Andrew Lloyd Webber To Receive Woodrow Wilson Award

 Andrew Lloyd Webber is to be presented with the Woodrow Wilson Award for Public Service for his many years of distinguished service to the arts through music. Andrew will receive the award tomorrow evening (May 21st) at a gala dinner being held in London's Guildhall. This will be the first time the prestigious US award will be presented in the UK.

Niall FitzGerald, the Deputy Chairman of Thomson Reuters, will also be honoured at the dinner when he receives the Woodrow Wilson Award for Corporate Citizenship in recognition of his distinguished business career and esteemed corporate leadership, both in the UK and globally.

Andrew Lloyd Webber is the composer of The Likes of Us, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor® Dreamcoat, Jesus Christ Superstar, By Jeeves, Evita, Variations and Tell Me On A Sunday later combined as Song & Dance, Cats, Starlight Express, The Phantom of the Opera, Aspects of Love, Sunset Boulevard, Whistle Down the Wind, The Beautiful Game and The Woman in White. He composed the film scores of Gumshoe and The Odessa File, and a setting of the Latin Mass Requiem.

In 2004 he produced a film version of The Phantom of the Opera directed by Joel Schumacher and in 2009 he will premiere his sequel to The Phantom of the Opera which will be directed by the award-winning director Jack O'Brien.

In 2006 he oversaw a new production of Evita in London, a unique version of The Phantom of the Opera in Las Vegas and pioneered television casting for musical theatre with the hit BBC series How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria? which searched for a Maria in The Sound of Music. The series won an international Emmy. He repeated his success with Any Dream Will Do which cast the title role of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and he will cast the musical Oliver! for the BBC later this year.

His awards include seven Tonys, three Grammys including Best Contemporary Classical Composition for Requiem, seven Oliviers, a Golden Globe, an Oscar, two International Emmys, the Praemium Imperiale, the Richard Rodgers award for Excellence in Musical Theatre and the Kennedy Center Honor.

He currently owns seven London theatres including the Theatre Royal Drury Lane and the London Palladium.

He was knighted in 1992 and created an honorary life peer in 1997.