“Actor Al Pacino, musician James Taylor, gospel and blues singer Mavis Staples, Argentine pianist Martha Argerich, and rockers the Eagles will receive the 2016 Kennedy Center Honors,” writes Peggy McGlone in Thursday’s (6/23) Washington Post. “Surprise guests and A-list performers will celebrate the honorees’ lifetime achievements at a live performance Dec. 4 [to be] broadcast Dec. 27 on CBS.” Kennedy Center President Deborah Rutter said, “ ‘The Kennedy Center Honors are the very best of the artists of their genre … Martha gives herself completely to the power of the music. She enters the music itself…. We haven’t had an instrumentalist in a really, really long time.’… The Kennedy Center receives nominations from citizens, board members, past honorees and others. A special advisory committee culls the list, and the executive committee of the arts center’s board of trustees makes the final selection. The night before the performance, Secretary of State John F. Kerry will present the rainbow-ribboned medallions at a State Department dinner. A White House reception precedes the main event, when, according to tradition, the honorees sit with the president and first lady.”
Posted June 24, 2016
