West Side Story book wins Music in American Culture Award from the American Musicological Society

In November, 2012, at the annual conference of the American Musicological Society, Elizabeth Wells received the Music in American Culture Award for her book West Side Story: Cultural Perspectives on an American Musical.  According to the American Musicological Society website, “The Music in American Culture Award honors each year a book of exceptional merit that both illuminates some important aspect of the music of the United States and places that music in a rich cultural context. The goal of this award is to recognize the best writing on music in American culture, regardless of the source or intended audience of that writing; hence work by a broad range of authors—including performing musicians, journalists, and music critics, as well as academic scholars—will be considered. Books published in the previous year in any language and in any country are eligible. “Previous year” refers to the copyright year as found on the copyright page of the book. The author must be a citizen or permanent resident of the United States or Canada. A book may receive only one AMS award in a given year.”