This section of The ASCAP Foundation website provides updates on the career achievements of recipients of ASCAP Foundation Awards, Scholarships, Fellowships and graduates of ASCAP Foundation Workshops. If you are a past recipient of an ASCAP Foundation Award or Scholarship or have participated in an ASCAP Foundation Workshop and have some news to share about an important milestone in your career please share it by emailing us at: ascapfoundation@ascap.com

Lin-Manuel Miranda

Lin-Manuel Miranda, recipient of the 2007 ASCAP Foundation Richard Rodgers New Horizons Award, received four Tony’s in 2008 for In the Heights, a Washington Heights musical about a vibrant and tight-knit community at the top of the island of Manhattan. The Tony for Best Musical was awarded to In the Heights and ASCAP members Lin-Manuel Miranda and Bill Sherman won for Best Original Score and Best Orchestrations, respectively. The show also won a Tony for Best Choreography. Composer/lyricist Lin-Manuel Miranda conceived and began writing In the Heights in 2003.

Glenn Slater

Glenn Slater, Tony-nominated, ASCAP member and recipient of the 2000 ASCAP Foundation Richard Rodgers New Horizons Award wrote the lyrics for The Little Mermaid which appeared on Broadway in 2008.

John Bucchino

John Bucchino, ASCAP composer and recipient of the 1998 ASCAP Foundation Richard Rodgers New Horizons Award has worked on several off-Broadway shows and is a highly acclaimed concert performer. He made his Broadway debut with A Catered Affair in April of 2008. Bucchino has released several successful CDs of his music.

Nicole Atkins

Nicole Atkins, 2005 recipient of The ASCAP Foundation Sammy Cahn Award, released a CD in 2007, Neptune City and has released her latest CD, Mondo Amore. In 2007 she toured with Chris Isaak and she appeared on The David Letterman Show. She has performed in many New York City venues. In 2008 Nicole Atkins and the Sea toured both in the U.S. and Europe. Nicole performed at the 2011 ASCAP Sundance Music Café.

Chris Keup

Chris Keup, 2000 ASCAP Foundation Sammy Cahn recipient released a solo album “The Subject of Some Regret.” He has also performed at ASCAP showcases at the Sundance Film Festival and at Austin’s SXSW Festival. Splitting his time between New York City and his Charlottesville, VA studio Chris has also recently branched out into the fields of co-writing and producing. His favorite projects include working with NYC’s Johnathan Spottiswoode, Nashville-based artist Carter Wood, singer-songwriter Jonathan Rice and Jason Mraz. Keup is working is currently working on a new album of solo material.

Daniel Mackenzie

Daniel Mackenzie, 2004 ASCAP Foundation Sammy Cahn recipient is an EMMY nominated songwriter. He wrote and produced “All I Want For Christrmas” recorded by Joss Stone this past Thanksgiving and released it on iTunes. He has recently been writing several songs for the upcoming Holly/Bollywood musical film, “Basmati Blues,” and has numerous song placements in film and TV. Mackenzie just completed his own new release, The Universe is a Great Big Place as well as a kid’s album, Dan Dan Doodlebug. He was the inaugural recipient of The ASCAP Foundation Joe Raposo Children's Music Award for his original song, "Rude Rudy."

Joseph Trapanese

Joseph Trapanese a 2006 recipient of The ASCAP Foundation Henry Mancini Scholarship and the 2009 recipient of The ASCAP Foundation Harold Arlen Film & TV Award along with Mike Shinoda composed the score for the newly released film The Raid:  Redemption.  Trapanese also composed the music for a   revival of The Runner Stumbles, for The Actors Company Theatre in New York. In a very positive review of the play by The New York Times special mention was made of the music: “Even the music, by Joseph Trapanese, is precise and evocative: a montage of church songs and courtroom speeches that blend and fade into wistful ringing melodies.” Trapanese also orchestrated the music for the film The Memory Keepers Daughter which aired on the Lifetime Channel and his work “Three Pieces for Sextet” received its Los Angeles premiere in 2008.

Nathan Tysen, ASCAP member, lyricist and recipient of the 2000 ASCAP Foundation Max Dreyfus Award, had a new musical opening in 2010 at the Signature Theater in New York City. The musical, The Burnt Part Boys featured a book by ASCAP member Mariana Elder, music by ASCAP member Chris Miller and lyrics by Nathan Tysen.

