Arlo Guthrie is Recognized at 14th Annual ASCAP Foundation Awards in New York City
The ASCAP Foundation honored vocalist/recording star/songwriter Arlo Guthrie with The ASCAP Foundation Champion Award in recognition of his commitment to music in the service of humanity. The accolade was presented during the Foundation's 14th Annual Awards Ceremony, held December 9, 2009 at the Allen Room, Frederick P. Rose Hall, Home of Jazz at Lincoln Center, in New York City. The invitation-only event, hosted by ASCAP Foundation President Marilyn Bergman, also honored a wide variety of Scholarship and Award recipients, all of whom benefit from programs of The ASCAP Foundation.
Arlo Guthrie has a long and distinguished record as a social activist and humanitarian. Like his famed father, legendary troubadour Woody Guthrie, Arlo has always sung and written songs that promote peace and human dignity for all people. His hit recording of Steve Goodman's "City of New Orleans" in 1972 raised American awareness of the disappearing passenger trains. In recent years, his work and leadership role at the Guthrie Center in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, has helped the victims of Huntington's Disease and their families as well as support for people with AIDS and other life-threatening illnesses. Following Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Arlo Guthrie and his family boarded the Amtrak train known as "The City of New Orleans" and performed a series of concerts up and down the length of the train's route to raise money for the storm's victims.
Brooklyn-born Arlo Guthrie emerged at the tail-end of the Folk Revival in the late 1960s and remains one of the genre's most enduring artists. He is a prolific recording artist who has featured blues, Irish fiddle tunes, Ragtime, country, bluegrass, cowboy songs and African folk music on his albums, as well as his original songs. He was a featured performer at the 1969 Woodstock Festival and starred in the Arthur Penn-directed film, Alice's Restaurant, which was based on an Arlo Guthrie story-song.
To celebrate the award to Guthrie, rising folk stars Devon Sproule (the recipient of the 2009 ASCAP Foundation Sammy Cahn Award) and Paul Curreri performed Guthrie's song, "Days Are Short."
A list of the evening's other honorees follows:
The ASCAP Foundation Harold Adamson Lyric Award
Adam Gwon, Shawn Pander
The ASCAP Foundation Robert Allen Award
Nick Howard
The ASCAP Foundation Harold Arlen Award
Joe Trapanese
The ASCAP Foundation Louis Armstrong Scholarship
LaRon Land, Danny Rivera, Megan Swartz
The ASCAP Foundation Irving Berlin Summer Camp Scholarship
Joshua Clampitt
The ASCAP Foundation Leonard Bernstein Composer Fellowship
Judd Greenstein
The ASCAP Foundation Leon Brettler Award
Lizzy McAvoy
The ASCAP Foundation Irving Burgie Scholarship
Clynton Cox
The ASCAP Foundation Sammy Cahn Award
Devon Sproule
The ASCAP Foundation Cherry Lane Foundation/Music Alive! Scholarship in honor of Quincy Jones
Allen M. Jones
The ASCAP Foundation Desmond Child Anthem Award
Josué Garcia
The ASCAP Foundation Cy Coleman Award
Erica Stenquist
The Eunice & Hal David Instructor-in-Residence Award
Pat Bass
The ASCAP Foundation Fran Morgenstern Davis Scholarship
Andrea Carroll, Suma Young
The ASCAP Foundation Jamie deRoy & friends Award
Christine Lavin
The ASCAP Foundation Louis Dreyfus Warner/Chappell City College Scholarship
(in honor of George & Ira Gershwin)
Matthew Smith
The ASCAP Foundation Max Dreyfus Scholarship
Joel Waggoner
The ASCAP Foundation Ira Gershwin Scholarship
Deiran Manning
The ASCAP Foundation Jay Gorney Award
Christina Lord & John Munnelly
The ASCAP Foundation Morton Gould Young Composer Awards
Andy Akiho, Eleanor Bragg, Graham Cohen, Michael Gilbertson, Yereen I. Low,
Missy Mazzoli, Murray Skolnick, Wang Lu
The ASCAP Foundation Leiber & Stoller Music Scholarship
Lauren Desberg
The ASCAP Foundation Frederick Loewe Scholarship
Dewey Fleszar
The ASCAP Foundation Henry Mancini Music Scholarship
Stephen Guerra, Stephen Wheeler
The ASCAP Foundation Rudolf Nissim Prize
Roger Zare
The ASCAP Foundation Cole Porter Award
John Mercurio
The ASCAP Foundation The ASCAP Foundation Joan and Irwin Robinson Scholarship
Brittany Easterling
The ASCAP Foundation Richard Rodger New Horizon Award
Brendan Milburn & Valerie Vigoda
The ASCAP Foundation Young Jazz Composer Award
Nick Grondin, Armand Hirsch, David Lantz, Rob Mosher, Daniel Ori, Travis Reuter,
Albert Rivera, Sam Sadigursky, Brandon Wright