Maxyne B. Lang is President of Williamson Music and Williamson Music International, which are respectively the U.S. and global publishing divisions of The Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization (RHO).
Lang began her music publishing career at the legendary Chappell/Intersong Music Group. During her 11 -year tenure at Chappell/Intersong, she rose through the ranks to become Vice President of Special Products and Standards, and represented a broad spectrum of music, including the catalogues of Rod Stewart, the Bee Gees, Leiber and Stoller, Pomus and Shuman, George and Ira Gershwin, Cole Porter, and Rodgers and Hammerstein. When Chappell/Intersong was sold to Warner Bros., Lang remained as Vice President until she left in 1988 to become President of Williamson Music.
Williamson Music was established in 1944 by the legendary duo of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II (both sons of men named William). Today, Williamson Music (ASCAP) and R&H Music (BMI) represent the catalogues of Richard Rodgers, Oscar Hammerstein II, Lorenz Hart, Irving Berlin and T. S. Eliot, among others. Equally committed to contemporary talent, their roster also includes: Gary Adler, Nell Benjamin, Jeff Bowen, John Bucchino, Ann Hampton Calloway, Joe DiPietro, Scott Frankel, Ricky Ian Gordon, Adam Guettel, Sheldon Harnick, Michael Korie, Henry Krieger, Robert Lopez, Jeff Marx, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Laurence O’Keefe, Jimmy Roberts, Stephen Schwartz, Charles Strouse, Michael Patrick Walker, Bob Walton, Jim Walton, and David Zippel.
Under Lang’s leadership, Williamson Music remains committed to writers of today while celebrating standards by the giants of the past. Williamson Music’s current and diverse successes include: In the Heights (2008 Tony Award, Best Musical), with a Tony Award winning score by Lin-Manuel Miranda; Legally Blond, with a 2007 Tony Award nominated score by Laurence O’Keefe and Nell Benjamin; Grey Gardens, with a 2007 Tony Award nominated score by Michael Korie and Scott Frankel; The Light in the Piazza, with a 2005 Tony Award winning score by Adam Guettel; Avenue O (2004 Tony Award, Best Musical), with a Tony Award winning score by Lopez & Marx; the 200th Broadway musical [title of show] with a score by Jeff Bowen; and such long-running Off-Broadway musical hits as Altar Boyz (score by Gary Adler and Michael Patrick Walker), and I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change (score by Joe DiPietro and Jimmy Roberts).
Artists from across the music spectrum continue to celebrate the Williamson Music catalogues, ranging from OutKast to Twisted Sister. Following her tribute to Harnick’s “If I Were a Rich Man” with the hit single “Rich Girl” in 2005, pop icon Gwen Stefani had a Billboard top-10 hit in late 2006 called “Wind It Up,” which sampled Rodgers and Hammerstein’s yodeling classic, “The Lonely Goatherd.”
A dynamic industry leader, Lang was elected to the NMPA Board of Directors in 1994, and became a member of the board of the Harry Fox Agency in 2001. She is also a member of the NMPA Finance Committees, and is currently Chairman of the Communication and Public Relations Committee. She is serving her fifth term as a member of the ASCAP Board of Review. In addition, Lang served for four years on the Steering Committee of the New York Chapter of NMPA’s Music Publishers Forum and for three terms on the Board of Directors of the New York chapter of the Association of Independent Music Publishers (AIMP). In 1998, Lang became a member of the board of the Songwriters’ Hall of Fame. In recognition of her dedication to the AIMP and success as an independent music publisher, Lang was honored with the organization’s 1999 Indie Award. In 2003, she received the Touchstone Women in Music Award.