BMI President & CEO Frances W. Preston congratulates songwriters Pamela Sheyne, Caroline Corr, Sharon Corr and Samantha Mumba at the Awards. Photo BMI/ Brian Rasic

The gala dinner and awards ceremony, held at the Ballroom of London’s Dorchester Hotel and hosted by BMI President & CEO Frances W. Preston with BMI Vice President of European Writer/Publisher Relations Phillip Graham, included the presentation of awards from 2001. Last year’s dinner, scheduled for September 12, was cancelled due to the tragic events in the United States the previous day. Sting’s “Desert Rose,” published by EMI Music Publishing Ltd./Magnetic Music, was recognized as the Robert S. Musel Award 2001 Song of the Year.

Pictured are BMI Senior VP Writer/Publisher Relations Del Bryant, Des’ree, BMI President & CEO Frances W. Preston, and BMI VP Europe Phil Graham.

“Clint Eastwood,” written by Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett, published by EMI Music Publishing Ltd., and recorded by Gorillaz, was named the 2002 College Song of the Year for the most performances on US college radio. Oasis’s “Go Let It Out,” written by Noel Gallagher and published by Oasis Music/Creation Songs Ltd./Sony/ATV Music Publishing Ltd., was recognized as College Song for the previous year.

Shown at the awards ceremony are BMI VP Europe Phil Graham, BMI President & CEO Frances W. Preston, Paul Herman, and BMI London Associate Director Brandon Bakshi.

UK resident and BMI affiliated composer Michael Kamen was presented with four awards: the special Olympic Flame Award for his theme to the 2002 Winter Olympics, a Cable Award for his score to HBO’s “Band of Brothers,” a four million performance award for “(Everything I Do) I Do It For You” and a 2001 Film Music Award for his score to “X-Men.” Receiving three awards were Chris Eaton for his Contemporary Christian songs “Adore,” “Lift Me Up,” and “Live For You” (2001), all published by SGO Music Publishing Ltd.; Pamela Sheyne, with 2001 Pop Awards for “He Loves You Not” and “This Is Me,” published by AppleTreeSongs Ltd. and Warner/Chappell Music Ltd., as well as (2002) “Irresistible” (co-written by Anders Bagge of STIM and co-published by EMI Songs Scandinavia AB, STIM); and Mirwais Ahmadzai (PRS/SACEM), with a 2002 Dance Award and Pop Award for “Don’t Tell Me” and a 2001 Pop Award for “Music,” both published by 1000 Lights Music, Ltd. (SACEM) and Warner/Chappell Music Publishing Ltd. (PRS).

Additional featured awards for 2002 included a TV Music Award to Pete Townshend’s “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” and to John Lennon for “Providence”; an Urban Award to Dominic Miller and Sting for “Emotional”; a Country Award to Billy Livsey for “If You Can Do Anything Else”; and Film Music Awards to Rolfe Kent for “Legally Blonde,” David Holmes for “Ocean’s Eleven,” Harry Gregson-Williams for “Shrek” and Paul Oakenfold for “Swordfish.” Featured awards for 2001 included a Dance Award to SIAE’s Massimo Gabutti, Maurizio Lobina, Gianfranco Randone and publisher GZ 2538 for “Blue (Da Ba Dee),” a Film Music Award to Gregson-Williams for “Chicken Run,” and a TV Music Award to Townshend for the “CSI” theme.

Three songs were honored for reaching the five million performance plateau. They were “Daniel” by Sir Elton John and Bernie Taupin, “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” by Sir Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, and “Layla” by Eric Clapton. Sir Elton received three additional multi-million performance certificates (as well as Pop Awards for “I Want Love” and “Someday Out of the Blue”), and John Lennon was honored with seven Million-Air awards, noting a total of more than 21 million performances of those songs. Rod Argent picked up a four million performance award for his “Time of the Season,” and songwriters Ray Davies and Gary Kemp were honored for three million performances of their “You Really Got Me” and “True,” respectively.

High-resolution photos from the event are available for downloading at press.bmi.com.

The BMI Family photo

The highlight of the evening was the presentation of the BMI award for Outstanding Career Achievement to Spider-Man composer Danny Elfman. Named after past BMI Vice President Richard Kirk, the prestigious award is given annually to the composer who has made significant contributions to film and TV music. Past recipients of the award include John Barry, Charlie Fox, Jerry Goldsmith, Earle Hagen, Michael Kamen, Alan Menken, Thomas Newman, Mike Post, Lalo Schifrin, Richard and Robert Sherman, W.G. “Snuffy” Walden, John Williams and Patrick Williams.

Spider-Man Composer Danny Elfman with BMI President and CEO Frances W. Preston

A highly prolific and influential musician, Elfman carries dual notoriety - that as a highly respected and revered composer and as the lead singer of seminal Southern California rock band Oingo Boingo. Elfman entered the world of film music in 1985, when director Tim Burton and star Paul Reubens called him to write the music for Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure. In addition to Spider-Man and Pee-Wee, other scores include the upcoming Men In Black II (opens July 3), Men In Black, Planet of the Apes, Proof of Life, Spy Kids, Sleepy Hollow, Family Man, A Simple Plan, Good Will Hunting, Mars Attacks!, Mission: Impossible, Dead Presidents, To Die For, Dolores Claiborne, Black Beauty, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Edward Scissorhands, Batman, Batman Returns, Midnight Run, Scrooged, Beetlejuice, The Simpsons, Tales From The Crypt, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Amazing Stories, as well as songs for such diverse films as Ghostbusters 2, Weird Science and Fast Times at Ridgemont High.

