Duncan Scott Sheik (November 18, 1969 – September 17, 2026) was an American singer-songwriter and composer. He is known for his 1996 debut single “Barely Breathing”, which earned him a Grammy Award nomination for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance. Sheik composed music for motion pictures and Broadway musicals, winning the 2007 Tony Awards for Best Original Score and Best Orchestrations for his work on the musical Spring Awakening.
Sheik was born on November 18, 1969, in Glen Ridge, New Jersey. He grew up in Montclair, New Jersey. . . . He was the half-brother of Broadway actress Kacie Sheik. Sheik’s Juilliard-trained grandmother introduced him to the piano, and he later took up the electric guitar. By age 12, he was playing guitar with high school students in a cover band After graduating from Phillips Academy, Andover in 1988, Sheik studied semiotics at Brown University; while at Brown, he played guitar in a band with fellow Brown student Lisa Loeb. Following his graduation from Brown in 1992, he moved to Los Angeles.
Early in his musical career, Sheik played guitar for other artists, including Liz and Lisa (with Elizabeth Mitchell and Lisa Loeb). Sheik also played on His Boy Elroy’s 1993 album through his connections from a fellow Brown alum, Tracee Ellis Ross.
In 1996, Sheik released his self-titled debut album, which was certified gold. The album featured the hit single “Barely Breathing”, which peaked at number 16 and remained on the Billboard Hot 100 for 55 consecutive weeks. “Barely Breathing” also enjoyed Top 20 success on Adult Contemporary radio, reached No. 2 on the Adult Top 40 charts, and garnered Sheik a Grammy Award nomination for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance.
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In addition to being a singer-songwriter, Sheik had also composed music for plays, musicals, and movie soundtracks. He composed original music for the 2002 New York Shakespeare Festival production of Twelfth Night.
In 2004, he composed the score for the film A Home at the End of the World. The AllMusic reviewer wrote: “… takes the sensitivity and tension of the film’s plot and crafts incidental music and new songs that complement the movie well.” He also composed the score for the 2005 film Through the Fire with Pete Miser.
Sheik wrote the music for Spring Awakening (2006) in collaboration with Steven Sater. Written over a period of eight years, the musical, which premiered off-Broadway during the summer, opened on Broadway to critical acclaim later in the fall. The musical was based on the controversial German expressionist play The Awakening of Spring, written by Frank Wedekind. Sheik won the 2006 Tony Award for Best Orchestrations for his work on Spring Awakening, and he and Sater won a Tony Award for Best Original Score. In addition, Spring Awakening won the Tony Award for Best Musical and a Grammy Award for Best Musical Show Album. The guitar that Sheik used to compose songs for Spring Awakening was displayed at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center. As of 2012, Sheik was composing music for a feature-film adaptation of Spring Awakening, an adaptation almost a decade in the making. [Editor’s note: Half the starring cast in tv’s GLEE came from Spring Awakening!]
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Sheik had a daughter with his wife Nora Ariffin, an actress turned realtor.
He practiced Nichiren Buddhism and was a member of the U.S. branch of the worldwide Buddhist association Soka Gakkai International.
On September 16, 2026, Sheik was reported by his family on his Instagram page to be hospitalized in “critical but stable condition”. He died the following day from heart and organ failure leading to cardiac arrest in New York City, at the age of 56.
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Read the full extensive bio here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duncan_Sheik
Photo: Duncan Sheik | From his Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/DuncanSheik
