Howard, Donen Honored by ASCAP

Composer James Newton Howard received the Henry Mancini Award for Lifetime Achievement at the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers’ 15th annual awards gala.

An 18-time winner of ASCAP film and television awards since 1992, Howard, 48, known for his ability to include a range of diverse styles in his scores, composed the music for such films as “The Fugitive,” “The Prince of Tides,” “Pretty Woman” and “The Sixth Sense.”

The highlight of the Tuesday night event, however, was the presentation of the ASCAP Opus Award to legendary director and choreographer Stanley Donen (“Singin’ in the Rain,” “On the Town,” “Funny Face,” “Damn Yankees,” “Two for the Road”).

The whimsical Donen, 76, enchanted a packed roomful of composers, writers and publishers at the Beverly Hilton Hotel by accepting the ASCAP honor by singing “ ‘S Wonderful,” with his own lyrics, and dancing a brief time-step Fred Astaire-style, on top of a chair. The performance was reminiscent of his song and dance response--singing “Cheek to Cheek”--when he received a lifetime achievement award at the 70th Academy Awards show in 1998.

The ASCAP film and television awards are determined by the greatest number of performance credits accumulated over the course of the year, from Oct. 1, 1998, to Sept. 30, 1999. There were numerous winners in each category, among them Howard, who picked up three awards for music for “The Sixth Sense,” “Runaway Bride” and NBC’s “ER” series.

Other movie category winners included Elmer Bernstein (“Wild Wild West”), Carter Burwell (“The General’s Daughter”), Phil Collins (“Tarzan”), John Debney (“Inspector Gadget”), Trevor Jones (“Notting Hill”), Randy Newman (“Toy Story 2”), Marc Shaiman (“Patch Adams”), Howard Shore (“Analyze This”) and Alan Silvestri (“Stuart Little”).