ASCAP, the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, the world leader in performing rights and advocacy for music creators, toasted the composers of the most performed music in TV, film and video games last night at the 32nd annual ASCAP Screen Music Awards (formerly the Film & Television Music Awards) at The Wiltern in Los Angeles. Screen and stage composing legend Stephen Schwartz was honored with the prestigious ASCAP Founders Award and celebrated with multiple live performances: the Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles performed a medley of songs from Schwartz’s film scores for The Prince of Egypt, Pocahontas, The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Godspell; a group of ASCAP Musical Theatre Workshop alums (and Schwartz mentees) gathered to sing “For Good” from his stage musical Wicked; and in a surprise appearance, Smash TV series actress Megan Hilty performed “Corner of the Sky” from the musical Pippin.
The three ASCAP Composers’ Choice winners were also presented. An audience favorite, the ASCAP Composers’ Choice Awards were inaugurated by ASCAP in 2014 and are voted on exclusively by the ASCAP member community. Didier Lean Rachou won TV Composer of the Year for his work on TLC’s Long Island Medium and Discovery’s Yukon Men and more; Michael Giacchino took home Film Score of the Year for Zootopia; and Video Game Score of the Year was a tie, with two teams receiving the honor: Tom Salta (Atlas Plug) & Klayton (Celldweller) for Killer Instinct: Season 3; and Michael Salvatori, Skye Lewin & C. Paul Johnson for Destiny: Rise of Iron.
The packed ASCAP Screen Music Awards audience of composer and industry executives also enjoyed stirring live versions of top TV, movie and video game themes presented on The Wiltern’s historic art deco stage. Composer Henry Jackman’s Top Box Office award-winning theme for Captain America: Civil War was performed; new ASCAP composer member Ben Wallfisch conducted his theme, co-written with Hans Zimmer, for Hidden Figures; and Angela Parrish performed La La Land’s “Audition Song” and the Oscar-winning “City of Stars,” written by Justin Paul and Benj Pasek. Composers’ Choice nominees Kyle Dixon & Michael Stein played their Stranger Things TV theme on synths, Top TV Series winner Alex Heffes conducted “From Here to Eternity” from the Hulu series 11.22.63, and Top TV Series winner Jesse Voccia performed his winning theme to the Amazon series Bosch. Video Game composer and 2016 ASCAP Composers’ Choice winner Austin Wintory conducted his theme for the recently released Abzu. The evening wrapped up with the LA Gay Men’s Chorus performing a medley from Schwartz’s Godspell.
View a complete list of 2017 ASCAP Screen Music Awards winners: www.ascap.com/screenawards17.
About ASCAP
The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) is a professional membership organization of songwriters, composers and music publishers of every kind of music. ASCAP’s mission is to license and promote the music of its members and foreign affiliates, obtain fair compensation for the public performance of their works and to distribute the royalties that it collects based upon those performances. ASCAP members write the world’s best-loved music and ASCAP has pioneered the efficient licensing of that music to hundreds of thousands of enterprises who use it to add value to their business – from bars, restaurants and retail, to radio, TV and cable, to Internet, mobile services and more. The ASCAP license offers an efficient solution for businesses to legally perform ASCAP music while respecting the right of songwriters and composers to be paid fairly. With more than 600,000 members representing more than 10 million copyrighted works, ASCAP is the worldwide leader in performance royalties, service and advocacy for songwriters and composers, and the only American performing rights organization (PRO) owned and governed by its writer and publisher members. Learn more and stay in touch at www.ascap.com, on Twitter @ASCAP and on Facebook.