BMI Richard Kirk Outstanding Career Achievement Award recipients past and present: W.G. Snuffy Walden, Thomas Newman and Danny Elfman

Elfman has also won a Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Composition for the theme to Batman, a Saturn Award for Best Score for The Nightmare Before Christmas, and has been twice nominated for an Academy Award.

Producer T Bone Burnett being interviewed for bmi.com

At the dinner, Elfman was feted by many of the directors with whom he has worked. Burton, who spoke about having seen Elfman with Oingo Boingo in clubs in Southern California before ever meeting him, described him as “�a real artist in the sense that he is like his music and his music is like him. From the very beginning it was always exciting for me to work with someone who was experiencing things new and coming at it from an interesting perspective. He brings that intuitive excitement to a project. He respects tradition without doing it exactly. He’s able to understand things people don’t understand on the surface and get underneath it, like a silent movie to where you’re part of the emotion of it without overstating it.”

George S. Clinton, Sam Phillips and T Bone Burnett

Calling Elfman’s music for Spider-Man “rousing and uplifting,” director Raimi said, “�I feel like he always waits for the film and the audience to create a feeling together, and I think what Danny does is he gently carries the audience to that next place - but he allows them to do the work. He has the unique ability to create a soul to his music. He’s a genius, he really is, that ‘can’t’ word can’t be thrown about it, but when you listen to his music and the diversity of it and how successful it is with the images, I don’t know if there’s a better word to describe him.”

Director Barry Sonnenfeld ("Men In Black," "Men In Black 2") and Danny Elfman

Also honored with BMI Film & Television Awards was composer John Williams, who received the most crystal statuettes during the presentation, with four for Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, Jurassic Park III, A.I.: Artificial Intelligence and the 2002 Winter Olympic Games. Composer Mike Post led the way for Television Awards, receiving three for Law & Order, Law & Order: SVU and NYPD Blue. Composer David Newman received two awards for Ice Age and Dr. Dolittle II. A number of recording artists who are making a name for themselves in the worlds of film and TV music received awards including BT for The Fast and The Furious, Moby for the 2002 Winter Olympics, Paul Oakenfold for Swordfish, David Holmes for Oceans 11 and Bob and Mark Mothersbaugh for Rugrats.

Danny Elfman and Director Brett Ratner ("Red Dragon")

Composer T-Bone Burnett received a special Certificate of Achievement for the five-time Grammy Award-winning O Brother, Where Art Thou soundtrack, as did the composers of the original music for the 2002 Winter Olympics, including the aforementioned Williams and Moby, as well as Kurt Bestor, Sam Cardon, David Foster, Michael Kamen and Linda Thompson.

BMI's Frances W. Preston, T Bone Burnett and BMI's Doreen Ringer Ross

This year also marked the first time BMI presented Cable Television Music Awards to the composers of the highest-ranking cable television shows of the year. Award recipients included Guy Moon for Chalkzone and Fairly Oddparents, Jim Johnston for WWF Monday Night RAW, Howlin’ Wolf for The Sopranos, Douglas Cuomo for Sex and the City, Michael Kamen for Band of Brothers and Thomas Newman for Six Feet Under.

Director Barry Sonnenfeld, Danny Elfman, BMI's Frances W. Preston, director Brett Ratner and BMI's Doreen Ringer Ross.

BMI’s Emmy Award winning composers were also honored, including Patrick Williams for “A Dream That Only I Can Know” from Yesterday’s Children; Buckwheat Zydeco for Pistol Pete: The Life and Times of Pete Maravich; Brian Siewert for “Where There Is Hope” from Guiding Light; Lolita Ritmanis, Michael Mc Cuistion and Kristopher Carter for Batman Beyond; and Gary Kuo, Robert Sands and Dominic Messenger for As The World Turns.

Don Davis and Christopher Young

High-resolution photos of the 2002 BMI Film & Television Awards will be available for downloading on the BMI Media Relations web site at press.bmi.com.

BMI's Frances W. Preston and composer Patrick Williams

Danny Elfman and BT

Composer Richard Marvin, BMI's Doreen Ringer Ross and composer Richard Gibbs

Composer Mike Post, BMI's Frances W. Preston and composer W.G. Snuffy Walden

Director Brett Ratner, BMI's Frances W. Preston, composer Lalo Schifrin and BMI's Doreen Ringer Ross.

"The goal was to be Vegas but not obviously Vegas," explains the Belfast-born Holmes, in Los Angeles for his film's premiere, adding that he turned down no fewer than 60 film-scoring jobs after Out of Sight. He's signed on to do Confessions of a Dangerous Mind next, making three of his five movie jobs George Clooney vehicles (his music is the equivalent of Clooney's self-assured swagger). He also scored Buffalo Soldiers, the buzz-heavy film at this year's Toronto Film Festival.

Holmes - who numbers Herbie Hancock's Death Wish Quincy Jones's $ and Lalo Schifrin's Bullitt among the scores that most influenced him, as well as obscure French and Russian film compositions - says, "Everything I've done through music has been influenced by cinema."

He even includes dialogue from the films on the soundtrack releases, a practice inspired from his albums Let's Get Killed and Bow Down to the Exit Sign; the former included snatches of random dialogue, the latter featured lines scripted by a friend of Holmes.

"When I make records and add dialogue, they become cinematic," Holmes notes. "It lets people see the film, but through music." He adds, however, that he's been-there/done-that and has will move in a different direction on future albums.]]> 2002-03-28T17:00:00-05:00