Announcing an honor.

Today, it was announced that I have been honored with the first Broadway World Special Editor's Award for Excellence in Songwriting by the editors of BroadwayWorld,com. Here is their description:

In a field with many deserving candidates, this year's first ever BWW New York Cabaret Award for "Excellence in Songwriting" goes to Steve Schalchlin, a New York-based composer and lyricist who has been on quite a cabaret roll the past two years. Although his two biggest recent projects, the CD and subsequent show, Tales From the Bonus Round, and his song cycle, New World Waking, were years in development, Schalchlin performed both in New York over the past couple of seasons. Bonus Round-which featured Schalchlin at the piano as lead singer--was performed as a cabaret show at the Metropolitan Room in October 2013 (and received a BWW Award nomination for "Best CD Release," and one of the songs garnered a nomination for "Best Original Song for a Cabaret Show"), while New World Waking received a standing ovation when performed at the Urban Stages Winter Rhythms Festival last month. "What makes Steve stand out above the rest for his recent body of work is that he not only writes both music and lyrics, but also performs his songs," says BWW New York Cabaret Editor Stephen Hanks. "But even more impressive is that his songs in Bonus Round compellingly chronicled his battle with the life-threatening AIDS disease, while New World Waking offered important messages about how our planet needs to finally overcome violence, war, racism, and prejudice-and how it might be possible through the power of music. Schalchlin's lyrically powerful and pleasingly melodic songs couldn't be timelier."

I have to thank, of course, Stephen Hanks, who has been a most ardent supporter of many of the best performers on the vibrant and growing cabaret scene in New York. For years, he has attended hundreds and hundreds of cabaret shows, essentially documenting this era in the world of New York Cabaret -- a scene that is always in flux.

With the death of so many live band clubs, many musicians and songwriter who, in earlier times would have been playing in blues clubs or folk clubs or rock clubs are finding themselves welcomed on cabaret stages.

Sure, traditionally, cabaret envelopes the Great American Songbook from earlier in the 20th century, so a certain amount of performing, acting and singing skills are required. But that doesn't mean there isn't room for a many more genres of music -- especially new material with personal, intimate moments, which is what cabaret is really all about.