic's Swamp of the Baboons led to the show being nominated for a production Emmy award. He has scored a number of US TV shows including Sex and the City, Real Housewives of Beverly Hills and Real Housewives of Orange County. Other ventures have included directing the film Purpose in 2001, which starred Mia Farrow and Paul Reiser. He is also the founder of Lalela Music.

His debut novel received positive reviews after its release, after finishing runner up at the Los Angeles Book Festival.

Early life and education

Lazar was born in South Africa and studied at Hyde Park High School. He went on to study at Wits University before leaving his home country of South Africa, to move to the United States. Lazar moved to Los Angeles, where he went on to graduate from the USC School of Cinema Television, as a Fulbright scholar.^[1]

Career

During his years in South Africa, Lazar's early career was as a composer and musician. He joined an Afropop band while still studying in the 1980s, called Mango Groove. He played both the piano and keyboard for the band, which was one of only two music groups in South Africa at the time to have both white and black musicians.^[2]

After releasing their first studio album in the late 1980s, Mango Groove went on to become a household name in South Africa, achieving platinum record sales. They won numerous awards in the coming years, before performing at a number of global events. In 1992, Lazar performed with Mango Groove at The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert. They performed the track, Special Star via satellite from Johannesburg, South Africa. During the same period, he also composed the track African Dream, which was nominated for Song of the Decade in South Africa and was known as "South Africa's unofficial anthem".

One of his biggest achievements as a musician was playing in front of Nelson Mandela at his inauguration in 1994.^[3]

After moving to Los Angeles, Lazar became involved in writing and composing music for a number of American TV shows. This began in 1995.^[4] He went on to write music for the final episodes of Sex and the City, and score An American Crime, starring Ellen Page and James Francho, and for which Catherine Keener was nominated for an Emmy.^[5] Lazar received an award for the best score from Film Music Magazine for his score for the film, Gangster's Paradise: Jerusalema.^[6] During the same year, National Geographic's Swamp of the Baboons was nominated for a production Emmy, with Lazar responsible for all of the music production.^[7]

From 2010, he scored The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills and from 2012 its sister show, The Real Housewives of Orange County.^[8] In 2011, Lazar published his first novel, ROAM. The book was published by Atria Books.^[9]

ROAM

The story of ROAM is about a dog named Nelson, a bright-eyed, inquisitive half beagle, half poodle. Nelson loses his owners after following his nose and becoming lost. The story follows Nelson through his years of searching for his owner, Katey, along with all the scenarios he faces in-between.^[9]

The book received mainly positive reviews following its release. In 2015, it had a rating of 3.7 out of 5 on GoodReads.^[9] The book also went on to finish runner up for the Los Angeles Book Festival Best Fiction award.

References