Yale School Of Drama Student Wins BMI Foundation’s Robert Sherman Scholarship

The BMI Foundation, Inc. has announced that Yale School of Drama student Michael Mitnick has won the 2007 Robert Sherman Scholarship. The $1,000 award is made possible through the generosity of Mary Poppins composer Robert Sherman and is given each year to a talented student composer studying musical theatre.

Mitnick, a 2006 Harvard University graduate, is an accomplished composer/lyricist who recently completed his first year in the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop. As an undergraduate, he wrote/co-wrote several musicals for the Dramatic Club (The Life and Many Deaths of Mr. Plumb), the Harvard Lampoon (Maude & Harold: A Love Story on Ice), and the Hasty Pudding Theatricals (# 156: As the Word Turns). His list of accolades includes presentations of his song cycle, Snapshots, at the 45th Street Theater in 2004; an Eager Award, Briggs Prize and Levy Award in Musical Theater from Harvard Office for the Arts for his dark comedy Card House; and a 2004 Best Comedy Award at the Ivy Film Festival for co-writing the screenplay and songs to the film Winning Caroline. Mitnick is adding novelist to his list of talents with the near completion of his first book, “Ending Hazel Harper” while pursuing a M.F.A. at the Yale School of Drama.

As one-half of the Oscar-winning songwriting team the Sherman Brothers, BMI composer Robert Sherman has written some of the best-loved and most-recognized songs in history, including such Disney themes as Mary Poppins, The Jungle Book, Parent Trap, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and The Aristocats. With 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 for songs like “Chim Chim Cheree,” “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” and “It’s A Small World (After All),” considered the most-translated and most-performed song on earth.

The BMI Foundation, Inc. is a not-for-profit corporation founded in 1985 to support the creation, performance, and study of music through awards, scholarships, commissions and grants. Tax-deductible donations to the Foundation come primarily from songwriters, composers and publishers, BMI employees and members of the public with a special interest in music. Because both the Foundation staff and the distinguished members of the Advisory Panel serve without compensation, over 95% of all donations and income are used for charitable grants.