ASCAP Awards: Vanacore's 22-Year Streak, Wicked & Stranger Things Win
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- David Vanacore received ASCAP's Golden Note Award for career achievement and extended his streak to 22 consecutive years of recognition, including an 11th straight win in the most-performed themes & underscore category.
- John Powell and Stephen Schwartz won film score of the year for 'Wicked: For Good,' the conclusion of the two-part adaptation.
- Jeff Toyne took television score of the year for 'Palm Royale,' while the television theme category ended in a tie between Dave Porter's 'Pluribus' and Kyle Dixon and Michael Stein's 'Stranger Things' work.
- Blair Mowat won documentary film score of the year for 'The Age of Disclosure,' and Amanda Jones won documentary series score for 'Hurricane Katrina: Rage Against Time.'
- Wilbert Roget II, Jon Everist and Cody Matthew Johnson were honored for video game score of the year on 'Star Wars Outlaws: A Pirate's Fortune.'
- Michael Giacchino won the data-based top domestic box office film award for 'Zootopia 2,' with Jake Staley ('High Potential') and John Sereda ('When Calls the Heart') taking network and cable TV honors respectively.
Why it matters: The member-voted Composers Choice Awards carry prestige distinct from data-driven ASCAP honors, signaling peer respect for film and TV scorers. Vanacore's 22-year run underscores how repeat usage of theme music and underscore in production libraries compounds career advantage in sync licensing, where ASCAP royalties flow from performance frequency.
