Stephen Hinton wins Kurt Weill Book Prize

The 2013 Kurt Weill Book Prize for outstanding scholarship in music theater has been awarded to Stephen Hinton, the Avalon Foundation Professor in the Humanities and Professor of Music.

Hinton won the award for his book Weill’s Musical Theater: Stages of Reform. Published in 2012 by the University of California Press, Hinton’s musicological study offers the most comprehensive overview yet of Weill’s output for the stage, according to a press release by the Kurt Weill Foundation.

“In tracing Weill’s extraordinary journey as a theatrical composer, comparing his works to each other while situating them within larger contexts, Hinton demonstrates how Weill’s experiments with a range of genres, forms and styles constitute a continuously innovative and coherent development, from his first children’s pantomime and early operas through his final Broadway musical,” according to the press release. “Hinton’s long-term engagement with Weill has resulted in several other essential volumes, including Kurt Weill: The Threepenny Opera for the Cambridge Opera Handbooks series and the critical edition of the score and text of Die Dreigroschenoper for the Kurt Weill Edition.”

Awarded biennially by the Kurt Weill Foundation for Music, the Kurt Weill Prize recognizes distinguished scholarship in musical theater since 1900, including opera and dance. Books and articles published in 2011-2012 were eligible for the 2013 prize; nominations were reviewed by a panel of music and theater experts.