Douglas Besterman and Ralph Burns, have won the 2002 Tony Award for Best Orchestrations. A list of all the nominees follows:
BEST ORCHESTRATIONS:
Benny Andersson, Bjorn Ulvaeus and Martin Koch, Mamma Mia!
Benny Andersson was born in Stockholm on December 16, 1946. Instructed by his father and grandfather, he started to play the accordion at the age of six, and he has not stopped yet.
Mr. Koch's most notable productions are Les Miserables, Miss Saigon and Oliver, for which he was the original conductor and musical supervisor. He has recorded 20 albums and has his own music production company called Koch and Gilpin, which produced the Mamma Mia! cast album.
After a successful career in Sweden with a folk group in the mid-60s, he started his collaboration with Benny Andersson. They went on to form ABBA with Agnetha Faltskog and Anni-Frid Lyngstad. In 1981, Bjorn and Benny met Tim Rice and with him co-wrote Chess, which opened in the West End in 1986. In 1995 Bjorn and Benny opened a new musical Kristina From Duvemala, which ran for three years in Sweden.
Douglas Besterman and Ralph Burns, Thoroughly Modern Millie
Mr. Besterman: Broadway: The Producers (Tony, Drama Desk Awards), Fosse (Tony Award), The Music Man, Seussical, Big, Damn Yankees. Film/TV: Mulan, Anastasia, "Cinderella," "Annie," "Chicago." Arranged/conducted for Toni Braxton, Patti LuPone, Barry Manilow, Mandy Patinkin, Barbra Streisand, Chita Rivera.
Mr. Burns was Woody Herman's arranger, Bob Fosse's film composer (Oscars for Cabaret and All That Jazz) and Broadway's leading orchestrator. Broadway credits include Funny Girl, Chicago, Sweet Charity, Dancin', Little Me, Pippin and Fosse (Tony Award), among others. Ralph died in 2001, leaving Millie as his final work.
Bruce Coughlin, Urinetown
Floyd Collins (Obie), Annie Get Your Gun (Grammy), The Wild Party (Broadway), Candide (London), On the Town, The Sound of Music, Triumph of Love, Once Upon a Mattress, The King and I (all Broadway), Martin Guerre (Chicago), Children of Eden (U.S.), others. Principal arranger for Disney's Fantasia 2000. Also: Audra McDonald, Patti LuPone, Kristin Chenoweth, Darius deHaas, Boston Pops, San Francisco and London Symphonies and more. William David Brohn, Sweet Smell of Success
Mr. Brohn received the 1998 Tony Award for Best Orchestrations for Ragtime. His work has been heard globally in Miss Saigon, The Secret Garden, Show Boat, Crazy for You and Carousel and in London's Oliver!, Witches of Eastwick, Oklahoma! (currently on Broadway), My Fair Lady and South Pacific. He earned a Grammy nomination for Joshua Bell's recording of Bernstein's West Side Story Suite for Violin and Orchestra.
