Recipients of The ASCAP Foundation 2004 Harold Arlen Musical Theater Award

This award recognizes writers who have emerged from The ASCAP Foundation Musical Theatre Workshops in Los Angeles and New York. The award is funded through a gift from Sam and Joan Arlen, honoring Harold Arlen, composer of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" and "Stormy Weather."

Cheri Coons
Cheri Coons has co-written ten musicals that have received professional productions. Her most recent musical, At Wit's End, about the Algonquin Round Table and the founding of The New Yorker magazine, received Florida's 2001 Carbonell Award for Best New Work, and had its second production at Chicago's Northlight Theatre in 2003. She wrote the lyrics for Phantom of the Country Opera, published by Music Theatre International, and Rodeo, which was selected for the Disney/ASCAP Los Angeles workshop. It was also the first show to be developed through ASCAP's In the Works program at Perry-Mansfield Performing Arts School. Cheri shared Chicago's Joseph Jefferson Award for Best New Work for Sylvia's Real Good Advice. She has also received four additional Joseph Jefferson nominations in the category of Best New Work for projects to which she contributed either lyrics or book and lyrics. She is the recipient of Chicago's After Dark Award for her lyrics for Female Problems, An Unhelpful Guide, based on the book by syndicated cartoonist Nicole Hollander.

A review of her work, Yadda, Yadda, Yadda: The Lyrics of Cheri Coons, was honored as one of Chicago's 10 Best Cabaret Shows of the year by both Cabaret Scenes magazine and Cabaret Online. In November 2003 Cheri was a featured songwriter and performer in ASCAP's Songwriter Cabaret at the Chicago Humanities Festival. In May 2004, she and collaborator Beckie Menzie performed at Carnegie Hall in ASCAP's Now and Then series, hosted by Michael Feinstein. Her original novelty songs have been featured on Good Morning America, The Today Show, and NPR's Morning Edition.

Chuck Larkin
Chuck Larkin has written songs, scores and incidental music for a variety of cabaret performers and musical theatre productions. A collection of his songs, Keep Me In Love: The Words and Music of Chuck Larkin, was honored as Chicago's After Dark #1 Cabaret Show of 2000. He has performed his work in the ASCAP/MAC songwriter showcase in New York and in the 2003 Chicago Humanities Festival. River's End, Chuck's collaboration with lyricist and playwright Cheri Coons, was selected for both the 2004 Chicago ASCAP/Disney Musical Workshop and the 2004 Musical Theatre Conference at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre Center in Waterford, Connecticut.

David Noroña
David Noroña made his Broadway debut in the Tony Award-winning play Love! Valour! Compassion! He garnered an LA Ovation nomination for his portrayal of Irving Berlin in The Tin Pan Alley Rag. His film and television credits include American Dreams, Crossing Jordan, ER, NYPD Blue, Monk, Frasier, Mister Sterling, Boston Public and Boston Legal; and, most notably, as the guidance counselor in the critically acclaimed Six Feet Under. He is currently the librettist for a new cutting-edge musical, Paradise Lost: Opera Electronica.

Eric Whitacre
An accomplished composer, conductor and lecturer, Eric Whitacre is one of the bright stars in contemporary concert music. Regularly commissioned and published, Whitacre has received composition awards from ASCAP, the Barlow International Composition Competition, the American Choral Directors Association, and the American Composers Forum. In 2001 he became the youngest recipient ever awarded the coveted Raymond C. Brock commission by the American Choral Directors Association; commercially he has worked with such luminaries as Barbra Streisand and Marvin Hamlisch.

Born in 1970, Whitacre has already achieved substantial critical and popular acclaim. The American Record Guide named his first recording, "The Music of Eric Whitacre", one of the top ten classical albums in 1997, and the Los Angeles Times praised his music as "electric, chilling harmonies; works of unearthly beauty and imagination." His Water Night has become one of the most popular choral works of the last decade, and is one of the top selling choral publications in the last five years. Ghost Train, his first instrumental work written at the age of 23, is a genuine phenomenon; it has received thousands of performances in over 50 countries and has been featured on 40 different recordings. His music has been the subject of several recent scholarly works and doctoral dissertations, and his published works have sold well over 250,000 copies worldwide.

As a conductor, Mr. Whitacre has appeared with hundreds of professional and educational ensembles throughout the world. In the last five years he has conducted concerts of his choral and symphonic music in Japan, Australia, Singapore, much of Europe, and dozens of American universities and colleges. Eric received his M.M. in composition from the Juilliard School of Music, where he studied composition with Pulitzer Prize winner John Corigliano.


TOP