Actor Morgan Freeman joins singer Barbra Streisand, Who
musicians Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey, choreographer Twyla Tharp and
country musician George Jones as the 2008 recipients of the Kennedy Center
Honors, organizers said on Tuesday, Sept. 9.
A gala is going to occur in all its brilliance at the John F. Kennedy Center
for the Performing Arts in Washington
DC on December 7, when all six
honorees will be congratulated for their excellent contributions to art by
President George W. Bush and first lady Laura Bush.
This is the last time the presidential couple receives
honorees at the customary White House reception. The 2008 honorees will receive
their decorations the night before, during a ceremony, from US secretary of
state Condoleezza Rice.
This is the highest national achievement in the performing
arts, honoring recipients for their excellence in dance, music, theater, opera,
motion pictures or television.
Laureates are selected by the center’s board of trustees.
The Kennedy Center bestows its awards annually upon artists from
around the world who have brought a remarkable contribution to US culture.
Kennedy
Center chairman Stephen
Schwarzman said in a statement that all of this year’s recipients possessed
“extraordinary genius and tenacity.” Their work has “redefined the way we see,
hear and feel the performing arts,” Schwarzman added buoyantly.
Morgan Freeman, 71, who has received an Academy Award for Best
Supporting Actor for his work in the 2004 Clint Eastwood-directed drama
“Million Dollar Baby,” is currently resting after being injured in a car crash
last month.
Barbra Streisand, also an Academy Award winner, for Best
Actress (“Funny Girl,” 1968) and Best Original Song in 1976, said she was “humbled
and thrilled” to be included on the roll of honor.
As for Roger Daltrey, 64, and Pete Townshend, 63, founding members
of seminal rock band The Who, Schwarzman said the two British musicians had “transformed
the sights and sounds of rock and roll.”
At 67, Twyla Tharp’s work is considered to have had a strong
impact on modern dance, contemporary ballet and the Broadway musical, while
George Jones, 76, was once called by Frank Sinatra himself “the second best
singer in America.”
Last year’s recipients were filmmaker Martin Scorsese,
pianist Leon Fleisher, singer Diana Ross, actor Steve Martin and Beach Boys
musician Brian Wilson.
The 2008 event will be broadcast by CBS later in the month as
a two-hour prime time special.
The Honors recipients were recommended by past honorees as
well as by members of the Kennedy
Center’s national artists
committee. Previous recipients who made nominations were Clint Eastwood, Elton
John, and Sidney Poitier, among others, while artists making a proposal
included Alan Alda, Glenn Close, Joel Coen, Herbie Hancock, Paloma Herrera,
Hugh Jackman, Billy Joel, and Patti LuPone.
