How 'Take Me Out to the Ball Game' seeded a music nonprofit supporting the songwriters of tomorrow
More than a century after Jack Norworth penned the lyrics, a nonprofit founded with the song's royalties is celebrating 50 years of supporting young musicians — including the talent behind some of today's most popular musicals. The ASCAP Foundation, the charitable arm for the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, was established in 1975 after Norworth's estate left a bequest of the licensing payments for baseball's unofficial anthem and his other hits.
'Just as all music begins with a song, the ASCAP Foundation began with a song,' said Paul Williams, the group's president and a composer-lyricist whose award-winning career includes 'Rainbow Connection.'
The organization provides money, lessons and mentorship at all career stages in an industry where that support is badly needed by artists who often toil for years working other gigs while trying to get their music before the right ears. To reach its semicentennial, however, the foundation has had to identify new funding streams and reinvent programming.
'Take Me Out to the Ballgame,' written in 1908, has since entered the public domain and no longer generates revenue. The foundation nowadays relies on a mix of philanthropies, corporate sponsors and general public donations. The Louis Armstrong Educational Foundation is a longtime backer and storied New York law firm Paul Weiss is another sponsor.
And, according to Williams, 'there's not a lot of stingy songwriters out there.' The late Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, as well as Herb Alpert, are among those with named scholarships and awards. Williams said other bequests, which are charitable gifts left through a will, have come from 'Hello, Dolly!' composer-lyricist Jerry Herman and 'Tea for Two' lyricist Irving Ceasar.
'It's really a way of making a mark on the world and extending their values forward,' fundraising coach Claire Axelrad said of bequests, which she added have consistently made up about one-tenth of charitable gifts.
With dwindling arts funding and millions of children reportedly going without music education, the ASCAP Foundation is also trying to reach underserved communities. Leaders count nearly 60,000 K-12 students who participated in last year's programs. They help teach guitar to New York summer campers and bring students to free Broadway-caliber productions. Youth are learning to play the djembe, a drum originally from West Africa, through a collaboration with urban farming nonprofit Harlem Grown.
Tax filings show the foundation gave away more than $325,000 in grants for scholarships, fellowships and cash awards in 2023. Award-winning songwriter Emily Bear, who co-wrote the soundtrack for Disney's 'Moana 2,' said the foundation took her 'very seriously" when she was a five-year-old prodigy receiving its young composer award.
'That kind of validation at that kind of age means so much when you're just a little girl with very big dreams and you're in a room full of people that you idolize," she said.
Composer Stephen Schwartz, who was honored this week with the ASCAP Foundation Champion Award during a June 10 fundraiser at Tony winner Adam Guettel's Manhattan home, said the nonprofit is filling gaps as the government 'supports the arts less and less.'
This April also marked the third year that Schwartz has hosted the foundation's two-day Musical Theatre Fest in Los Angeles. The location allows participants to get feedback from prominent guests and connect with Hollywood studios — one way the foundation is trying to stay relevant by serving the renewed interest in musicals for television and film screens.
It's emblematic of the mentorship younger composers say Schwartz — a Broadway icon whose hits include 'Godspell,' 'Pippin' and 'Wicked' — has offered to emerging artists over the years.
Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, the songwriting duo behind 'Dear Evan Hansen,' credited the ASCAP Foundation for 'cementing' their connection with Schwartz. Pasek said such close proximity to a hero, who then became a "living, breathing person who gives you advice,' made the profession 'more plausible.'
'Typically, you're working on projects on a wing and a prayer and hoping that someday it reaches the stage,' Paul said. "So, an organization like the ASCAP Foundation breathing life into not just your work, but your pocketbooks, is a huge, huge support.'
Schwartz said it was 'scary and bewildering' when he first started out without any connections. He sees an important role for himself as someone who can 'ease the way a bit' to help newcomers' 'talents flourish earlier and more completely.'
There's also another motivation.
