Michael Laurence Nyman,
CBE (born 23 March 1944) is an English composer of
minimalist music, pianist,
librettist and
musicologist, known for numerous film scores (many written during his lengthy collaboration with the
filmmaker Peter Greenaway), and his
multi-platinum soundtrack album to
Jane Campion's
The Piano. He has additionally written a number of operas, including
The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat,
Letters, Riddles and Writs,
Noises, Sounds & Sweet Airs,
Facing Goya,
Man and Boy: Dada,
Love Counts, and
Sparkie: Cage and Beyond, and he has written six
concerti, four
string quartets, and many other
chamber works, many for his
Michael Nyman Band, with and without whom he tours as a performing pianist. Nyman stated that he prefers to write opera rather than other sorts of music.