Filmmaker Martin Scorsese and four other exceptional artists were honored with the highest national achievement in the performing arts at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts on Sunday night.
Director Martin Scorsese, comedian Steve Martin, singer Diana Ross, pianist Leon Fleisher and singer-songwriter Brian Wilson were truly celestial this weekend, as they received the Kennedy Center Honors Saturday night at a State Department dinner hosted by Secretary Condoleezza Rice and then were celebrated during a White House reception Sunday night, attended by President George W. Bush himself.
“In the careers of these five Americans, we see the very definition of excellence and passion,” President Bush said during the White House reception for the honorees.
The main event took place at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. This year’s five recipients were praised and honored by a melee of Hollywood stars and Washington politicians.
Martin Scorsese, 65, was recognized for his “visionary” contributions to the film industry. Director of such classics as “Taxi Driver,” “GoodFellas,” “Raging Bull” and the 2006 mob drama “The Departed,” which earned him a long overdue Academy Award, Scorsese was named a “fearless artist.”
Steve Martin, 62, a well-seasoned comedian who has hosted “Saturday Night Live” 14 times and starred in movies such as “The Jerk,” “The Man with Two Brains” and “Father of the Bride,” among others, was acclaimed as a “renaissance comic whose talents wipe out the boundaries between artistic disciplines.”
Former Beach Boys singer-songwriter, Brian Wilson, 65, was noted by the center for his “era-defining transformation of the sound of music.” Violinist Itzhak Perlman saluted Wilson as a “perennial Beach Boy” with an “everlasting place in the musical canon.”
Legendary soul singer Aretha Franklin reminisced how “the girl singer” in the middle of 1960s group The Supremes had “something” that intrigued her. “Needless to say, that young lady was Diana Ross.”
Diana Ross, 63, another member of the 30th class of Kennedy Center honorees, was recognized for her musical legacy with the Supremes and for her successful acting career, which saw her receive an Academy Award nomination for her portrayal of Billie Holiday in “Lady Sings the Blues.”
Pianist Leon Fleisher, 79, has a remarkable story to tell: as a celebrated adult pianist, he lost the use of his right hand due to a rare neurological disease. His passion helped him move on – he became a conductor and miraculously overcame the disease, regaining use of both hands. Fleisher was called a “moving testament to the life-affirming power of art.”
The two-hour event will air Dec. 26 on CBS.
This year’s five recipients of the Kennedy Center honors were announced in September and praised for their contributions to American culture. Recipients are cited for their excellence in the performing arts, dance, music, theater, opera, motion pictures or television, and selected by the center's board of trustees.