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Mervyn Edwin Warren (born February 29, 1964) is an American film composer, record producer, music conductor, music arranger, lyricist, songwriter, pianist, and vocalist. Warren is a five-time Grammy Award winner and a 10-time Grammy Award nominee. Warren has written the underscore and songs for many feature and television films and has written countless arrangements in a variety of musical styles for producers Quincy Jones, David Foster, Arif Mardin, and dozens of popular recording artists, including extensive work on Jones' ''Back on the Block,'' ''Q's Jook Joint,'' and ''Q: Soul Bossa Nostra.'' Warren has also produced numerous jazz, pop, R&B, contemporary Christian, and gospel artists, typically arranging those recordings, often performing on them (on piano, keyboards, or vocals), and often writing or co-writing the melodies and lyrics. Warren is best known as an original member of the a cappella vocal group Take 6, for having composed the underscore to the number-1 film ''The Wedding Planner (2001),'' for producing and arranging songs for the hit film ''Sister Act 2 (1993),'' and for producing and arranging most of the soundtrack to the 1996 Whitney Houston film ''The Preacher's Wife''—the best-selling Gospel album of all time. ==Early life and education== Warren was born on a leap day (February 29) in Huntsville, Alabama, the son of Dr. Mervyn A. Warren, a university administrator, professor and author, and Barbara J. Warren, a university professor who specialized in early childhood education. Warren's mother taught him to read and to do basic math when he was three years old, which enabled him later to complete the first and second grades in one year. Upon beginning the third grade, Warren's classmates, thinking he had been "skipped" a grade, taunted and ostracized him for the next several years. During that time, he immersed himself in playing the piano, which he had begun under his mother's tutelage at the age of five. Warren briefly took formal, piano lessons at the ages of six and 10. In each case, he soon lost interest in the strict memorization and regurgitation of the required pieces, preferring instead to create musical variations on the pieces or to improvise upon them. As a result, each stint of weekly, formal lessons was short-lived. Still, he spent hours at the piano daily, playing by ear. As a child and teenager, Warren, whose parents are Seventh-day Adventists, was not allowed to listen to pop music or rhythm and blues. Instead, he grew up on a steady diet of easy-listening, contemporary Christian, classical, and choral music—from the Mantovani Orchestra to Edwin Hawkins to The Swingle Singers. Warren's family's home was adjacent to the campus of Oakwood University, which has a long and rich history of vocal and choral groups, many of which performed a cappella. Throughout his childhood and adolescence, Warren heard such ensembles rehearse and perform frequently. Each of these elements would later combine to inform his unique musical palette. In 1976, at the age of 12, Warren was grounded (punished) for having purchased the Earth, Wind & Fire album ''Gratitude''. But in 2006—exactly 30 years later—he was asked to produce an Earth, Wind & Fire Christmas album. Although the project was postponed, the irony remains. At the age of 15, Warren enrolled in a special, summer program at Alabama A&M University for high-school students with advanced proficiency in the sciences and mathematics. As a result of his performance in the program, the university offered him a scholarship that would cover all studies required to earn a Ph.D. in physics. However, lacking sufficient interest in the subject, Warren declined the offer. In 1981 he was the valedictorian of his senior class at Oakwood Adventist Academy. In the fall of the same year, he became president of the freshman class at Oakwood University. Intending to attend medical school, Warren majored briefly in biology and mathematics. Though he excelled at both, he dropped both, having decided to pursue his true passion, music. Disappointed by Warren's decision, a professor of biology told him, "You're wasting your mind on music." Undeterred, Warren graduated summa cum laude in 1985 from Oakwood University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in music with an emphasis in piano performance. At the graduation ceremony, Warren conducted members of the senior class, performing a song he had written for the occasion, entitled "A Moment Like This." In 1987, Warren received a Master of Music degree in Arranging from the University of Alabama, under the tutelage of noted jazz educator Steve Sample, Sr. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Mervyn Warren」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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