John Mayer

John Mayer, ASCAP singer/songwriter, received The ASCAP Foundation Sammy Cahn Award in 2001. In 2007 Mayer won two Grammy awards: the first for Pop Vocal Album for his new release Continuum and a second award in the Best Male Pop Vocal Performance category for his song "Waiting on the World to Change" at the 49th Annual Grammy Awards. John previously received a Grammy for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance for his song "Your Body is A Wonderland" at the 45th Annual Grammy Awards. In 2009, John won two Grammy Awards at the 51st annual ceremony: the first for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance for "Say", the second for Best Solo Rock Vocal Performance for "Gravity".

Bob Reynolds

Bob Reynolds, ASCAP member, saxophonist and recipient of The ASCAP Foundation Young Jazz Composer Award in 2003 and 2007 played with John Mayer on a world tour.

John Jiler

John Jiler, recipient of The ASCAP Foundation Harold Arlen Musical Theatre Award in 2005 presented a revival of his play Avenue X at the Dreamlight Theatre in New York City. Avenue X, book and lyrics by John Jiler and music by Ray Leslee, was originally performed at Playwrights Horizon Theatre in New York City in 1994. John Jiler was inspired to write Avenue X, his first musical, when covering Brooklyn's Bensonhurst racial violence for the Village Voice. The musical has been produced to great acclaim around the country.

Lori McKenna

Lori McKenna recipient of the 2003 ASCAP Foundation Sammy Cahn Award released her fifth CD, UnGlamorous in early 2007. Three of McKenna's songs were covered by Faith Hill and appeared on Hill's 2005 CD Fireflies. McKenna parlayed her contribution to Hill's Fireflies into both an appearance on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" along with Hill, and a record deal with Warner Bros. Records. After signing McKenna, Warner Bros. Records re-released her 4th CD Bittertown on its own label

Lawrence O'Keefe

Lawrence O'Keefe received The ASCAP Richard Rodgers New Horizons Award in 2001. With his partner, Nell Benjamin he wrote the music and lyrics for the musical Legally Blonde which opened on Broadway in April of 2007. He was also the composer and lyricist for the off-Broadway musical Bat Boy: The Musical.

Sherisse Rogers

Sherisse Rogers, ASCAP composer received The ASCAP Foundation Young Jazz Composer Award in 2003, 2004 and 2007. In 2005 she was awarded an ASCAP/IAJE Emerging Composer Award and also received the 2006 Gil Evans Fellowship from The Herb Alpert Foundation which is presented to an emerging jazz composer. She also wrote an arrangement for the Metropole Orchestra in the Netherlands.

Melinda Wagner

Melinda Wagner, Pulitzer Prize winning ASCAP Composer and Member of ASCAP'S Symphony & Concert Committee received three ASCAP Foundation Morton Gould Young Composer Awards in the early '80's. Wagner's Concerto for Flute, Strings, and Percussion was awarded the 1999 Pulitzer Prize. The Chicago Symphony has commissioned three major works - Falling Angels (1992); a piano concerto, Extremity of Sky (2002) for Emanuel Ax; and a third orchestra work in 2006. Extremity of Sky has also been performed by Emanuel Ax with the National Symphony, the Toronto Symphony, the Kansas City Symphony, and the Staatskapelle Berlin. Her Concerto for Trombone and Orchestra was commissioned by The New York Philharmonic and performed in February 2007. She also composed a new work for the U.S. Marine Band.

Dustin James

Dustin James, recipient of 2008 ASCAP Foundation Harold Adamson Lyric Award, was named a Top 15 Finalist in the 9th Annual NSAI/CMT Song Contest based on his solo-written entry "Texas Is Missing You". In the summer of 2008, Dustin performed his Muhammad Ali-inspired "It Ain't Braggin (If You Can Back It Up)" to Ali himself and a crowd of over 300 people at the Muhammad Ali Center in Louisville, Kentucky.

Jennifer Higdon

Jennifer Higdon, ASCAP composer Jennifer Higdon won the 2010 Pulitzer Prize in Music. The Pulitzer jury awarded Higdon's "Violin Concerto" which premiered on February 6, 2009 in Indianapolis, Indiana. Higdon early in her career received an ASCAP Foundation Morton Gould Young Composer Award and The ASCAP Foundation also commissioned her first orchestra piece which was a work honoring Morton Gould for the Portland Symphony She is one of the ten top living American composers performed by U.S. orchestras today.

