The American Society of Composers, Authors & Publishers has announced the winners of the 43rd Annual ASCAP Deems Taylor Awards for outstanding print, broadcast and new media coverage of music. The winners will be honored at a special invitation-only ceremony and reception on Tuesday, November 15 at ASCAP’s New York offices. Over the years, tens of thousands of dollars have been distributed in cash prizes to winning authors, journalists and broadcast producers and personalities.
The Awards were established in 1967 to honor the memory of composer/critic/commentator Deems Taylor, who died in 1966 after a distinguished career that included six years as President of ASCAP. The 43rd ASCAP Deems Taylor Awards are made possible by the generous support of ASCAP, The ASCAP Foundation, Hal Leonard Corporation and the Music Publishers Association of the United States. Founded in 1865, the Music Publishers Association is the oldest non-profit music trade organization in the United States.
The ASCAP Deems Taylor Radio Broadcast Award honors the outstanding music coverage of the National Public Radio program: "Weekend All Things Considered," hosted by Guy Raz and produced by Phil Harrell.
The ASCAP Deems Taylor Television Broadcast Award honors "Still Bill," a Late Night & Weekends production and directed by Alex Vlack and Damani Baker. The program, a documentary about singer-songwriter Bill Withers, was aired on Showtime.
The Nicolas Slonimsky Award for Outstanding Musical Biography in the concert music field honors Professor R. Larry Todd for his book, "Fanny Hensel: The Other Mendelssohn," published by Oxford University Press. This award was established to honor the memory of Slonimsky (1894 – 1995), the Russian-American composer, conductor, musicologist and critic.
The Timothy White Award for Outstanding Musical Biography in the pop music field recognizes Will Friedwald for his book, "A Biographical Guide to the Great Jazz and Pop Singers," published by Free Press. This award honors the memory of the late Tim White (1952 – 2002), the author of many acclaimed musical biographies and an editor-in-chief of Billboard magazine.
The Béla Bartók Award for Outstanding Ethnomusicology Book honors Professor James Loeffner for his "Most Musical Nation: Jews and Culture in the Late Russian Empire," published by Yale University Press. The award was established in memory of the great Hungarian composer, pianist and ethnomusicologist, Béla Bartók (1881 – 1945).
The authors and publishers of the other six books to be honored at the ceremony are:
-Dean Katherine Bergeron for "Voice Lessons: French Mélodie in the Belle Époque," published by Oxford University Press
-Charlotte Greenspan for "Pick Yourself Up: Dorothy Fields and the American Musical," published by Oxford University Press
-Nat Hentoff for "At the Jazz Band Ball: Sixty Years on the Jazz Scene," published by the University of California Press
-Christine Lavin for "Cold Pizza for Breakfast: A Mem-Wha??," published by Tell Me Press
-Renée Levine Packer for "This Life of Sounds: Evenings for New Music in Buffalo," published by Oxford University Press
-Alex Ross for "Listen to This," published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux
The eight writers of journal, magazine and newspaper articles, and liner notes and their respective publishers to be honored are:
-Professor Daphne Brooks for her liner notes to "Tammi Terrell: Come On and See Me," released by Motown/Hip-O Select,com/Universal Music Enterprises
-Aaron Cohen for his article, "Ray’s Kind Of Jazz," published by Downbeat magazine
-Paul Griffiths for his program notes, "Composer Portraits – Lou Reed: Metal Machine Music," "Early Music: The Art of the Canon" and "William Schuman Award Concert honoring Pauline Oliveros," published by the Miller Theater at Columbia University
-Judith Kogan for her article, "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Scanner," published by Chamber Music magazine
-Professor Theodore Levin for his liner notes, "Music of Central Asia, Vols. 7, 8 and 9," issued by Smithsonian Folkways Recordings
-David Ritz for his liner notes, "Nat King Cole & Friends: Riffin’," released by Verve/Hip-O Select.com/Universal Music Enterprises
-Professor George Shirley for his article, "Music Education in Detroit’s Public Schools: The Struggle to Survive," published by NewMusicBox
-David Thorpe for two of his "The Big Hurt" articles, "What would Jesus download? Who charted? Billboard's Top Christian Songs edition" and "Deluxe buyer’s guide. The word on seasonal box sets," all published by The Boston Phoenix
The members of the ASCAP Deems Taylor Awards Judging Panel for 2011 are Paul Moravec, Curtis Hughes, Eleonor Sandresky, Richard Miller, Julie Flanders, David Massengill, Matthew Shipp, Pat Irwin and John Wesley Harding.
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Established in 1914, ASCAP is the first and leading U.S. Performing Rights Organization (PRO) representing the world's largest repertory totaling over 8.5 million copyrighted musical works of every style and genre from more than 415,000 songwriter, composer and music publisher members. ASCAP has representation arrangements with similar foreign organizations so that the ASCAP repertory is represented in nearly every country around the world where copyright law exists. ASCAP protects the rights of its members and foreign affiliates by licensing the public performances of their copyrighted works and distributing royalties based upon surveyed performances. ASCAP is the only American PRO owned and governed by its writer and publisher members. www.ascap.com.
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