Great Gus Edwards
Evan Edwards wrote to Playback after reading last issue' article, "Nine Decades of ASCAP", which listed the founding members of ASCAP and asked whether his uncle would be considered a founding member. Edward' great uncle is Gus Edwards, who joined ASCAP in its first year, 1914, and was the writer of the classic songs "School Days" and "By the Light of the Silvery Moon." While not a founding member, Gus would be considered a charter member, and is certainly another ASCAP great.

Art Lover

Composer Steve Chesne makes the leap from TV to the Art House screen

ASCAP recently held a reception honoring composer Steven Chesne at the Director's Guild of America. After 15 years specializing in scoring episodic television for very mainstream audiences (Hangin' with Mr. Cooper, Family Matters, Step by Step, Perfect Strangers, Getting By, Two of a Kind, among others), Chesne has begun making a big noise in the art house film world.

Several independent filmmakers joined ASCAP in celebrating the successful transition to this newer phase of his work. Since 2000, Chesne has scored 16 feature films, with 3 of them released in 2003, and another 2 this year. The films (including No Turning Back and The Trip, which both opened at the Laemmle Theaters simultaneously last year) have been the recipients of the ALMA Award, the Kodak Award, and dozens of Best Picture Awards at major international festivals.

Chesne is just completing the score for Dan Polier' Debating Robert Lee, starring Billy Kay (L.I.E.), Kaley Cuoco (Virtuosity, 8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter), Rachel Nichols (The Woods, The Inside), Edwin Hodge (The Alamo), and Beau Bridges (The Fabulous Baker Boys).

Chesne says: "It was challenging at first to get established in this new area, as many independent filmmakers often feel antipathy for more mainstream, prime-time, network fare. I began by deleting all of my TV credits from my resume, and getting back at the end of the line all over again. After a few years of cattle call-type submissions, it' become mainly all word-of-mouth. It' been quite a journey, and now I'm having the time of my life." For more info, visit: www.chezworks.com.

Songwriter Summit at Chateau Marmont

In the tradition of the Algonquin Hotel's gathering of great artistic minds, ASCAP Los Angeles assembled a group of successful pop writers to discuss their latest projects in world of musical theatre.

Veteran musical theater writer Stephen Schwartz, who fosters ASCAP's Disney Music Theatre Workshop and whose current production, Wicked, is another Broadway hit, was in Los Angeles and was able to join the conversation.

Also in attendance: Charlotte Caffey (Lovelace: The Musical); Paul Gordon (Daddy Longlegs and Jane Eyre), Amy Powers (Doctor Zhivago), David Norona (Paradise Lost) Stephen Bray and Allee Willis (The Color Purple), Matthew Wilder (Princesses), Maribeth Derry (The Ten Commandments). Pictured (standing, l-r) ASCAP's Michael Kerker and Brendan Okrent, Stephen Schwartz, Allee Willis, Charlotte Caffey, David Norona and ASCAP's Tom DeSavia, and (seated, l-r) Maribeth Derry, Paul Gordon and Matthew Wilder.

On the Set with Chingy
(l-r) ASCAP' Jay Sloan visited Chingy and producer Keith McMasters on the set of Chingy' new video for "Baller Baby."

La Debut of Mass at Hollywood Bowl
Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Schwartz' Mass made its Los Angeles debut at the Hollywood Bowl on August 19 in front of an audience of 12,000. Pictured at the event (l-r) are President and CEO of the LA Philharmonic Association Deborah Borda, Mass director Gordan Hunt, Mass choreographer Kay Cole, Mass lyricist Stephen Schwartz, LA Philharmonic guest conductor Marin Alsop, Leonard Bernstein' daughter Jamie Bernstein and ASCAP' Michael A. Kerker.