___
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
NBC News
4 hours ago
- NBC News
Cambridge Dictionary adds 'skibidi' and 'tradwife' among 6,000 new words
LONDON (AP) — What the skibidi is happening to the English language? 'Skibidi' is one of the slang terms popularized by social media that are among more than 6,000 additions this year to the Cambridge Dictionary. 'Internet culture is changing the English language and the effect is fascinating to observe and capture in the dictionary,' said Colin McIntosh, lexical program manager at Cambridge Dictionary, the world's largest online dictionary. 'Skibidi' is a gibberish term coined by the creator of an animated YouTube series and can mean 'cool' or 'bad' or be used with no real meaning as a joke. Other planned additions including 'tradwife,' a contraction of 'traditional wife' referring to a married mother who cooks, cleans and posts on social media, and 'delulu,' a shortening of the word delusional that means 'believing things that are not real or true, usually because you choose to.' An increase in remote working since the pandemic has created the new dictionary entry 'mouse jiggler,' a device or piece of software used to make it seem like you are working when you are not. Concerns over climate change are behind the addition of 'forever chemical,' a harmful chemical that remains in the environment for a long time. Cambridge Dictionary uses the Cambridge English Corpus, a database of more than 2 billion words of written and spoken English, to monitor how new words are used by different people, how often and in what contexts they are used, the company said. 'We only add words where we think they'll have staying power,' McIntosh said.
New York Post
4 hours ago
- New York Post
Hayden Christensen brings rarely-seen daughter, 10, to Chicago Cubs game — and she looks just like mom Rachel Bilson
Hayden Christensen took his daughter, Briar Rose, out to the ballgame. The 'Star Wars' actor, 44, and his 10-year-old daughter, whom he shares with ex Rachel Bilson, enjoyed a rare public outing together at the Chicago Cubs home game at Wrigley Field on Friday. Christensen, who threw out the first pitch, was decked out in Cubs attire just like his daughter, who looked like her mom's mini-me. She wore a Cubs jersey, hat and colorful bracelets. 14 Hayden Christensen with his daughter Briar Rose at the Chicago Cubs game on Aug. 15. MLB/Instagram 14 Hayden Christensen throws out the first pitch at the Chicago Cubs and the Pittsburgh Pirates game. Getty Images 14 Rachel Bilson attends the celebration for the 21st Birthday and Launch of The O.C. x 21Seeds Campaign in July 2024. Getty Images for 21Seeds Later during the game, the pair sang 'Take Me Out to the Ballgame' together for the 7th-inning stretch. 'Alright Cubs fans,' Christensen said into the microphone before he turned to his daughter and added, 'Let me hear you!' 14 Hayden Christensen and his daughter sing at the Chicago Cubs game. MLB/Instagram 14 Hayden Christensen shares his daughter with ex Rachel Bilson. MLB/Instagram As the duo began their duet, they were briefly interrupted by a jet that loudly flew over the stadium and released blue smoke. 'All right now, let's get some runs!' Christensen said in the mic after the performance. 14 Hayden Christensen at the Chicago Cubs game at Wrigley Field on Aug. 15. cubs/Instagram 14 Hayden Christensen throws out the first pitch at the Chicago Cubs game. cubs/Instagram 14 Hayden Christensen kicks off the Chicago Cubs vs. Pittsburg Pirates game. Getty Images MLB shared a video of the sweet moment with the caption, 'Hayden Christensen and his daughter sang Take Me Out to the Ballgame at the Cubs game and had their own special (unplanned) flyover 🤣.' 'Gives 'I couldn't find a speeder that I really liked' a whole new meaning,' the league added, referring to Christensen's role as Anakin Skywalker in 'Star Wars.' 14 Hayden Christensen on the field at the Chicago Cubs game on Aug. 15. cubs/Instagram Christensen and Bilson, 43, welcomed their daughter in October 2014. The actors began dating after meeting on the set of the 2008 movie 'Jumper' but broke up in 2017. 14 Rachel Bilson and Hayden Christensen attend the Glacier Films launch party in 2013. Michael Buckner 14 Hayden Christensen and Rachel Bilson attend the Met Gala in 2010. Getty Images The exes have purposely kept Briar Rose out of the spotlight over the years. 'She is so beautifully flourishing and has the support completely surrounding her from every side,' Bilson said about her daughter in an interview with People last year. 14 Rachel Bilson with her daughter, Briar Rose. rachelbilson/Instagram 'It's so crazy, we're pretty inseparable,' the 'Hart of Dixie' actress continued. 'We have a very, very close relationship. We're not usually ever apart for long. And she talks to me. She is very open and will talk to me about things or what kids say at school or whatever it is, or, 'I felt sad.' It's just really nice that we have that dialogue.' Bilson also told the outlet that 'everything's in a really good place' in regards to co-parenting with Christensen. 14 Hayden Christensen and Rachel Bilson attend a GQ dinner in New York in 2009. Penske Media via Getty Images 14 Hayden Christensen and Rachel Bilson attend an NBA game in Los Angeles in 2014. GC Images Christensen, for his part, revealed last year that his daughter still hasn't seen 'Star Wars.' 'I was dragging my feet for a while, kind of wanting to hold off,' he said at MegaCon in Orlando, Florida in Feb. 2024. 'But now she's 9 years old and I feel like she's at an appropriate age where I could share it with her.'
