Award suspended

ASCAP has put its Deems Taylor Awards for music writing on "hiatus," with no word on when or whether the annual awards will resume.

The Deems Taylor has been the highest honor that musicians bestow on the people who write about music. That's meaningful, professionally and personally, to the recipients. (I am one, vintage 2003.) I'll second the sentiments of Susan Elliott at Musical America, who writes: "It is an unfortunate turn of events for classical music coverage, an ever shrinking area that, now more than ever, deserves all the recognition it can get."