When weeks-long productions of "Wicked" sell out in the Cultural District, Pittsburghers who delight in the music and songs are acknowledging the work of composer-lyricist Stephen Schwartz, who honed his craft at Carnegie Mellon University and who is the 2009 recipient of the Richard Rodgers Award for Excellence in Musical Theater.

The past two winners -- Shirley Jones and siblings Rob and Kathleen Marshall -- have been Western Pennsylvanians, and now with Schwartz, there are local ties as well.

Purely coincidental, says Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera artistic director Van Kaplan, "but we of course love it when it happens.

The award is given to an individual who has devoted his life to the musical theater. Past recipients [including Stephen Sondheim and Andrew Lloyd Webber] have filled the goals and mission of the award, so choosing someone from here is not by design.

"Coincidentally, Stephen has been on our list, and it's a short list. It's about timing, whether people can come and accept the award. ... We like to wait for our recipients to be able to come and accept the award, and the timing worked out."

The CLO, in conjunction with The Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization, and Rodgers' daughter, composer Mary Rodgers Guettel, will bestow the honor at Pittsburgh CLO's annual Pink Frolic Gala on May 9.

Schwartz hopes to have time for a master class at CMU as well.

The songwriter for "Godspell," "Pippin" and "Wicked" and animated films, plus a mentor to other composer-lyricists on both coasts, is a native New Yorker, but he jumps in when he's asked if accepting the award here feels like coming home.

"Oh, certainly. I really do feel that way about Pittsburgh because I feel it was the beginning of my musical theater education," he said by phone last week from Los Angeles. He was taking a moment out from working on his first opera, a commission from the Santa Barbara company and an adaptation of the 1964 movie thriller "Seance on a Wet Afternoon."

Previous winners of Rodgers Award

Schwartz has been named the Rodgers Award winner, Kaplan said, because he has "the combination of someone who has devoted his life to the theater for more than 30 years, starting very early, and then 30 years later, to knock it out of the park, with 'Wicked' ... "

For his part, the recipient notes that he will have awards recognizing both halves of the great musical theater duo: one named for "the astoundingly influential" Rodgers and his partner, lyricist Oscar Hammerstein.

Schwartz's earliest Broadway successes, "Godspell" and "Pippin," were begun at CMU. "Pippin" was originally written for the school's Scotch 'n' Soda Theatre in 1967 by Ron Strauss and Schwartz, who also wrote music for "Godspell," which orginated as a project by director John-Michael Tebelak.

"Godspell" hit Broadway in 1971, and "Pippin" arrived a year later. At one point, Schwartz had three shows on the Great White Way: "Godspell," "Pippin" and "The Magic Show" (which opened in 1974).

His film career took off when he collaborated with composer Alan Menken on the scores for the Disney animated features "Pocahontas," for which he wrote "Colors of the Wind" and received two Academy Awards and a Grammy, and "The Hunchback of Notre Dame."

He also provided songs for DreamWorks' first animated feature, "The Prince of Egypt" and won another Oscar for the song "When You Believe."

In recent years, Kaplan has watched Schwartz, 60, work on both coasts as a "mentor and a nurturer" of aspiring composer-lyricists through the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers and Disney Musical Theater workshops.

"Listening to him make astute comments for young writers presenting their work is like a master class. And invigorating for me," Kaplan said.

Schwartz says he draws inspiration from the workshops "in terms of it making me more aware of my own process. ... And then I try to pass along experiences, save some talented writer who's not as far along as I, some of the false steps and blind alleys that one stumbles down, and sort of ease their way."

"The whole point," he adds, "is to help individuals find a way to use their own voice."

It's also gratifying that years after his early successes, "Wicked" has connected with people of all ages and "his musical language" is still reaching young theater-goers and children newly discovering his film work, too.

Besides the daunting task of creating his first opera, which is due to launch in September, he's consulting on "a couple of important revivals." Deaf West of L.A. recently opened "Pippin" and next month, he's going to San Diego to help with a new production of "Working," based on the Studs Terkel book.

"It's a little overwhelming," Schwartz said of his schedule, but he won't pass up the opportunity to come home and focus a spotlight on musical theater.

"Pittsburgh is such a fertile ground for musical theater students, particulary with the advent in the past several years of Carnegie Mellon, where a lot of major performers and writers come from. It's nice that an award that's set in Pittsburgh, if you will, recognizes that whenever possible."