The ASCAP Foundation announced winners of its 77th annual Deems Taylor/Virgil Thomson Awards, which recognize outstanding music writing and broadcast programs. The awards span multiple categories including books, articles, liner notes, and broadcast media across concert and popular music genres.
Biographies received significant recognition this year. Tim Greiving’s “John Williams: A Composer’s Life” won the book award in the concert music field, marking the first biography of Hollywood’s leading living composer. Steven C. Smith received a special recognition award for “Hitchcock and Herrmann: The Friendship and Film Scores that Changed Cinema,” which explores the relationship between the composer and director Alfred Hitchcock. In the concert music category, Lucy Caplan’s “Dreaming in Ensemble: How Black Artists Transformed American Opera” was also honored. Pop music book awards went to Gayle Wald for “This Is Rhythm: Ella Jenkins, Children’s Music, and the Long Civil Rights Movement” and James O’Leary for “The Middlebrow Musical: Between Broadway and Opera in 1940s America.”
Broadcast and media awards recognized diverse works. Gail Wein won the top broadcast honor for her podcast series “Classical Gas,” with Rick Beato receiving special recognition for his YouTube series “Everything Music.” Directors Isaac Gale, Ryan Olson, and David McMurry were honored for their documentary “Swamp Dogg Gets His Pool Painted,” which chronicles the creative life of R&B musician Jerry “Swamp Dogg” Williams.
Article winners included Ben Sisario of The New York Times for reporting on efforts to preserve deteriorating master recordings, Esteban Meneses for coverage of Mexican symphonic composers, and Max Keller, also of The New York Times, for an article examining cello-playing techniques. Gabriel Kahane won the Virgil Thomson Award for Outstanding Music Criticism for his piece in The Atlantic. Percussionist Ruth Komanoff Underwood received the Paul Williams liner notes award for her essay accompanying the Frank Zappa box set “Cheaper than Cheep.”
The award committee included judges Robbie Fulks, Julie Flanders, Carman Moore, and Betsy Schramm.
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