Jerry Bock

Born in New Haven, Connecticut, and raised in New York City, composer Jerry Bock is best-known for creating the Broadway musical Fiddler on the Roof together with Sheldon Harnick. Bock began his Broadway career alongside Lawrence Holofcener composing songs for Catch a Star and Mr. Wonderful, a vehicle for Sammy Davis Jr. With Harnick, Bock won the Tony Award for Best Musical as well as the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for Fiorello! (1959), based on the life of controversial New York mayor Fiorello LaGuardia. The Jerry Bock Award for Excellence in Musical Theater is given annually to the lyricist and composer of a project developed in the BMI Foundation’s Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop.