Composer/lyricist Stephen Schwartz was honored for his lifetime contributions to musical theater with The ASCAP Foundation Richard Rodgers Award at the Foundation's 16th Annual Awards Ceremony, held Dec. 7 at Jazz at Lincoln Center's Allen Room, Frederick P. Rose Hall.
Schwartz, whose work includes Godspell, Pippin, The Magic Show, The Baker's Wife and the long-running current Broadway hit Wicked, has also contributed lyrics to numerous films including The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Pocahontas. Also the artistic director of the ASCAP Foundation/Disney Musical Theater Workshop, he was serenaded at the event by cabaret and Broadway stars Judy Kuhn and Scott Coulter.
Coulter performed Wicked's "For Good" after noting that Schwartz had changed his life for good, inspiring him through his songs about misfits to leave his small-town Tennessee home for New York and "never look back." Kuhn, who appears on the Pocahontas soundtrack, sang "Meadowlark" from The Baker's Wife, and credited Schwartz for helping her land her first Broadway role in his Rags.
"He really is a gift to us all," said Kuhn, her comment also serving to underscore the nature of the annual awards presentation.
A charitable organization dedicated to supporting American music creators and encouraging their development through music education and talent development programs, The ASCAP Foundation is made possible by contributions from ASCAP (the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers) members and from music lovers throughout the United States.
The Foundation handed out some 50 awards at Wednesday's ceremony, including four new ones cited by Foundation president Paul Williams: the "Reach Out And Touch" Award in honor of the late Nick Ashford, to provide promising songwriters with financial assistance for professional recordings of their original songs; the Freddy Bienstock Scholarship & Internship, which provides the opportunity for a music business student interested in music publishing to intern at a major publishing company; the Mary Rodgers/Lorenz Hart Award, presented to an ASCAP member who is a promising musical theater lyricist or to a composer/lyricist team; and the Louis Prima Award, which is presented to a talented vocalist or musician attending the New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts.
The "Reach Out And Touch" Award, of course, was named for the classic Ashford & Simpson hit composition. In presenting the inaugural award to Ashford & Simpson protégé Andre Henry, Valerie Simpson noted how the money award was provided "to enhance [singer-songwriters'] recordings and advance their careers."
"You got to have the money!" Simpson added, then noted her certainty that her "partner in life" Ashford would agree that Henry was the perfect choice for the initial award. One of the few award recipients who also performed, Henry prefaced the band performance of his song "It Must Be Hard"--which Ashford loved--by noting how Ashford had predicted a "bright future" for him.
"Do. Your. Work.," said Henry in quoting Ashford's directive. He then did his work, such that Williams said afterward, "Nick was so right."
Williams also noted how he cried during another performance, that of Sammy Cahn Award winner Katie Herzig, the acclaimed Nashville singer-songwriter who sang her beautiful "Closest I Get." Mike Stoller's son Peter Stoller also welled-up during his presentation of the Leiber & Stoller Music Scholarship, when he recounted his last words with his father's partner Jerry Leiber, who died last August on the same day as Ashford.
But Stoller also drew laughter in presenting the Leiber & Stoller scholarships to Carlos Nieves and especially Stefani Feldman. Feldman, he noted, had curtailed her golf career aspirations in favor of classical clarinet. The bass clarinet, said Stoller, "doubles as a 5-wood," and Feldman was on line to become "the Michelle Wie" of the instrument.
Concluding the occasion, Williams rightly stated that "the only thing that matches the talent of these amazing songwriters" in whose names so many awards were bestowed was "the generosity of ther families."
More information on the ASCAP Foundation Awards can be found at the Foundation's Web site.
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