Los Angeles Times
5 hours ago
- Los Angeles Times
‘Superman' star Isabela Merced is owning her power onscreen — and IRL
Last year, Isabela Merced was living a double life. By day, she was running around the set of 'The Last of Us' in Vancouver — dodging Infected, WLF soldiers and Seraphites alongside co-star Bella Ramsey. Then, after wrapping what was sometimes a 15-hour workday, she'd be on a flight 4,500 miles away to Atlanta — doing costume fittings and fight training to become Hawkgirl in James Gunn's 'Superman.' 'I didn't know I could do that,' she tells De Los. 'I proved to myself that I'm capable of more than I think.' The Peruvian American actress has the kind of career that any young actor would aspire to: She made her Broadway debut at 10 years old in 'Evita,' earned critical acclaim acting opposite Benicio del Toro in 'Sicario: Day of the Soldado' at 17 and starred in the live-action film adaptation of the massively successful 'Dora the Explorer' franchise when she was just 18. In the last year alone, she's grown into a certified action star, making waves in huge franchise entries like 'Alien: Romulus,' 'The Last of Us' Season 2 and 'Superman.' At 24 years old, her filmography of formidable heroines, scrappy spitfires and multifaceted young women in major blockbusters has put her on a path that's been largely inaccessible to so many of the Latino actors who came before her. It's why she also has her sights set on producing, hoping to provide more opportunities for her community in front of and behind the camera. Yet this month, she's turning her focus away from the screen and toward her other creative calling: music. In 2020 she released her debut EP, 'The Better Half of Me,' which showcased her bilingual prowess through soulful Latin pop tracks, written and produced alongside her brother, Gyovanni Moner, during quarantine. Now, she's revisiting the project in a collaboration with the Grammy Award-winning Peruvian artist Tony Succar. Their new single 'Apocalipsis,' released Friday, transforms Merced's 2020 song of the same name from a slow jam to a modernized salsa groove fit for a Miami nightclub. With 'Superman' now out on digital platforms, Merced spoke with De Los about donning Hawkgirl's helmet, working with Succar on 'Apocalipsis,' and what's coming up next. It seems like everything is kept pretty under wraps for these massive superhero movies. How much did you know going into your 'Superman' audition? Initially, I had no idea who I was auditioning for because everything had secret names. I think mine said 'Cyclone' in the script. I didn't actually find out who I was until the day of the camera test with the [Justice Gang]. Oh, wow. How did they tell you?They didn't want to make it obvious that they were about to tell me, so it was all really mysterious. I'd been doing all the fittings, and the fight training, and then I got pulled into James [Gunn's] trailer with the producers and everyone, and they were like 'Do you want to be Hawkgirl?' As soon as I found out, I was really, really excited because I was like 'Oh thank God, it's someone I know.' What was your connection to Hawkgirl before this? I grew up watching [the 'Justice League' animated series] and the character is canonically Latina, so I loved that. Her history is really complicated, and it gets even crazier when you get into the comics, but I was a huge fan of her in the show, and I drew a lot on my memories of Maria [Canals-Barrera's] version of her. I mean, they're two different characters, but they're still of the same spirit because they share memories of their past lives. What made you most excited about this version of the character? Did you connect with her at all?She's the only young woman in this group of guys, in an industry that's mostly headed up by men, and in a movie that's mostly led by men. It was a really cool opportunity to exercise a different way of being in that kind of environment. She's kind of the unfiltered and disconnected, doesn't-care-how-she's-perceived version of me, and that was really cathartic to play. Because you also have a music background, I'm curious about whether you use music as a tool to get into character?Oh, yeah, definitely. Every character I play, I make a playlist of songs that remind me of them, and I'll play them before I go to film. With Hawkgirl it was a lot of punk music that I was discovering, with all these really strong singers. Then there were songs that Bella [Ramsey] and I really loved by Adrianne Lenker that informed our experience a lot as Dina and Ellie [in 'The Last of Us']. There was some '80s music in there too, maybe some early 2000s, but in general, just