ASCAP Awards Honor John Williams Bio, Swamp Dogg Doc — SkimNews
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- The ASCAP Foundation awarded its 77th annual Deems Taylor/Virgil Thomson Awards, voted on by a committee of four ASCAP members, to works across books, articles, liner notes, and broadcasts.
- Biographies of film composers John Williams and Bernard Herrmann were honored, with Tim Greiving's 'John Williams: A Composer’s Life' and Steven C. Smith's 'Hitchcock and Herrmann' receiving book awards.
- Other winning works included Lucy Caplan's book on Black opera innovators, a documentary on Swamp Dogg, liner notes for a Frank Zappa box set, and Rick Beato's 'Everything Music' YouTube series.
- The New York Times received two article awards, for Ben Sisario's piece on saving decaying master tapes and Max Keller's article on cellist technique debates.
- The awards list also recognized Gayle Wald's biography of children's musician Ella Jenkins and James O'Leary's book on 1940s Broadway musicals.
Why it matters: The awards directly validate and elevate the work of music journalists, biographers, and documentarians, providing recognition from a major performing rights organization. This boosts the visibility and credibility of niche subjects like archival tape preservation, cult artists, and classical music debates.
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