The Ziegfeld Club, one of the first not-for-profit organizations in the Broadway community, has announced the second Billie Burke Ziegfeld Award for female composers. Named in honor of late actress Billie Burke (“The Wizard of Oz”), the Award includes a grant of $10,000 in addition to a year of professional mentorship. The winner will be recognized at an event in November 2016 at the New Amsterdam Theatre.
Applications are open from today, August 4, through September 2. The recipient — and honorable mentions — will be decided by an expert panel.
The club, which supports women interested in pursuing musical theater, was described by The New York Times as one of “New York’s pioneering feminist institutions.”
“The grant’s aim,” writes Broadway World, is “to celebrate an emerging woman composer, or composer/lyricist who compellingly demonstrates financial need, professional initiative, and outstanding artistic promise in musical theatre, [and] was inspired by a noticeable lack of female composers being produced on Broadway today. The Ziegfeld Club enables the recipient to put the grant to the best use possible to help further the composer’s creative endeavors.”
Head over to The Ziegfeld Club’s website to apply.
The recipient of last year’s inaugural Billie Burke Ziegfeld Award was composer/lyricist Masi Asare. Asare received guidance from two Tony winners, Jeanine Tesori and Daryl Roth. “Fun Home” composer Tesori and lyricist Lisa Kron made history last year when they became the first all-female writing team to win a Tony for Best Original Score.
