Michael Korie to Receive Blitzstein Award for Musical Theater

The American Academy of Arts and Letters announces that librettist/lyricist Michael Korie will receive the Marc Blitzstein Award for Musical Theater of $10,000. Established in 1965 by friends of the late Academician Marc Blitzstein in his memory, the award is given to a composer, lyricist, or librettist to encourage the creation of works of merit for musical theater and opera. The jurors were John Harbison (chairman), J. D. McClatchy, Shulamit Ran, Augusta Read Thomas, and Yehudi Wyner.

"Marc Blitzstein was an innovator for all forms of music theater, and as Blitzstein's heir, Michael Korie is a marvelous example of contemporary vision and talent," said poet and librettist J. D. McClatchy. "His books and lyrics for Broadway musicals and his many opera libretti show an ambitious reach, a rare elegance, and a deep understanding of how theater works to make its audiences think and feel in new ways."

The award will be presented to Mr. Korie at the Academy's annual awards ceremony in May.

Michael Korie writes libretti for operas and lyrics for musicals. His libretti for operas composed by Stewart Wallace include Hopper's Wife, Harvey Milk, Where's Dick?, and Kabbalah. He adapted John Steinbeck's novel for the libretto to The Grapes of Wrath, composed by Ricky Ian Gordon. His works for the operatic stage have been produced at San Francisco Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Minnesota Opera, New York City Opera, BAM Next Wave Festival, Carnegie Hall, and Walt Disney Concert Hall. Upcoming operas include a collaboration with composer Michael Torke. For musical theater, he wrote the lyrics to composer Scott Frankel's Grey Gardens, Far From Heaven, Doll, and Happiness. Their collaborations have been nominated for Tony and Drama Desk Awards, received The Outer Critics Circle Award, and have been produced on Broadway, Playwrights Horizons, and Lincoln Center Theater. In 2006 Grey Gardens received a Richard Rodgers Production Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters; this season it made its European premiere in London. Korie's newest work with Frankel and playwright Doug Wright is War Paint, premiering in June at Chicago's Goodman Theater starring Patti Lupone and Christine Ebersole. Korie collaborated with Amy Powers on the lyrics to Doctor Zhivago, composed by Lucy Simon and produced in Australia, Korea, and Scandinavia, and on Broadway in 2015; it will show in Europe next year. Korie has also collaborated with playwrights Doug Wright, Richard Greenberg, Michael Weller, John Weidman, and with directors Michael Greif, Des McAnuff, Christopher Alden, Susan Stroman, and Richard Foreman. Concert works include Gay Century Songbook with composer Larry Grossman at Carnegie Hall, and Positions 1956 with composer Conrad Cummings at The Knitting Factory and Urban Arias. Korie's lyrics have received the Edward Kleban Prize, Jonathan Larson Award, and the ASCAP Richard Rodgers Award. His songs with composer Scott Frankel were featured at The Kennedy Center's Millennium Stage Broadway Today. He serves on the council of The Dramatists Guild, chairs the Librettists Committee, and moderates the musical theater division of the Dramatist Guild Fellows Program for emerging writers and composers. He teaches lyric writing at Yale.