Back when there were only three channels on TV and no one had yet heard of cable, the internet, iPhones or even VCRs – it seemed like everyone knew everything in pop culture. Which means a 10 year old like me knew who Marvin Hamlisch was.
Every person in the country who took piano lessons learned how to play The Entertainer, a Scott Joplin Ragtime song that Hamlisch took to number one on the charts. And there were other contemporary hits sung by Barbra Streisand, Carly Simon and others. Major pop hits.
But Hamlisch was a classical music guy – a conductor! He knew an orchestra like few of his peers.
Sadly, he died in 2012 at the age of 68. It was too soon.
So it’s a happy development that his enduring legacy has been kept alive through the awards bearing his name. They’re aimed at recognizing and enabling the next generation of music composition talent.
Following its tremendous success in 2019, 2020 and 2021, the 2022 Marvin Hamlisch International Music Awards expanded the competition categories to enable musicians to apply in the following musical genres:
Musical Theatre Composition, Film/Media Scoring, Classical Composition, Jazz Composition, Contemporary Pop and Contemporary R&B. Composers worldwide are eligible to compete in categories for Youth (under 18) and Emerging Composers (pre-professional composers aged 18+) for sponsored in-kind and cash prize packages.
“We are so grateful and humbled by the immense, diverse and extremely successful participation of 500+ composers in all music genres out of 40+ countries,” said Betsy Walters and Peter H. Gistelinck, Co-Founding Board members of the Marvin Hamlisch International Music Awards. “We are so thankful to all of our celebrity presenters for their unconditional support and are thrilled that, especially in these continued challenging times, they are able to make such a difference in memory of the legendary Marvin Hamlisch.”
The celebrity presenters for the 2022 Marvin Hamlisch International Music Awards, who will announce the nominees as well as the ultimate winner in each of the following categories, are at the bottom of the page.
The actual 2022 awards ceremony is planned for Monday, November 21, 2022 @ 7pm EST and will be streamed live at www.hamlischawards.tv
For more info about the contest and 2022 Awards Ceremony, visit www.hamlischawards.org.
For more info about the 2022 nominees, visit www.hamlischawards.org/2022nominees
For more info about Marvin Hamlisch, visit www.marvinhamlisch.com
Watch the 2022 Awards Ceremony live at www.hamlischawards.tv
Post Script: Hamlisch kindly appeared on my old show, Entertainment Forecast, which ran for nearly 20 years in Washington DC. My colleague Hallie Becker asked him off the cuff if he could compose a theme song for the show. He was already sitting at the piano so he asked, “What’s the name of the show?” We told him and he instantly made up a cute (if quite short) rhyming ditty on the spot.
It was such a cool thing to do.
CONTEMPORARY POP – PRESENTED BY CLIVE DAVIS
Sophia Angelica (United States), Isabella Dusias (United States), Abel Libisch (United States), Lucia Linares (Spain), Da Jun Yoo (South Korea)
CONTEMPORARY R&B – PRESENTED BY CLIVE DAVIS
Oliviana Marie (United States)
FILM/MEDIA SCORING (EMERGING DIVISION)
Pascal Coppé (Belgium), Yohan Jager (Canada), Jeroen Jaspers – with Bas van Win (The Netherlands), Luke Snyder (United States), Seth Evan Stone (United States), Bas van Win – with Jeroen Jaspers (The Netherlands)
CLASSICAL COMPOSITION (EMERGING DIVISION) – PRESENTED BY MARIA FRIEDMAN
Inbal Cohen-Rasner (Israel), Serge Fattal (Armenia), YuehLing Li (Taiwan), Ruth Roshan (Australia), Su-Chan Sang (Dominican Republic)
JAZZ COMPOSITION (EMERGING DIVISION) – PRESENTED BY PAUL SHAFFER
Salvatore Cirillo (Italy), Claire Cope (United States), Ally Fiola (Canada), Oliviana Marie (United States), Luca Poletti (Italy)
MUSICAL THEATRE COMPOSITION – PRESENTED BY KELLI O’ HARA
Trish Causey (United States), Luke Enders (United States), Andrew Gerace – with Anna Rosengart (United States), Anna Rosengart – with Andrew Gerace (United States), Sulwyn Lok (Singapore), Veronica Mansour (United States)
FILM/MEDIA SCORING (YOUTH DIVISION) – PRESENTED BY SANTINO FONTANA
Sean Carnahan (United States), Mandy Chassar Hesketh (United Kingdom), Felicity Handreck (Australia), Alexandre Manoukian (France), Leila Remzi (United Kingdom)
CLASSICAL COMPOSITION (YOUTH DIVISION) – PRESENTED BY SIR HOWARD STRINGER
Benjamin Barish (United States), Maddy Chassar Hesketh (United Kingdom), Annika Joshi (United States), Alexander Moiseev (United States), Daniel Pengelly (United Kingdom)
JAZZ COMPOSITION (YOUTH DIVISION) – PRESENTED BY FRANCIS GOYA
John Critelli (United States), Levi Rodriguez (United States)
The actual 2022 awards ceremony is planned for Monday, November 21, 2022 @ 7pm EST and will be streamed live at www.hamlischawards.tv
For more info about the contest and 2022 Awards Ceremony, visit www.hamlischawards.org.
For more info about the 2022 nominees, visit www.hamlischawards.org/2022nominees