Alan Menken to Receive Max Steiner Film Music Achievement Award in September, Disney+ to Stream The Event

Alan Menken is finally set to receive the Max Steiner Film Achievement Award at the Hollywood in Vienna gala on September 24, more than two years after the announcement he will get the award.

Stars from Broadway and the West End will pay tribute to the eight-time Academy Award winner at the 13th Hollywood in Vienna. The event will be held at the Vienna Concert Hall (Wiener Konzerthaus) over two nights, September 23 for a concert and September 24 for a concert and award ceremony where Menken will be presented with the award by the city of Vienna.

Adam Jacobs, who received a 2014 Grammy nod for best musical theater album for Aladdin, will perform, along with Trevor Dion Nicholas, Celinde Schoenmaker, Christine Allado and Bongiwe Happiness Malugna.

Disney+ will stream the gala event globally. The move will show how important Menken is to The Walt Disney Company and their brand amongst various studios. In 2001, Disney honored Menken with the illustrious Disney Legend award.

“I am truly honored to be receiving the prestigious Max Steiner Award this year. And I feel humbled to have my name and work associated with the brilliant and legendary Max Steiner himself. The way his creative life moved from theater to film to the concert stage, even as his personal life moved him from Austria to England, and from Broadway to Hollywood, is an inspiration for all of us who follow in his footsteps nearly 50 years after his passing. And to receive this award in Vienna, the classical music capitol of the world, promises to make this one of the highlights of my life and career.”

Alan Menken

For Disney, Menken composed music for The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, Pocahontas, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Hercules, Home on the Range, Enchanted, and Tangled. He has worked with lyricists Howard Ashman, Sir Tim Rice, Stephen Schwartz, David Zippel, and Glenn Slater.

He is currently the only living person with the highest number of Academy Awards (four each for Best Original Score and Best Original Song). He has the third most Oscars of all time. Only Alfred Newman (9 wins) and Walt Disney (22 wins) have received more than him. He is tied with late costume designer Edith Head for the third most Oscar wins.

On July 26, 2020, Menken became the 16th person to achieve EGOT status, winning the Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Original Song (Children’s/Young Adult/Animation) for the song “Waiting in the Wings” from Rapunzel’s Tangled Adventure.

The Max Steiner Award commemorates the Viennese composer Max Steiner, who invented the essential techniques of film scoring back in the 1920s and wrote the first large orchestral soundtrack in film history: King Kong. The award is meant to be a symbol of recognition for exceptional achievements in the art of film music.

Steiner composed more than 300 film scores (Gone With The Wind, Casablanca, amongst many others) and also wrote the Warner Bros Studio Fanfare. He was awarded with three Academy Awards and is considered as the Father of Film Music in Hollywood.

Previous winners of the Max Steiner Award include Hans Zimmer (2018), Danny Elfman (2017), Alexandre Desplat (2016)James Newton Howard (2015), Randy Newman (2014), James Horner (2013), Lalo Schifrin (2012), Alan Silvestri (2011), Howard Shore (2010), and John Barry (2009).

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