{"id":937754,"date":"2026-10-23T05:24:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-23T05:24:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/937754\/"},"modified":"2026-10-23T05:24:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-23T05:24:09","slug":"authors-tim-greiving-steven-c-smith-win-ascap-music-writing-awards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/937754\/","title":{"rendered":"Authors Tim Greiving, Steven C. Smith Win ASCAP Music Writing Awards"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tThe winners of annual awards given out by ASCAP<\/a> for the year\u2019s most outstanding music writing and broadcasts include biographies of film composers John Williams<\/a> and Bernard Herrmann<\/a>, as well as a documentary about cult R&B artist Swamp Dogg, liner notes for an archival release from Frank Zappa, Rick Beato\u2019s YouTube podcasts, and books about Broadway musicals and Black opera innovators.<\/p>\n

\n\tThese disparate writings are among the recipients of the 77th annual ASCAP Foundation Deems Taylor\/Virgil Thomson Awards, voted on by a select committee of four ASCAP members to recognize the best in books, articles, liner notes and broadcast programs about all forms of music.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe film composer biographies being recognized were Tim Greiving<\/a>\u2018s \u201cJohn Williams: A Composer\u2019s Life,\u201d the first-ever biography about Hollywood\u2019s most successful living composer, which got a Deems Taylor\/Virgil Thomson Book Award in the field of concert music, and Steven C. Smith<\/a>\u2018s \u201cHitchcock and Herrmann: The Friendship and Film Scores that Changed Cinema,\u201d the author\u2019s second book about Herrmann (with a twist that makes it dually the story of his greatest filmmaker collaborator), which was given a special recognition award in the same category.<\/p>\n

\n\tAnother book award in the concert music field, this one outside the realm of film music, went to Lucy Caplan for \u201cDreaming in Ensemble: How Black Artists Transformed American Opera.\u201d Awards for books in the pop music field were given to Gayle Wald for \u201cThis Is Rhythm: Ella Jenkins, Children\u2019s Music, and the Long Civil Rights Movement\u201d and James O\u2019Leary for The Middlebrow Musical: Between Broadway and Opera in 1940s America.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAmong the articles that won recognition from the ASCAP judges were a piece by the New York Times\u2019 Ben Sisario about efforts to rescue decaying master tapes, a story by Esteban Meneses about Mexican symphonic composers and an article by the New York Times\u2019 Max Keller about cellists debating the right way to hold their instruments. A piece in the Atlantic by Gabriel Kahana won for outstanding music criticism.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe top broadcast award went to Gail Wein for her podcast series \u201cClassical Gas,\u201d with a special recognition honor for Beato for his YouTube series \u201cEverything Music.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tA liner notes award was given to percussionist Ruth Komanoff Underwood for her personal essay contained in the boxed set for \u201cCheaper than Cheep,\u201d a live 1974 concert film by Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention.<\/p>\n

\n\tA broadcast\/media award in the pop field went to directors Isaac Gale, Ryan Olson and David McMurry for their documentary \u201cSwamp Dogg Gets His Pool Pained.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tThe judges for this year\u2019s honors were Robbie Fulks, Julie Flanders, Carman Moore and Betsy Schramm.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe full list of winners, as provided by ASCAP:<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Deems Taylor\/Virgil Thomson Broadcast\/Media Award in pop music recognizes directors Isaac Gale, Ryan Olson and David McMurry for their documentary film \u201cSwamp Dogg Gets His Pool Painted,\u201d released in 2025, a unique storytelling of the legendary cult R&B musician Jerry \u201cSwamp Dogg\u201d Williams\u2019s and his housemates\u2019 musical creative life in Los Angeles surrounding his pool.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Deems Taylor\/Virgil Thomson Broadcast\/Media Award in concert music recognizes radio host and producer Gail Wein for \u201cClassical Gas,\u201d produced by Classical Voice North America, the 2025 podcast series of interviews with classical musicians available on multiple platforms.
A Special Recognition Award in the above category is given to Rick Beato for his 2025 YouTube series, \u201cEverything Music,\u201d exploring music, technology and issues facing music creators in today\u2019s industry.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe ASCAP Foundation Paul Williams \u201cLoved the Liner Notes\u201d Award honors percussionist Ruth Komanoff Underwood for her personal essay for \u201cCheaper than Cheep,\u201d the live box set from the 1974 concert film by Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention, on ZAPPA RECORDS\/UMe.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Deems Taylor\/Virgil Thomson Book Awards in pop music are presented to: Gayle Wald for \u201cThis Is Rhythm: Ella Jenkins, Children\u2019s Music, and the Long Civil Rights Movement,\u201d the life story of \u201cthe first lady of children\u2019s music,\u201d published by University of Chicago Press.
James O\u2019Leary for \u201cThe Middlebrow Musical: Between Broadway and Opera in 1940s America,\u201d an exploration of how musicals such as Oklahoma!, Beggar\u2019s Holiday, and Street Scene embraced weighty stories in ways not seen before 1943, published by Oxford University Press.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Deems Taylor\/Virgil Thomson Book Awards in concert music go to:
Lucy Caplan for \u201cDreaming in Ensemble: How Black Artists Transformed American Opera,\u201d an account of Black innovation in American opera during the Harlem Renaissance, published by Harvard University Press.
Tim Greiving for \u201cJohn Williams: A Composer\u2019s Life,\u201d the first biography of one of the most important film composers of all time, published by Oxford University Press.
Special Recognition Award in the above category is given to Steven C. Smith for \u201cHitchcock and Herrmann: The Friendship and Film Scores that Changed Cinema,\u201d published by Oxford University Press.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Deems Taylor\/Virgil Thomson Award recipients for articles published in 2025 are as follows:
The Deems Taylor\/Virgil Thomson Award for an article in the pop music field goes to Ben Sisario, \u201cThe \u2018Race Against Time\u2019 to Save Music Legends\u2019 Decaying Tapes,\u201d on the intricate efforts to restore analog tapes with original recordings from Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan and more, published by The New York Times.
The Deems Taylor\/Virgil Thomson Award for an article in the concert music field goes to Esteban Meneses, \u201cRevoluci\u00f3n: Mexican Composers on the Rise,\u201d a look at Mexican composers whose works are being performed, commissioned, and recorded by orchestras around the world, published by Symphony Magazine.
Special Recognition Award in the above category is given to Max Keller, \u201cDoes It Matter How A Cello Is Held? It\u2019s a Centuries-Old Debate,\u201c published by The New York Times.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Virgil Thomson Award for Outstanding Music Criticism is presented to Gabriel Kahane for his article, \u201cA Love Letter to Music Listings,\u201d published by The Atlantic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The winners of annual awards given out by ASCAP for the year\u2019s most outstanding music writing and broadcasts…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":937755,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[146504,64,63,504149,134,195979,136,504150,504151],"class_list":["post-937754","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-ascap","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-bernard-herrmann","tag-entertainment","tag-john-williams","tag-music","tag-steven-c-smith","tag-tim-greiving"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/937754","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=937754"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/937754\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/937755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=937754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=937754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=937754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}