6th Annual Harrington Awards Honor Musical Theatre Writers

The BMI Foundation, Inc. is proud to announce the winners of the 6th Annual Jerry Harrington Musical Theatre Awards in recognition of outstanding creative achievement in the Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop. Patrick Cook, Artistic Coordinator of the Workshop, presented certificates and cash prizes during a cocktail reception held June 13 at BMI’s New York office.

Showing off their certificates at the Harrington Awards reception are Librettist Workshop winner Adam B. Matthias, First Year Workshop winner Phoebe Kreutz, Second Year Workshop winner Jill Abramovitz, Advanced Workshop winner Sean Hartley and Workshop Artistic Coordinator Patrick Cook. Photo by Gary Gershoff

Established by Harrington’s longtime friend and colleague, BMI executive Evelyn Buckstein, the awards are given each year in Harrington’s honor to celebrate the late attorney’s lifelong love of musical theater. Over the past six years, these awards have given early recognition to some of the most talented and promising young musical theatre composers and librettists working in the field today, including the Tony Award-winning writers of Avenue Q, Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx, who received the first Harrington Awards in 2000.

The BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop was established in 1961 by the late Lehman Engel, dean of American musical theater, to create a setting where new writers could learn their craft. Consisting of approximately 200 members, the Workshop is a highly competitive and selective teaching environment designed to provide hands-on opportunities for theater composers and lyricists. An innovative program at its inception, the Workshop continues to flourish and is considered to be the foremost training ground for new writing voices. In addition to Marx and Lopez, other successful Workshop alumni include Edward Kleban (“A Chorus Line”), Maury Yeston (“Nine”), Alan Menken (“Beauty and the Beast”), Susan Birkenhead (“Jelly’s Last Jam”) and Gerard Allesandrini (“Forbidden Broadway”). The BMI Foundation, Inc. is a not-for-profit corporation founded in 1985 to support the creation, performance, and study of music through awards, scholarships, commissions and grants. Tax-deductible donations to the Foundation come primarily from songwriters, composers and publishers, BMI employees and members of the public with a special interest in music. Because both the Foundation staff and the distinguished members of the Advisory Panel serve without compensation, over 97% of all donations and income are used for charitable grants.