MAC Announces 2020 Winners of the Burman and Wallowitch Awards

The Manhattan Association of Cabarets (MAC) has announced the 2020 winners of the Dottie Burman and John Wallowitch songwriting awards. Each recipient receives $500.

The other Burman Award finalists were: Lara Cody and Mark Vogel, Hillary Rollins and Matthew Levine, Daniel Cainer

The other Wallowtich Award finalists were: Danny Ursetti and Jared Corak, Danny Bernstein.

The Burman Awards Committee-Scott Evan Davis, Kim Grogg Marin, Jerry Phelps, Lennie Watts-narrowed the entries down to the four finalists.

The Wallowitch Award Committee- Frank Dain, Bob Levy, Julie Miller- narrowed the entries down to the three finalists.

Multi-MAC Award winners Zina Goldrich and Marcy Heisler were the Celebrity Judges who selected the winner from the finalists for each Award.

The Dottie Burman Award winner is Larry Kerchner

Larry Kerchner is a composer, lyricist, arranger, and producer. A graduate of the Berklee College of Music, Larry is a two-time GRAMMY Award nominee and a voting member of The Recording Academy. With over 400 instrumental arrangements and compositions published worldwide, Larry's writing is as eclectic as it comes. From the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, to the Washington Pops Symphony and Chorus to the Birdland Big Band, his songs have been performed and/or recorded by such notables as Michael Feinstein, Marilyn Maye, Carol Woods, Laurel Massé, Janis Siegel, Lauren Kinhan, Tex Arnold, KT Sullivan, Billy Stritch, Mark Nadler, Eric Michael Gillett, Sal Viviano, T. Oliver Reid, Marissa Mulder, Kenny Ascher, and Danny Bacher, to name but a few. Larry was the behind-the-scenes contributing force for many well-known shows and recordings through his numerous works-for-hire, including The Wiz and Somewhere In Time, and his album, SWINGIN' IT! with Larry Kerchner * has been hailed as a tour de force of retro style Jazz, Swing, and Jump.

The John Wallowitch Award winner is the team of JJ Warshaw and Nicholas Parker

Nick Parker is a writer, lyricist, librettist, playwright, and songwriter based in Philadelphia. Credits include Mad Cool (Frigid Festival 2018, NYC, Corkscrew Theater Festival 2017, NYC); Natalie (Midtown International Theatre Festival, 2016, NYC) and Lydia & Tom (New York International Fringe Festival, 2012). He is a member of the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Writing Workshop and a 2019 alumnus of the Johnny Mercer Foundation Songwriters Project.

JJ Warshaw is a composer/musician/actor living in NYC. He is a 2020 Jonathan Larson Award Finalist, Johnny Mercer Foundation Songwriters Project 2019 Alum, and a member of the BMI Lehman Engel Music Theatre Writing Workshop. His musicals Natalie and the grind. (O'Neill NMTC Semifinalist) have been read/performed at Mark Morris Dance Group, The Jewel Box, The New School, and further developed with Grind Arts Co. and The Johnny Mercer Songwriting Foundation Project. He has composed original music for web series, short films and the award-winning Gimlet Media© children's podcast Story Pirates. As an actor, he has appeared in Gonzo (Corkscrew Theatre Festival, Rough Draft Festival), Sugar & Sand (film short - Candido Productions) and Walking through Peanut Butter (Marr Films). He is currently writing Mirror Image, a full-length musical, with Laura Winters. He regularly gigs in NYC with various bands and is active as a producer/mixer/arranger/Ableton programmer. BA Princeton.

Marcy Heisler and Zina Goldrich have been performing and writing together since 1992. Their critically acclaimed romantic comedy songs have been featured in venues across the world, recorded by artists across many genres, and appear in numerous folios and collected works.

Their Off-Broadway musical Dear Edwina earned them a Drama-Desk nomination, and other works have been produced by regional powerhouses such as Paper Mill Playhouse, The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Goodspeed, and the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts. Marcy and Zina have been the recipients of the ASCAP Mary Rodgers-Lorenz Hart Award, Jamie de Roy and Friends Award, the Richard Rodgers New Horizons Award, the Kanin/Seldes Award, The Edward Kleban Award and the Fred Ebb Award. They have provided original songs for The Disney Channel, Disney Interactive and Feature Animation projects, Disney Theatricals, PBS, ABC, Nickelodeon, and others. As performers, they have toured domestically and internationally with The Marcy and Zina Show. November 2009 marked the release of Marcy and Zina: The Album on Yellow Sound Label, and they have recently joined the artist roster at Concord Publishing.