Musical director, keyboardist, and composer Michael Bearden is the band leader for "Lopez Tonight." Michael is an extraordinary musical talent who has been sought out by some of the world's most popular artists from the late Michael Jackson to Madonna.

Most recently, Bearden served as Musical Director for "This Is It" - the series of 50 concerts by Michael Jackson to be held in London before Jackson's death. Bearden can be seen as the keyboardist in the film documenting Michael Jackson's rehearsals of the concert series. He is also the music supervisor, composer and associate producer of the film.

Bearden's diverse musical skills have been used by the biggest names in music, including Brandy, Christina Aguilera, Ricky Martin, Destiny's Child, D'Angelo, Marc Dorsey, Faith Evans, Brian McKnight, Nicole Renee and Jennifer Lopez. He has performed and/or recorded with world-class artists including Madonna, Whitney Houston, Lionel Richie, Chaka Kahn, Patti Austin, James Ingram, Babyface, Lenny Kravitz, Yoko Ono, George Benson, Natalie Cole, Sophie B. Hawkins, Anita Baker, Edie Brickell, and legends Nancy Wilson, Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin, Liza Minelli and Ray Charles.

An accomplished composer, Michael's feature film scores include the Spike Lee-produced film "Drop Squad," (Eriq Lasalle, Ving Rhames), the indie film by first-time director Jordan Walker Pearlman and "The Visit" (Rae Dawn Chong, Billy Dee Williams). Michael scored other independent features: "The Arrangement" for filmmaker H.H.Cooper, "One Week" for director Carl Seaton and "Redrum" for director Kenny Young. He has also scored several documentaries, ABC'S "Swingtown," CW's "The Game," and HBO's "Brave New Voices," and he performed on the soundtracks to box office hits such as "The Body Guard," "Shaft 2," and "Four Brothers." Additionally, Michael was principal keyboardist for President Barack Obama's star-studded inaugural concert at the Lincoln Memorial.

Michael also maintained the principal pianist/keyboard positions in two "Cosby" television show bands, and was frequently called by "Late Show with David Letterman" band leader Paul Shaffer whenever he needed a substitute for the CBS broadcast.

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