Composer Justin Hurwitz and director Damien Chazelle will receive the 2023 Spirit of Collaboration Award at the 4th Annual Society of Composers & Lyricists (SCL) Awards on February 15, 2023 at the Skirball Cultural Center, hosted by Darren Criss and featuring special performances. The Spirit of Collaboration is an achievement award presented to a composer and filmmaker who maintain a distinguished creative partnership reflected in their body of work. Hurwitz and Chazelle have collaborated on acclaimed projects including Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench (2009), Whiplash (2014), La La Land (2016), First Man (2018), and Babylon (2022). Previous recipients of the Spirit of Collaboration Award include Thomas Newman and Sam Mendes, Carter Burwell and the Coen Brothers, and Terence Blanchard and Spike Lee.
Chazelle and Justin Hurwitz’s collaboration began as classmates at Harvard University; playing together in a band. Their professional director-composer relationship began with their musical, Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench, and through the music-centric films Whiplash and La La Land. The latter garnered a Best Director Oscar for Chazelle and Best Score and Best Song Oscars for Hurwitz. Their recent projects include First Man and this year’s Babylon.
The SCL will also present two 2023 Jury Awards in recognition of the increasing number of ways music is used in an audiovisual context. The Jury Awards, adjudicated by the SCL Board of Directors, will be presented to the opera, Omar, and the audiovisual concert experience, Women Warriors: The Voices of Change. The SCL Board of Directors found both Omar and Women Warriors: The Voices of Change exemplify excellence and amplify the importance of musical and visual interaction by their very creation.
Omar narrates Omar Ibn Said’s 1831 autobiography, beginning long before the 37-year-old West African scholar was made to board a ship bound for Charleston, South Carolina—the site of his enslavement and sale. Though his memoir ends some 30 years before he was laid to rest, still enslaved, this record of his life and Muslim faith reveals a refusal to be defined or erased by his captors.
Women Warriors: The Voices of Change is a groundbreaking concert creation that honors the strength and heroism of global activists fighting for social justice, human and civil rights, LGBTQ rights, environmental causes, minority rights, gender equality and the right of every girl to have access to education. This production features original music by eight composers and over 65 activists who have changed the course of history. Amy Andersson is the musical director of Women Warriors: The Voices of Change.