really soft, sweet, romantic songs. You're releasing a salsa remix of your 2020 single, 'Apocalipsis,' with Tony Succar. How did that come about?I mean, 'remix' almost feels like an understatement because it feels like a completely different song. That's thanks to Tony, who's the first Peruvian to win a Grammy. He came to me with this opportunity four years ago, and we recorded the song, but I was signed to a label and we weren't able to release it. Now that I'm free and independent, and he won his Grammy, he wanted to put it on his EP, and I was like, 'Hell yeah, let's do it.' He gave me the freedom to do the video for it, and I'm really happy with how it turned out. I got to dance for it, and I learned all the choreography in an hour and a half. It was crazy, but I'm really excited for people to see it. How would you describe your music taste? And how does it connect to the type of music you want to make?It's hard to pin down. If I'm looking at my most recents, it's Hermanos Gutiérrez. But it's also Dick Gaughan, Big Thief, Los Mirlos, which is a Peruvian band, and the Andrew Oldham Orchestra. There's no through line there other than good music. I already have a lot going on with acting, so if music could stay something fun and light for me, and not so disciplined, I think that would be nice. Is there a musical or an idea for a musical that would get you excited about returning to Broadway?Have they done a Selena musical? No, I think I would have remembered that. But that would be cool, getting to dance on stage. It would be like a concert-slash-musical theater experience, kind of like what they did with Gloria Estefan's 'On Your Feet!' If it was made by the right people with respect to her life and her legacy, I think that could be dope. But honestly, if I were to do something on Broadway, I would love for it to be an original composition. I'm currently working on one right now. I'm producing it, and also going to be in it. Things are moving along really well, and it's another project with friends. I think we have to take more bold chances when it comes to Broadway, because everyone's trying to reach a younger audience — but I think the most efficient way of doing that is by allowing the younger audience to bring their stories forward and tell them. You've mentioned that you're getting into producing. What kind of projects do you have in the works right now?I'm producing one movie that's shooting in September called 'Psyche.' I'm really excited about it. We have Latina director, and also the project I'm supposed to do next after that is going to be directed by a Peruvian woman. So there's some really, really cool s— that I've been trying to do, where I'll have more creative control and freedom — but also a lower budget, so, you know, roughing [it] compared to what I've been doing the last few years. But I'm excited to get to the root of why I love to do this and feel it fully. Your career is so interesting because it's just getting started, and yet, it's not the kind of career that many Latino actors have historically been able to achieve so early on. How do you process that?I'm in an interesting position because I think Hollywood is really comfortable picking Latino actors who are sort of white-forward or mixed before they're willing to cast Indigenous people. And look, I'll take anything I can get, because, girl, I'm just trying to work in this economy. [Laughs] But I think being aware of that is really important because when I go off and do my own projects, and have the power, I can hire people that look more like the people that I grew up with, or that look like my family. But it doesn't always happen that way. Financing is hard to get, and when you're trying to bring people on, they want someone who's already known, and Hollywood just hasn't given many of those opportunities to people of certain skin colors. Because you've grown up in this industry, I'm curious what your experience has been like learning to speak up for and advocate for yourself?Something I've learned is that there's always a power struggle going on, whether that's on a personal level, or on a bigger level, or even socially. I think we're constantly fighting for power. And because of that, we can become very defensive. So I think the biggest challenge for me wasn't necessarily what I went through, but how I reacted to it: by choosing to keep an open heart and still love freely and trust in people because of how I was raised. I think we all have a choice to make when we're harmed, and that's to either close up and harm others, or to keep going. It sucks, but I won't let that dictate the way I move through life.