Higdon also received a 2010 Grammy for Best Contemporary Classical Composition for her Percussion Concerto. She currently holds the Milton L. Rock Chair in Composition Studies at The Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia.

Peter Mills

Peter Mills, lyrcist and ASCAP composer Peter Mills, recipient of the 2003 ASCAP Foundation Richard Rodgers New Horizons Award was named the recipient of the 2010 Kleban Foundation's annual prize for most promising musical theater lyricist. The award includes a cash prize of $100,000. Mill's credits include music and lyrics for Golden Boy Of The Blue Ridge, The Pursuit of Perephone, Illyria, The Alchemists and The Taxi Caberet.

Oren Lavie

Oren Lavie, co-recipient of the 2009 ASCAP Foundation Sammy Award received a Grammy nomination in 2010 for his Sammy Cahn Award winning song, "Her Morning Elegance" in the best short form video category.

Remy and Pascal Le Boeuf, multi-year recipients of The ASCAP Foundation Young Jazz Composer Award recently completed their album, "House Without a Door," and have already received awards from the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts, Downbeat Magazine, and the International Songwriting Competition. The New York Times said "this group has an impressively self-assured new album, "House Without a Door", reaches for the gleaming cosmopolitanism of our present era."

Rosi Golan, 2006 participant in The ASCAP Foundation Paul Cunningham Workshop and a recipient of The ASCAP Foundation Robert Allen Award is a co-writer on a newly released CD with Ben's Brother on Relentless Records. Rosi is currently working on her new CD to be released soon.

Marnie Herald, 2005 participant in The ASCAP Foundation Paul Cunningham Workshop is currently working with noted producer Butch Walker on a new CD.

Charlotte Sometimes, 2005 participant in The ASCAP Foundation Paul Cunningham Workshop in New York signed with Geffen records and recently released her debut album Waves and the Both of Us.

Roger Juliá, attended the ASCAP Television & Film Scoring Workshop with Richard Bellis. He was recently selected to write the score for the film "The Garden of Eden," which will be released this summer. Everyone was so happy with his music that he was hired to do 3 additional movies and a miniseries.

Cesar Benito, ASCAP composer, was nominated for Spain's Cinema Writers Circle Awards for his score for the film "Mia Sarah," which he performed with the Galicia Symphony Orchestra. Mr. Benito was excited to be included amongst such established composers as Javier Navarrete, Alberto Iglesias and Lluis Llach. Cesar was a participant in the 2004 ASCAP Television & Film Scoring Workshop with Richard Bellis in Los Angeles.

Reeve Carney, ASCAP singer/songwriter and participant of the ASCAP Foundation Lester Sill Songwriting Workshop, recently recorded, with his band "The Revolving Band," in Nashville's Blackbird Studio for his upcoming project with Interscope Records.

Nora Kroll-Rosenbaum, ASCAP composer, recipient of The ASCAP Foundation Morton Gould Young Composers Award in 2003 has written music for film, theatrical stages and concert halls internationally. She completed a commission for the 40th Anniversary of The London Symphony Chorus, premiered with the London Symphony in the 2007-2008 season in both New York & London, as well as pieces for the Seattle Symphony, Detroit Symphony and San Francisco Symphony. Kroll-Rosenbaum appeared at The ASCAP Foundation Thru the Walls showcase in 2004, and attended the 2005 ASCAP Television & Film Scoring Workshop with Richard Bellis. An article featuring her work ran in the "Hollywood Reporter Music Edition" in January 2007.

Keith Varon, ASCAP songwriter, met Madonna Wade Reed, music supervisor and guest speaker at the 2006 ASCAP Foundation Lester Sill Songwriting Workshop. Ms. Wade placed his song "Can't Breathe" in one of her network shows, What About Brian!

Jim Dooley, an alumnus of The ASCAP Television & Film Scoring Workshop with Richard Bellis, received the Outstanding Music Composition for A Series (Original Dramatic Score) Emmy in 2008 for his score for the TV series Pushing Daisies. Jim is now a composer at Hans Zimmer's Remote Control Studios.

