ASCAP Foundation Celebrates Stephen Sondheim's 75th Birthday with a Benefit Concert at the Hollywood Bowl

ASCAP Foundation Celebrates Stephen Sondheim's 75th Birthday with a Benefit Concert at the Hollywood Bowl

HOLLYWOOD, Calif., July 9 /PRNewswire/ -- Honorary Chairs Barbra Streisand and Warren Beatty joined ASCAP President and Academy Award winning lyricist, Marilyn Bergman in presenting Stephen Sondheim with an award commemorating the creation of Sondheim's Children Will Listen program of the ASCAP Foundation. This took place on stage at the Hollywood Bowl during a gala celebration of Sondheim's work.

A stellar line-up of performers paid tribute to Stephen Sondheim in celebration of his 75th birthday year. The Children Will Listen program has been established to bring the musical theater experience to young students nationwide.

Jason Alexander, Carol Burnett, Len Cariou, Jason Danieley, Josh Groban, Angela Lansbury, Marin Mazzie, Audra McDonald, Donna Murphy, Bernadette Peters, Emmy Rossum, Elaine Stritch and Vanessa Williams were among those who performed in honor of Mr. Sondheim. The performers were accompanied by The Los Angeles Philharmonic with Paul Gemignani as Musical Director and Conductor. The event was produced and directed by Paul Lazarus.

The career of Stephen Sondheim, who is considered one of the greatest composer-lyricists of musicals, has spanned almost 50 years since his Broadway debut in 1957 as the lyricist of West Side Story. Sondheim went on to write many scores that challenged musical theatre conventions including: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Anyone Can Whistle, Company, Follies, A Little Night Music, Pacific Overtures, Sweeney Todd, Merrily We Roll Along, Sunday in the Park with George, Into the Woods, Assassins and Passions.

The ASCAP Foundation was established in 1975 and is a publicly supported charitable organization dedicated to nurturing American music creators and encouraging their growth through music education and talent development programs.

About ASCAP

Established in 1914, ASCAP is the first and leading Performing Rights Organization in the U.S., representing the world's largest repertory which totals over 8 million copyrighted musical works of every style and genre from more than 200,000 composer, lyricist and music publisher members. Additionally, ASCAP represents the works in the repertories of 70 affiliated foreign performing rights organizations created by many thousand affiliated international members. ASCAP is committed to protecting the rights of its members by licensing and collecting royalties for the public performance of their copyrighted works, and then distributing these fees to the Society's members based on performances. Unlike the other American Performing Rights Organizations, ASCAP's Board of Directors is made up solely of writers and publishers, elected by the membership every two years.

Source: ASCAP

CONTACT: Bobbi Marcus of Bobbi Marcus PR & Events for ASCAP, +1-310-889-9200, Sondheim@bobbimarcuspr.com

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