Ben Lanzarone

Ben Lanzarone was an American composer, arranger, musical director and pianist. Ben enjoyed a career encompassing a broad range of musical experience. He began as a classical pianist, traveling the country as soloist with the Longines Symphonette and making his solo debut at Carnegie Recital Hall.

He wrote music for countless episodes of television, including The Tracy Ullman Show, The Jay Leno Comedy Hour and Mr. Belvedere. His long association with Aaron Spelling and Doug Cramer resulted in many scores for Dynasty, The Love Boat, Vegas, Matt Houston, The Colbys, and Hotel. For Miller/Milkis/Boyett he wrote the music for numerous episodes of Happy Days, Laverne and Shirley and Mork and Mindy. In 1986, ASCAP presented Ben with the prestigious Most Performed Composer Award for his television scores.

As musical director/pianist, Lanzarone toured with a wide variety of artists including Frank Sinatra, Art Garfunkel, Mary Travers, Anthony Newley, Petula Clark, Lainie Kazan and Mason Williams. On Broadway, he was musical director of the original production of Grease, and arranger for the Broadway productions of Via Galactica and Truckload. He was also the musical director/arranger for the Off-Broadway show How to Steal an Election and the Los Angeles Shakespeare Festival’s Midsummer Night’s Dream.