Cabaret composer John Bucchino began playing piano for singer Holly Near in 1984. Despite the subsequent release of the solo LPs On the Arrow and Solitude Lessons, he nevertheless earned greater fame as a writer than as a prerformer, with songs recorded by everyone from Art Garfunkel to Patti LuPone to Kathie Lee Gifford. Bucchino's stage credits include songs for the musicals The Artist at 40, Urban Myths, and Lavender Girl; the winner of the 1997 Johnny Mercer Songwriter Award, a year later he netted both the Songwriters' Fellowship Award and the ASCAP Foundation Richard Rodgers New Horizons Award. In 2000, Bucchino and co-writer David Campbell earned the MAC Award for their show, Sweet Dreams; that same year RCA issued the all-star Grateful: The Songs of John Bucchino. ~ Jason Ankeny, Rovi