Michael Bacon
Phone: 718-960-8249
Office: Music Building, Room 310
Office Hours: By appointment requested via email
Rank: Associate Professor
Degrees and Sources of Degrees: B.S., Lehman College
Biography
Michael Bacon is currently Associate Professor of Music. He was a Distinguished Lecturer at Lehman College from 2010 2016. Michael Bacon’s recent projects include the original score for Free Renty: Lanier v. Harvard (2021), a documentary on Tamara Lanier's lawsuit against Harvard University contesting the ownership of iconic 1850 daguerreotypes of an enslaved man, as well as the ongoing series on PBS, Finding Your Roots, hosted by Henry Lewis Gates (2012 –).
He won an Emmy and a BMI Television Award for his score for The Kennedys (1993), a Cable Ace Award nomination for his score for The Man Who Loved Sharks (1993), and a BMI Television Music Award and The Chicago International Film Festival Gold Plaque Award for his score for LBJ (1991). Films he has scored have won three Academy Awards (The Johnstown Flood (1989); A Time for Justice: American's Civil Rights Movement (1995); and King Gimp (1999)), as well as many Emmy Awards and Peabody Awards. Jerry Lee Lewis, Carlene Carter, Peter Yarrow and Claude Francois are just a few of the artists who have recorded songs written by Bacon. With his brother, Kevin Bacon, he has a band, The Bacon Brothers. They are releasing their tenth CD in 2022.
Bacon has a bachelors of science degree in music from Lehman College, where he studied composition and orchestration with John Corigliano. He is the Faculty Advisor to the Lehman College Audio Club. He lives in New York City with his wife, Betsy, and enjoys sailing.
Selected Publications and Works
- Original score for The Street Project (2022)
- Original score for Free Renty: Lanier v. Harvard (2021)
- Original score for Fighting for Fertility, for PBS (2021)
- Original score for The Words That Built American, for HBO (2017)
- Original score for Finding Your Roots, hosted by Henry Lewis Gates, for PBS (2012 –)
- Concerto for Violoncello and Orchestra (2016)
