Biography
Sean Altman teamed up with Elliott Kerman, Steve Keyes, and David Stix in 1986 at Brown University and formed the a cappella group Rockapella. They recruited Barry Carl after their bass man left, and they soon found themselves performing on Spike Lee's PBS special, "Spike & Co.: Do It A Cappella". Steve left soon after that, and Scott Leonard permanently replaced him. A five-year stint as the house band for the kids' game show Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego? (1991) made Rockapella a household name in the 1990s.
Sean's credits with Rockapella include featured performances on the PBS documentary "Spike Lee & Co - Do It Acappella"; "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno"; five years (295 episodes) starring in the PBS daily series "Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiego?" (for which Sean wrote the theme song with David Yazbek, composer of Broadway hits "The Full Monty" and "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels"); nine CD releases; concerts with Billy Joel (Madison Square Garden), Sting and Don Henley; and numerous commercials.
After releasing nine CDs with Rockapella, Sean decided to call it quits in 1997 and embark on a solo career. His CD catalogue includes "seandemonium", "alt.mania" and "Losing Streak" (Chow Fun Records), a 22-song collection of his live-in-concert performances of songs by his heroes - McCartney, Costello, Nilsson, Paul Simon, Bacharach, Carole King and others - in the famed Loser's Lounge tribute series.
Sean's recent songwriting credits include the off-Broadway musical comedy "Minimum Wage" (NYC Fringe Festival Audience Favorite Award); numerous songs for Nickelodeon and Disney TV; and a dozen songs for the comedy "Connections," which enjoyed a long run at Theater For The New City (NYC). Sean's vocal arrangement credits include the feature films "Leap of Faith," "Joe's Apartment," "Meet The Parents" and "Shut Up & Sing."
He performs his songs in concert throughout the world with his five-piece band, as an acoustic-electric duo, or solo acoustic. He has appeared with Elton John, Billy Joel, Joey Ramone, Moby, Cyndi Lauper, Warren Zevon, Fred Schneider of the B-52s, Styx, Dan Bern, Jill Sobule, David Cassidy, John Cale, Robyn Hitchcock, Take 6, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, The Persuasions, Chuck Berry, Steve Vai, Terry Bozzio, and They Might Be Giants.
