The ASCAP Foundation honored R&B and pop icon Valerie Simpson with its George M. Cohan Friars Foundation Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Melinda Wagner with The ASCAP Foundation Masters Award at the 2018 ASCAP Foundation Honors tonight. The ceremony took place at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Frederick P. Rose Hall, Broadway at 60th Street, in New York City. The ASCAP Foundation 2018 scholarship recipients were also recognized in an evening brimming with talent and inspiration.
Simpson was presented with The ASCAP Foundation George M. Cohan Friars Foundation Award by The ASCAP Foundation President Paul Williams for her multifaceted career and success in a variety of roles. Together with her husband, Nick Ashford, Simpson wrote classic songs including “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough,” “You’re All I Need” and “Reach Out and Touch.”
Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Melinda Wagner accepted The ASCAP Foundation Masters Award, presented to her by The ASCAP Foundation Board member and composer Alex Shapiro. Wagner’s works have been performed by the New York Philharmonic, the Chicago Symphony and the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. She has been recognized with a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, awards from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and from ASCAP. She currently serves as chair of composition on the faculty of The Juilliard School of Music and gives master classes at esteemed institutions including Harvard, Yale, Eastman and UC Davis.
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