BMI Foundation Names Andy Roninson Recipient of Robert Sherman Scholarship

The BMI Foundation recently tapped composer Andy Roninson as the recipient of the 2010 Robert Sherman Scholarship. Awarded each year to an auspicious student composer currently studying musical theatre, the $1,000 scholarship was established in 2006 by Robert Sherman.

Currently an undergraduate student at Purchase College in the Conservatory of Music for jazz piano performance, Roninson has musically directed and/or played keyboards for over a dozen shows in just the past three years, including an original musical, Exorcism on Aisle Five, for which he wrote the music and co-wrote the lyrics. Named the James Moody Scholar last year, he has studied classical music extensively, accompanied musicians of all levels and instruments (vocals, tuba, trombone, school choirs, bassoon, clarinet, trumpet, Easter Mass, etc.), and played or recorded professionally in a variety of genres of pop music (jam band, funk, pop, folk, ska, hip-hop, singer-songwriter, etc.). He has shared the stage with such theater greats as Marvin Hamlisch, James Earl Jones, and Kelli O’Hara and such jazz legends as Chris Potter, James Moody, Jon Faddis, Randy Brecker, Tim Ries, Hank Jones, and Paquito D’Rivera. His latest musical for which he wrote the music, lyrics, and orchestrations is called For the Birds and will run at Purchase College April 29 through May 1.

Robert Sherman is one-half of the Oscar-winning songwriting team the Sherman Brothers, who have written some of the best-loved and most-recognized songs in history, including Disney themes Mary Poppins, The Jungle Book, Parent Trap, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, and The Aristocats. Throughout a career that spans almost 50 years, the Shermans have accumulated countless accolades, including two Academy Awards and nine nominations, two Grammy Awards, 23 gold and platinum albums, induction into the Songwriters Hall of Fame and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, recognizing their compositions including “Chim Chim Cherree,” “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” and “It’s a Small World (After All),” which is considered the most translated and most-performed song on earth.