Trevor Morris

Trevor Morris, an ASCAP Television & Film Scoring Workshop alumnus, won a 2011 Emmy for the theme to The Borgias, just ten days after his score for The Tudors won a Gemini award.

Ernest Adzentoivich

Ernest Adzentoivich, recipient of the 2008 Henry Mancini Music Scholarship and participant in the 2008 ASCAP/Columbia University Film Scoring Workshop, composed for NBC-TV's Emmy-winning daytime series Starting Over and has supplied music for One Life to Live, The Real World , Punk'd, Making the Band, Damage Control, Inked, Bad Girls Club, The Young and the Restless and other television shows and commercials. His music library, Adzentoivich Music, was recently expanded to include four writers and is now distributed in seven countries. After his participation in the workshop, he worked on scores for two short films.

Scott Starrett, an alumnus of the ASCAP Film and TV workshop, is currently worked with executive producer Clark Peterson (producer of Monster) on a score for a feature Indie film named Dim Sum Funeral. Scott scored the TV pilot Drop Dead Diva for Sony Pictures Television and Lifetime.

Austin Wintory

Austin Wintory, attendee of the 2008 ASCAP Film & TV Workshop, has recently been signed on to First Artists Management with Rich Jacobellis.

Michael Bearden, ASCAP Film and TV Workshop alum, was named band leader of TBS's new show "Lopez Tonight" starring George Lopez. Bearden also worked as the musical director of "This Is It," Michael Jackson's tour series to be performed before his death. Following Jackson's death, Bearden was named the music supervisor, composer and associate producer of the documentary by the same name. Bearden has also worked with a multitude of artists including, Mary J. Blige, Christina Aguilera, Ricky Martin, Destiny's Child, Jennifer Hudson, Usher, India Arie, Skakira, Brian McKnight, and Jennifer Lopez.

Brian Bryne, 2006 ASCAP Film and TV Workshop alum and recipient of The ASCAP Foundation Steve Kaplan TV & Film Studies Scholarship in 2007, received the award for Best Original Score at the 7th annual Irish Film and Television awards in 2010 for his work on the film Zonad.

Maurizio Malagnini, a 2009 ASCAP Film Scoring Workshop alum, recently recorded the score for the upcoming BBC series "Muddle Earth," which will premiere in spring of 2010. Malagnini also worked with fellow workshop alums Jehan Stefan Legros and Daniel Chan and Workshop music editor Michael Ryan on this project.

Didier Lean Rachou, alumni of the ASCAP Television & Film Scoring Workshop with Richard Bellis, was recently hired as the composer for the Discovery Channel Show, Deadliest Catch. The last four years have seen Didier score over 30 Film and Television projects. His most recent work was on score for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button  a movie starring Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett and Tilda Swinton. He has also contributed scores to Aquaman: Mercy Reef, How To Rob a Bank and scored the final season of Sex and the City.

Matteo Massina, 2005 attendee of the ASCAP TV & Film Workshop was selected to score a new NBC-produced show airing on the USA Networks entitled, Fairly Legal. It is a mid-season replacement with 11 episodes starting in 2011.

Ted Masur, alum of the ASCAP TV & Film Workshop did the score for the 2010 released film The Best & the Brightest starring Neil Patrick Harris and Bonnie Sommerville.

Avner Dorman, a 2006 alum of the ASCAP TV & Film Workshop was nominated for a GRAMMY for his Mandolin Concerto in the category of Best Instrumental Performance with Orchestra. He also scored a short film in the 2009 ASCAP/Columbia University Film Scoring Workshop.

Adam Gwon

Adam Gwon, recipient of the 2009 ASCAP Foundation Harold Adamson Lyric Award as well as the 2011 recipient of the Kleban Prize, was delighted to hear that three-time Tony Award winner, Audra McDonald has been including his original song, "I'll Be Here" from his work Ordinary Days in her concert tour, which included a show at Carnegie Hall.

Andy Akiho

Andy Akiho, recipient of multiple ASCAP Foundation Morton Gould Young Composer Awards was named the winner of the 2012 Composers Competition of the Carlsbad Music Festival, in partnership with ArtPower! at UC San Diego and the Calder Quartet. Andy was one of 203 applicants from 22 countries. His new work will be premiered by the Calder Quartet on September 23 at the 2012 Carlsbad Music Festival. Andy has also received commissions from the New York and LA Philharmonics.