The American Society of Composers, Authors
and Publishers (ASCAP) presented its Henry
Mancini Award to John Debney and its Golden
Note Award to Mark Snow at the 20th
Annual ASCAP Film and Television Music Awards gala held
on Wednesday, April 27, 2005 at the
Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California.
In addition to honoring Debney and Snow, ASCAP honored
the composers of the biggest box office film music
and the most performed television music of 2004, and
celebrated the Centennial of legendary songwriter and
composer Harold Arlen. Over 750 members of the music
industry elite attended the event, which was hosted
by Academy-Award winning lyricist and President and
Chairman of ASCAP, Marilyn Bergman.
One of the many highlights of the evening was the
presentation of the ASCAP Henry Mancini Award to Academy-Award
nominee and three-time Emmy winner John Debney in recognition
of his outstanding achievements and contributions to
the music of film and television.
Debney is one of the most sought after composers
in Hollywood and has proven his versatility with over
50 feature films to his credit, encompassing a wide
variety of box office hits, including Bruce
Almighty, Elf, Raising Helen, The Princess Diaries, his most
critically acclaimed and Oscar nominated score The
Passion of The Christ, and current releases The
Pacifier and Sin
City.
Director, actor and choreographer Adam Shankman, who
collaborated with Debney on the recent hit The
Pacifier,
joined Marilyn Bergman on stage to present the award
to Debney, who is the youngest composer to receive
this honor.
Past recipients of the ASCAP Henry Mancini Award include
Quincy Jones, Michel Legrand, Johnny Mandel,
Randy Newman, James Newton Howard, Howard Shore, Alan
Silvestri,
and Hans Zimmer.
Another highlight of the evening was the presentation
of the ASCAP Golden Note Award to Mark Snow in recognition
of his unprecedented success over the past twenty years
as one of the most versatile and popular composers in
television and film.
Snow’s status as one of today’s most innovative
and successful film and television composers is only
the latest element of a far-reaching and eclectic career
in music. The award-winning and Julliard-trained musician,
best known for his theme and scores for the X-Files and
Millennium, has composed music for hundreds of TV-movies
and television series including The Twilight
Zone, Cagney & Lacey,
Hart to Hart, Starsky & Hutch, The Guardian and Smallville.
On hand to pay tribute to Snow were producer, director
and writer Frank Spotnitz (The X-Files,
Millennium, Harsh Realm), Hart To Hart co-star and star of a new theatre
production of The King & I, Stefanie
Powers, and
Debney's sister-in-law and co-star of the long-running
TV hit, Cagney and Lacy, Tyne Daly.
Snow has received awards every year at the ASCAP Film
and Television Music Awards since their inception in
1986, and now joins a select group of songwriters and
composers who have received the ASCAP Golden Note Award
including Stevie Wonder, Andre Previn, Jay-Z,
Garth Brooks, Sean "P.Diddy" Combs, José Feliciano,
Alan Jackson, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, Elton John and Tom
Petty.
The evening also celebrated the Centennial of legendary
songwriter and composer Harold Arlen with the special
presentation of a commemorative plaque to Arlen's son,
Sam, and Sam's wife Joan. As part of the celebration,
Sam, a saxophonist who has recently released a CD entitled
Arlen Plays Arlen, performed one of his father's classic
hits, "Stormy Weather." Sam and Joan recently
established a scholarship through The ASCAP Foundation
to help further the careers of composers and songwriters
in both film and television music and musical theatre.
Arlen was a distinguished member of ASCAP for 56 years,
and served on the Board of Directors from 1969 to 1975.
As one of the most significant songwriters of the modern
era, Harold Arlen composed such memorable tunes as “Over
the Rainbow," “Stormy Weather,” “It’s
Only a Paper Moon,” “I Gotta Right to Sing
the Blues,” “A Sleepin’ Bee,” and “Come
Rain Or Come Shine.” During his extraordinary career,
Harold collaborated with such celebrated lyricists as
Ira Gershwin, Johnny Mercer, E.Y. “Yip” Harburg,
Ted Koehler, Dorothy Fields and Truman Capote, creating
true classics that have been recorded by every major
artist – and today are among the best-known songs
in the world.
ASCAP also presented awards in four categories -- Most
Performed Themes, Most Performed Underscore, Top Television
Series, and Top Box Office Films -- to several veteran
film and television music composers as well as to the
best and brightest of a new generation of writers. ASCAP
composers in attendance included Jack Allocco, Marco
Beltrami, Jeff Cardoni, Frank Catanzara, Dan Foliart,
Grant Geissmn, Michael Giacchino, Jeff Gibbs, Reinhold
Heil, Johnny Klimek, David Kurtz, Russ Landau, Michael
Levine, Rick Marotta, Gregor Narholtz (GEMA), Atli Ovarsson,
Michael Skloff, Alan Silvestri, and David Vanacore.
Click
here for the complete list of winners.
