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FMS FEATURE...

June 25, 2010
Bruce Broughton Receives ASCAP Mancini Award
Dennis McCarthy Honored with Golden Note Award by Jon Burlingame

(Left to right) ASCAP Henry Mancini Award honoree Bruce Broughton, ASCAP President and Chairman Paul Williams, and ASCAP Golden Note Award Honoree Dennis McCarthy.

(Left to right) ASCAP Henry Mancini Award honoree Bruce Broughton, ASCAP President and Chairman Paul Williams, and ASCAP Golden Note Award Honoree Dennis McCarthy.
Photo by Lester Cohen; courtesy ASCAP

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif.—Veteran composers Bruce Broughton and Dennis McCarthy took top honors at Thursday night's 25th annual film and television music awards of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. Approximately 600 attended the black-tie event.

Broughton – well-known for his Oscar-nominated score for Silverado, Grammy-nominated music for Young Sherlock Holmes and Emmy-winning scores for many TV projects including O Pioneers!, Warm Springs and the themes for JAG and Tiny Toon Adventures – received the Henry Mancini Career Achievement Award "in recognition of his outstanding achievements and contributions to the music of film and television."

ASCAP President and Board Chairman Paul Williams praised Broughton, who serves on the ASCAP board of directors, as a versatile composer whose career has encompassed film, TV, the concert hall, video games and theme-park rides. "He selflessly dedicates himself to mentoring his brothers and sisters in the music community," Williams said, and cited "the heart that he brings to the table" on their behalf.

Fellow Emmy winner Laurence Rosenthal (The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles) said Broughton represents "what a true film composer should be: creative, imaginative, with a real instinct about the relation of music to drama... having not only musical cultivation and fluency, but embracing the entire spectrum of musical experience.... His music is beautiful, interesting, and reveals a true musical culture that has become increasingly rare in the field."

Recent Oscar winner Michael Giacchino (Up) spoke of Broughton as "a great teacher" who, via his many scores of the 1980s and 1990s, helped him learn about "voicing, pacing, musicianship and creativity.... He is someone who respects history without repeating it," he said, a composer whose music "lives outside" the projects for which it is written.

Calling Mancini "a very generous man," Broughton said "I learned the value of a theme from him." He reminded the crowd, via an anecdote about young people conveying their admiration for his score for The Rescuers Down Under, that "the work that we do gets loved and appreciated."

A six-minute tribute video contained excerpts from many Broughton films including Silverado, Tombstone, Harry and the Hendersons, Narrow Margin, Homeward Bound, Baby's Day Out, Lost in Space and Bambi II; and various TV projects including The Blue & the Gray, The First Olympics: Athens 1896, Warm Springs and JAG.

Broughton was joined onstage by his violinist wife Belinda in a violin-and-piano arrangement (by the composer) of his classic Silverado theme.

McCarthy, a two-time Emmy winner for his music for TV's Star Trek franchise, received ASCAP's Golden Note Award "for his ongoing success as one of the most versatile and popular composers, conductors and arrangers in television and film music."

Former Paramount TV music executive David Grossman introduced McCarthy, whose music has adorned an estimated 2,000 hours of prime-time programming including hundreds of episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager and Enterprise, as well as MacGyver, Dynasty, Parker Lewis Can't Lose, V: The Final Battle and dozens of other projects. Previously he served as music director for country artists Glen Campbell and Barbara Mandrell.

"Dennis' prolific writing is legendary," Grossman said, adding that "he's a people person, from the heart" who has earned "trust, respect and commitment" from all the musicians who ever worked for him. "To be around Dennis is to feel like a friend, no matter how long you've known him."

McCarthy regaled the crowd with anecdotes from his early career as keyboard player for surf group The Hondells and later on the Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour, and his transition to arranger-conductor. He thanked the late Alex North, "a man of great musical and personal integrity," whom he assisted in the late 1970s, and closed by telling the audience "it is such a privilege to do what we do."

A video tribute to McCarthy included footage from all the Star Trek shows and the Star Trek: Generations big-screen feature as well as McCarthy conducting the orchestras on the old Stage M at Paramount.

Dozens of other awards were distributed to composers for high-rated TV series and top-grossing films during 2009. Among those collecting awards were film composers Bruno Coulais (Coraline), John Debney (Hannah Montana: The Movie), Giacchino (Star Trek, Up), John Powell (Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs) and Brian Tyler (Fast and Furious).

Composer-guitarist Grant Geissman (Two and a Half Men) led a five-piece band in a medley of 21 classic TV themes including Bonanza, Peter Gunn and Friends, while a capella choral group Sonos saluted the late composers Vic Mizzy and Nathan Scott with a highly original approach to their scores for The Addams Family, Green Acres, Lassie and Dragnet. Also, Australian singer-songwriter Delta Goodrem played and sang "I See You," the James Horner theme from last year's box-office hit Avatar.

©2010 Jon Burlingame
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