Byram, Amick (24th January 1955-Present)

Actor, director, producer, and tenor who studied part of his craft at Lincoln Center Theater Director’s Lab West. One of his earliest recordings was Frank Sinatra’s 1979 boxed set, Trilogy. In 1983, he played Richard on the last episode of Quincy, M.E. Seven years later, he turned up on an episode of Jake and the Fatman. In 1991, he played Hickman on Star Trek: The Next Generation, and appeared on the same program two years later as Commander Ian Andrew Troi. (He even has his own Star Trek trading card.)

His recording career got a boost in 1997, when he collaborated with Cam Floria on the album, David: A Man After God’s Own Heart. (Amick played David.) It would not be the last time he would voice a biblical character. The same year, he was credited as a “voice” in A Christmas Carol and sang “The Factory Song” on the straight-to-video release, MGM Sing-Alongs: Having Fun. He had fun in 1998 supplying additional voices to another direct-to-video project, Pocahontas II: Journey to a New World, and supplying the singing voice of Moses in The Prince of Egypt.

If you are sensing a theme here, you are not alone: Amick’s voice is practically inescapable if you have seen an animated musical in the last ten to fifteen years. At the turn of the decade, he was one of the singers/voices in Lion of Oz, and sang “Here on the Land and Sea” in The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea, another straight-to-vid sequel. In 2001, he played David on “The Home-Wrecker” episode of the television program, Kristin. Direct-to-video animated sequel, anyone? In the same year, he was also credited as “chorus” and “voice” in Lady and the Tramp II: Scamp’s Adventure and Mickey’s House of Villains.

He teamed up with Ronali de Silva in 2003 on the recording, Sunshine Kids, and performed on the soundtrack of Peter Pan. The following year, he released his first solo album, Encounter, a concept album on which Amick portrays a variety of Biblical characters in song, accompanied by several musicians from the London Philharmonic Orchestra. In the winter of 2004, he went on tour with former Styx front-man Dennis DeYoung, a tour that lasted well into 2006. The concerts featured old Styx classics as well as music from DeYoung’s stage musical, The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

Somehow, Amick also found time to do some more movie work, singing on the soundtracks of The Greatest Game Ever Played and King Kong in 2005. 2006 was rife with live appearances: In addition to performing with Dennis DeYoung and a variety of orchestras (The Memphis Symphony Orchestra, The Northwest Arkansas Symphony, and Rock Symphony) in a variety of venues, Amick did a series of shows at Vitello’s Italian Restaurant in Studio City, California, appeared on Kirk Cameron’s Praise the Lord on Trinity Broadcasting Network, and hosted his own “Live Worship with Amick” at a pair of churches in Texas, Boerne’s 1^st Baptist Church and San Antonio’s Church at Stone Oak. A year later, Amick was back in the movie studios for the soundtracks of Enchanted and West Bank Story.

In addition to the aforementioned films, he has also performed on the soundtracks of Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears a Who!, El Dorado, Hercules, The Lion King, The Matrix, Mulan, Pocahontas, Shrek, and Shrek 2. He is also credited as a voice on some fifty episodes of The Simpsons. Other TV shows on which he has appeared include Ally McBeal, Frasier, Friends, Saved by the Bell, and Superior Court, on which he played Attorney Darrell Guillary for three seasons.

It is hard to believe this guy has had time to also fashion a massive career for himself as a stage actor, director, and producer. He has played the title role in Jesus Christ Superstar, Enjolras and Marius in Les Miserables, starred in Broadway and Los Angeles productions of Phantom of the Opera, and played Joe Gillis in Sunset Boulevard, with Glenn Close. His directing credits include Aesop, Ben Hur, The Best of Broadway, Brigadoon, Great Gershwin!, his own A Hollywood Tale, How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying, Into the Woods, Les Miserables, One to One, Pinocchio and Mounette, School House Rock, and The Secret Garden.

He frequently produces his musical projects, including Radio Gals, which played on 42^nd Street’s John Houseman Theater in New York, and continues to enjoy success at various venues throughout the United States. Back in the recording studio, he recently played Aslan on a CD based on C.S. Lewis’s The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, and recorded Hymns Renewed with his wife, Cassandra Byram. He has twice been nominated for a Grammy Award, thanks to his collaborations with the jazz vocal group, 2+2. In his copious free time, Amick teaches theater at Costa Mesa’s Vanguard University in California.

Here he is talking about and singing “All I Ever Wanted” from Prince of Egypt…

Sources:

Byram, Amick (24th January 1955-Present)

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