[attach id=245198 size="medium"]Stephen Sondheim[/attach]

Stephen Sondheim, who has worked on various film soundtracks, has won one of the top honours in the arts world, the Edward MacDowell Medal for lifetime achievement.

The MacDowell Colony, the New Hampshire-based artist residency programme, announced that Sondheim had received an award that has been given to Robert Frost and Georgia O’Keeffe among others.

Sondheim, 83, is known for classic musicals such as A Little Night Music and Into the Woods and various film soundtracks including Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007). He also wrote songs for Analyse That (2002), Starsky and Hutch (2004), Ella Enchanted (2004) and musical series Glee among many other films and TV productions. He will collect the prize in August.

In a statement issued through the MacDowell Colony, Sondheim called the award a “sort of homecoming”, noting that as a child he used to play compositions by the man for whom the medal and colony are named.

Edward MacDowell, who died in 1908, was known for pieces such as To a Wild Rose.