Recipients
| ASCAP Foundation Richard Rodgers Award | |
|---|---|
| Awarded for | lifetime achievement in musical theatre |
| Country | United States |
| Presented by | American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) |
| First awarded | 1983 |
| Last awarded | 2006 |
| Website | www.ascap.com |
The ASCAP Foundation Richard Rodgers Award is an annual award presented by the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP), in recognition of lifetime achievement by composers and lyricists in musical theatre. Established by Dorothy Rodgers in honor of her late husband Richard Rodgers, the award was first presented to Howard Dietz in 1983. The honor was not presented in 1992, 1994, 2004, or 2005, and years with more than one recipient include 1984, 1990, 1993, 1995, and 1997.
The most recent recipient is Stephen Schwartz, who was presented the award in 2011. Betty Comden is the only female to receive the award. American composers or lyricists have received the Richard Rodgers Award each year it has been presented except in 1988 when British-born Jule Styne won the honor.
Oscar Greeley Clendenning Hammerstein II was an American lyricist, librettist, theatrical producer, and director in the musical theater for almost 40 years. He won eight Tony Awards and two Academy Awards for Best Original Song. Many of his songs are standard repertoire for vocalists and jazz musicians. He co-wrote 850 songs.
The Pulitzer Prize for Drama is one of the seven American Pulitzer Prizes that are annually awarded for Letters, Drama, and Music. It is one of the original Pulitzers, for the program was inaugurated in 1917 with seven prizes, four of which were awarded that year. It recognizes a theatrical work staged in the U.S. during the preceding calendar year.
Richard Charles Rodgers was an American composer, known largely for his work in musical theater. With 43 Broadway musicals and over 900 songs to his credit, Rodgers was one of the most significant American composers of the 20th century, and his compositions had a significant impact on popular music.
Mary Rodgers was an American composer, author, and screenwriter, most famous for her novel Freaky Friday, which served as the basis of a 1976 film, for which she wrote the screenplay, as well as three other versions. Her best-known musicals were Once Upon a Mattress and The Mad Show, and she contributed songs to Marlo Thomas' successful children's album Free to Be... You and Me.
The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers is an American not-for-profit performance-rights organization (PRO) that protects its members' musical copyrights by monitoring public performances of their music, whether via a broadcast or live performance, and compensating them accordingly.
Jonathan David Larson was an American composer and playwright noted for exploring the social issues of multiculturalism, addiction, and homophobia in his work. Typical examples of his use of these themes are found in his works Rent and Tick, Tick... Boom! He received three posthumous Tony Awards and a posthumous Pulitzer Prize for Drama for the rock musical Rent.
Stephen Lawrence Schwartz is an American musical theater lyricist and composer. In a career spanning over four decades, Schwartz has written such hit musicals as Godspell (1971), Pippin (1972), and Wicked (2003). He has contributed lyrics to a number of successful films, including Pocahontas (1995), The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996), The Prince of Egypt, and Enchanted (2007). Schwartz has won the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Lyrics, three Grammy Awards, three Academy Awards, and has been nominated for six Tony Awards. He received the 2015 Isabelle Stevenson Award, a special Tony Award, for his commitment to serving artists and fostering new talent.
Cy Coleman was an American composer, songwriter, and jazz pianist.
Sheldon Mayer Harnick is an American lyricist and songwriter best known for his collaborations with composer Jerry Bock on musicals such as Fiddler on the Roof.
Richard Adler was an American lyricist, writer, composer and producer of several Broadway shows.
Martin Charnin was an American lyricist, writer, and theatre director. Charnin's best-known work is as conceiver, director and lyricist of the musical Annie.
Glenn Slater is an American lyricist who collaborates with Alan Menken and other musical theatre composers. He was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Original Score for the Broadway version of The Little Mermaid at the 62nd Tony Awards in 2008, his second Tony nomination for Sister Act at the 65th Tony Awards in 2011, and his third Tony nomination for School of Rock at the 70th Tony Awards in 2016.
Kim Oler is an American television and theatrical composer. He is a member of the BMI and Dramatists Guild.
The ASCAP Richard Rodgers New Horizons Award is an annual award presented by the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, in recognition of achievement by the best new composers of musical theater.
Ryan Scott Oliver is an American musical theatre composer and lyricist. He is a 2011 Lucille Lortel Award Nominee and the recipient of both the 2009 Jonathan Larson Grant and the 2008 Richard Rodgers Award for Musical Theater. Oliver is an adjunct professor at Pace University in New York, and Artistic Director of the Pasadena Musical Theatre Program in California. He received his B.A. in Music Composition from UCLA and his M.F.A. in Musical Theatre Writing from the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University. He is also creator of the blog Crazytown and member of A.S.C.A.P. Oliver's work has been heard at the Writers Guild Awards, Off-Broadway in TheatreWorksUSA's We the People, and countless showcases.
Johnny Rodgers is a singer-songwriter, pianist, Broadway star, and recording artist whom The New York Times described as an entertainer "[who] can't be found anywhere else" with "fused elements of Billy Joel, Peter Allen and Johnny Mercer."
The ASCAP Vanguard Award is an annual award presented by the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP), in recognition of "the impact of new and developing musical genres, which help shape the future of music. The award was first presented to Soul Asylum and Björk in 1996. The honor was not presented in 2012, and years with more than one recipient include 1996, 1997, 1998, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2011, and 2013. It is awarded at each of their ceremonies: pop, country, Latin, and rhythm & soul music.
Dave Malloy is an American composer, playwright, lyricist, and actor. He has written several theatrical works, often based on classic works of literature. They include Moby-Dick, an adaptation of Herman Melville's classic novel; Octet, a chamber choir musical about internet addiction; Preludes, a musical fantasia set in the mind of romantic composer Sergei Rachmaninoff; Ghost Quartet, a song cycle about love, death, and whiskey; and the Tony Award winning Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812, an electropop opera based on War and Peace.
Max Dreyfus was a German-born American music publisher, arranger and songwriter. Between the 1910s and 1950s he encouraged and published the work of many of the writers of the so-called Great American Songbook, and was president of Chappell & Co., Inc., the world's largest music publishing firm.
The Richard Rodgers Award is an annual award presented by the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and was created and endowed by Richard Rodgers in 1978 for the development of new works in musical theatre. These awards provide financial support for full productions, studio productions, and staged readings of new and developing works of musical theatre, and to nurture early-career composers, lyricists and playwrights by enabling their musicals to be produced by nonprofit theatres in New York City. The winners are selected by a jury of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. The Richard Rodgers Awards are the Academy's only awards for which applications are accepted.
