Theatre director, lyricist and translator of plays and opera libretti as well as a composer, orchestrator and musical director, Jeremy Sams is the ultimate polymath. Born in 1957, Jeremy studied Music, French and German at Magdalene College, Cambridge, and Piano at the Guildhall School of Music.
Jeremy’s film composing credits include the BBC adaptation of Jane Austen’s Persuasion, for which he won a BAFTA award for ‘Best Music’. Jeremy has worked on a series of films by award-winning director by Roger Michell. For The Mother, starring Anne Reid and Daniel Craig and which won the Director’s Fortnight at Cannes in 2003, Jeremy created a jazz-style score. In 2005 Jeremy wrote the score for the screen adaptation of Ian McEwan’s Enduring Love – winning the 2005 Ivor Novello award for ‘Best Score for a Feature Film’. Jeremy again worked with Roger Michell on Hyde Park on Hudson, starring Bill Murray and Laura Linney, and on Le Week-End, starring Jim Broadbent and Lindsay Duncan.
Jeremy has composed the theatre where he also has many directorial credits, including The Wizard of Oz (London Palladium), The Sound of Music (London Palladium, Princess of Wales Theatre Toronto) and Noises Off (National Theatre), and is well known for his stage adaptations, including Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (London Palladium) and Little Britain. He wrote the libretto for This Enchanted Island (Metropolitan Opera, New York).
Jeremy’s many translations include Mozart’s Figaro’s Wedding, La Boheme, The Magic Flute and Wagner’s The Ring Cycle (ENO); The Merry Widow (Covent Garden); and Les Parents Terribles, The Miser and Mary Stuart (Royal National Theatre).