PARTICIPANTS
Get to know all the music creators and industry pros participating in this year's ASCAP Experience.
AMBER LIU
A California native, Amber Liu was discovered at the age of 15 at SM Entertainment’s global auditions in Los Angeles. Following a move to South Korea, she debuted in 2009 as a member of the female group f(x). The record-breaking electro-pop-based K-pop group quickly became one of the industry’s most popular and award-winning. In 2015, Amber’s first solo release, the critically acclaimed album Beautiful, debuted at #2 on Billboard’s World Albums chart, with the title track’s music video, released the same day, garnering more than 1 million YouTube views in its first day of release.
Over the past two years, Amber has been an advocate for body positivity and mental health when her “Where’s My Chest” message video went viral. She’s also an accomplished producer and co-wrote the hit digital show on FICTO hosting “I’ll Ask the Stupid Questions” while directing some of her hit music videos. She has also made a career on television and film, hosting travel and variety shows globally and has since released an array of critically acclaimed solo projects with her most personal to date, her EP titled Z!.
AMY WADGE
Amy Wadge is one of the UK’s most prolific contemporary songwriters.
She has accumulated numerous cuts and has co-written both for and with established and emerging artists alike, amongst them: Camila Cabello, Alicia Keys, Kacey Musgraves, John Legend, Joshua Bassett, Noah Cyrus, Diana Ross, Tom Grennan, Anthony Ramos, Kylie Minogue, Lady A, Keith Urban, James Blunt, Mae Muller, Christina Perri, Mahalia, Griff and Shakira.
Amy’s most notable success to date comes from her long-established writing partnership with Ed Sheeran. "Thinking Out Loud" was the third single from Ed’s second album, the triple Grammy nominated X (Multiply). "Thinking Out Loud" went to #1 on the UK charts in November 2014. In June 2015, it became the first track ever in the history of the UK charts to remain in the top 40 for a whole year. In February 2016, the track won two Grammys, Song of the Year and Best Pop Solo Performance. To date, Amy has 12 Grammy nominations.
Amy’s artist profile has been elevated in recent years as the songwriter and performer behind the BBC Drama series Keeping Faith. The songs from this series have left an emotional connection with their audience.
CARTER BURWELL
CARTER BURWELL has composed the music for a number of feature films, including Blood Simple, Raising Arizona, Miller's Crossing, Fargo, Gods and Monsters, Being John Malkovich, Before Night Falls, Adaptation, In Bruges, Twilight, True Grit, Anomalisa, Carol, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri and The Tragedy of Macbeth.
He also composed the music for the Apple TV+ series The Morning Show. His writing includes the essay "Music at Six: Scoring the News Then and Now," published in the inaugural issue of Esopus magazine in 2003 and reprinted in Harper's Magazine, the essay “No Country for Old Music” in the 2013 Oxford Handbook of New Audiovisual Aesthetics, and “How Nino Rota Saved Me From a Subterranean Freakout” in Arcana IX.
DAVID HENRY HWANG
David Henry Hwang’s stage work includes the plays M. Butterfly, Chinglish, Yellow Face, Golden Child, The Dance and the Railroad, and FOB, as well as the Broadway musicals Aida, Flower Drum Song (2002 revival) and Disney’s Tarzan.
Called America’s most-produced living opera librettist by Opera News, he has written 13 libretti, including five works with composer Philip Glass and two with Bright Sheng, whose Dream of the Red Chamber will be revived this summer at San Francisco Opera. He has also collaborated with composers Unsuk Chin and Howard Shore. With Huang Ruo, he has written An American Soldier, The Rift and the upcoming M. Butterfly (Santa Fe Opera).
Hwang’s screenplays include M. Butterfly and he is penning the live-action feature musical remake of Disney’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame. For television, he was a Writer/Consulting Producer for the Golden Globe-
winning television series The Affair from 2015-2019 and is currently creating two TV series. He co-wrote the gold record “Solo” with the late pop music icon Prince.
Hwang is a Tony Award winner and three-time nominee, a Grammy Award winner and two-time nominee, a three-time OBIE Award winner, and a three-time Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Drama. He was inducted into the Theatre Hall of Fame in 2018 and his star was unveiled on the Lucille Lortel Playwrights Sidewalk in 2022.
Hwang’s most recent musical, Soft Power, written with composer Jeanine Tesori, received a Grammy nomination for Best Musical Theatre Album and was a Finalist for the 2020 Pulitzer Prize.
GERMAINE FRANCO
GERMAINE FRANCO is the first woman to score a Disney animated feature film with 2021’s Encanto, for which she received an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Score, a Golden Globe nomination for Best Original Score, an SCL Award nomination for Outstanding Original Score and an Annie Award nomination for Best Music in a Feature.
Germaine co-wrote and produced five of Coco’s six original songs with co-director, Adrian Molina, including “Un Poco Loco” and “Proud Corazón,” and provided additional music. Franco serves on the Advisory Board for Women In Media and The Neighborhood Music School. In 2018, Univision celebrated her work as one of “15 Latinas Who Are Changing The World As We Know It,” alongside Rita Moreno and Emma Gonzalez.
Recently, Franco scored Kung Fu Panda Land of Awesomeness for Universal Studios Beijing, which garnered an SCL Award nomination for Outstanding Original Score for Interactive Media. In 2020 she scored two #1 Netflix films, Work It, directed by Laura Terruso, and The Sleepover, directed by Trish Sie. She co-wrote and produced the main title theme song for the hit Nickelodeon show The Casagrandes. In 2019, Franco scored Little and Dora and the Lost City of Gold.
Additional scores include Tag, directed by Jeff Tomsic, and Dope, directed by Rick Famuyiwa. Her work is heard in concert halls around the world including the Walt Disney Concert Hall with The Los Angeles Master Chorale, The Puerto Rico Symphony, The Dallas Symphony Orchestra, The National Symphony Orchestra and The Chicago Philharmonic, among others.