Friday (4/24) on MusicalAmerica.com, Susan Elliott reports, “The ASCAP Deems Taylor Awards, which last year celebrated their 40th anniversary of recognizing outstanding music writing in an array of media, have been suspended for 2009. Under ‘Submission Guidelines’ on the Deems Taylor Award section of the ASCAP website, a notice indicates that ‘the competition is on hiatus.’ Generally applications are accepted by April and the awards announced the following fall. ASCAP CEO John LoFrumento cited budgetary reasons. Asked when the program would return, he responded, ‘We will be discussing its future as we go forward, but at this time we have no definitive projection.’ It is an unfortunate turn of events for classical music coverage, an ever shrinking area that, now more than ever, deserves all the recognition it can get. … There is no special endowment for the awards; the monies are taken directly from ASCAP’s coffers.”
Posted April 27, 2009
