'Sesame Street' and Earth, Wind & Fire among Kennedy Center honorees

The iconic children's television program "Sesame Street" along with the R&B collective Earth, Wind & Fire will be among those recognized at this year's Kennedy Center Honors, one of America's most prestigious arts awards.

The Kennedy Center -- Washington's performing arts complex that serves as a living monument to slain president John F. Kennedy -- announced Thursday that actress Sally Field, genre-spanning singer Linda Ronstadt and 11-time Grammy winning conductor Michael Tilson Thomas would also be among the 2019 class.

The choice of "Sesame Street" -- a childhood staple that premiered in 1969 to high viewership and glowing reviews, which this year is celebrating its 50th anniversary -- marks the first time the Kennedy Center will honor a television program and the second time it chose a work of art rather than individuals.

Last year's inclusion of the groundbreaking musical "Hamilton" was the first such instance.

The program's co-founders will accept the award on the show's behalf, the Kennedy Center said. There was no word yet on whether cast members including the bright yellow Big Bird and furry red monster Elmo, known for his falsetto voice, will attend the December 8 gala.

"In this class of Honorees, we are witnessing a uniquely American story: one that is representative of so many cultural touchstones and musical moments that make our nation great," said Kennedy Center President Deborah Rutter in a statement. 

"We're not just looking back; these Honorees are urging us to look forward as well."

Criticism of Trump
The Kennedy Center Honors traditionally take place in the presence of the president, but Donald Trump, despised by many cultural and entertainment figures, has skipped Washington's rare night of red-carpet glamour for the past two years.

A number of this year's nominees have criticized the president: the funk-inflected Earth, Wind and Fire requested Trump stop using its music during his 2016 campaign, and folk-tinged Ronstadt has voiced anger over the White House separation of immigrant families at the US-Mexico border.

The 73-year-old Ronstadt -- who the Center dubbed the "consummate American artist -- sang her last concert in 2009 after a four-decade career that saw her deftly perform everything from country and rock to opera and Broadway standards.

Earth, Wind and Fire's unique poppy blend of funk, jazz, soul and R&B has made them one of the best-selling musical groups of all time. The legendary group has played before former presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton.

Tilson Thomas, 74, currently the director of the San Francisco Symphony, has conducted major orchestras throughout the US and Europe, garnering accolades including France's Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.

And the Oscar-winning Field, 72, boasts extensive film credits including "Forrest Gump" and "Steel Magnolias" along with top television roles including on "Sybil" and "ER."

The gala, now in its 42nd year, will be broadcast on US network CBS on December 15. 

source: news.abs-cbn.com

The Eagles, George Lucas, Carole King to get Kennedy Center honors

The Eagles, singer-songwriter Carole King and acclaimed "Star Wars" director George Lucas are to be recognized at the 2015 Kennedy Center Honors, one of the highest awards in American culture.

The annual honors, announced on Wednesday, celebrate lifetime contributions to U.S. culture through the performing arts.

Other honorees include Broadway actress Cicely Tyson, known for portraying strong female characters; classical music director Seiji Ozawa, who led the Boston Symphony Orchestra for 29 years; and veteran Puerto Rican actress Rita Moreno of "West Side Story" movie fame.

The awards will be presented at a gala at Washington D.C.'s John F. Kennedy Center on Dec. 6, attended by President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama.

Kennedy Center president Deborah Rutter said this year's honorees were all "artists as history-makers, artists who defy both convention and category."

"Their individual paths to excellence are inspirational and their contributions to the fabric of American culture are equally permanent and timeless," Rutter said in a statement.

Previous Kennedy Center honorees include Meryl Streep, Steven Spielberg, Oprah Winfrey and Elton John.

(Reporting by Katie Reilly; Editing by Jill Serjeant and Marguerita Choy)

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Obama salutes entertainers taking a Washington bow

WASHINGTON - Music legend Led Zeppelin was recognized on Sunday alongside entertainers from stage and screen for their contributions to the arts and American culture at the Kennedy Center Honors, lifetime achievement awards for performing artists.

The eclectic tribute in Washington, alternated between solemn veneration and lighthearted roasting of honorees Academy Award-winning actor Dustin Hoffman, wisecracking late-night talk show host David Letterman, blues guitar icon Buddy Guy, ballerina Natalia Makarova and Led Zeppelin.

"I worked with the speechwriters - there is no smooth transition from ballet to Led Zeppelin," President Barack Obama deadpanned while introducing the honorees in a ceremony in the White House East Room.

Friends, contemporaries and a new generation of artists influenced by the honorees took the stage in tribute.

"Dustin Hoffman is a pain the ass," actor Robert DeNiro said in introducing Hoffman, the infamously perfectionist star of such celebrated films as "The Graduate" and "Tootsie."

"And he inspired me to be a bit of a pain in the ass too," DeNiro said with a big smile.

At a weekend dinner for the winners at the State Department, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton noted that the performing arts often requires a touch of diplomacy as she toasted Makarova, a dance icon in the former Soviet Union when she defected in 1970.

Tiler Peck of the New York City Ballet, who performed in "Other Dances," one of Makarova's signature roles, said she has studied her idol's technique for years.

"This is a role she created," Peck said.

Despite the president's misgivings about his own speech, the performance at the Kennedy Center navigated the transition from refined ballet to gritty blues music when the spotlight turned to Guy, a sharecropper's son who made his first instrument with wire scrounged from around his family's home in rural Louisiana.

"He's one of the most idiosyncratic and passionate blues greats, and there are not many left of that original generation...," said Bonnie Raitt, who as an 18-year-old blues songstress was often the warm-up act for Guy.

George "Buddy" Guy, 76, was a pioneer in the Chicago blues style that pushed the sound of electrically amped guitar to the forefront of the music.

"You mastered the soul of gut bucket," actor Morgan Freeman told the Kennedy Center audience. "You made a bridge from roots to rock 'n roll."

In a toast on Saturday night, former President Bill Clinton talked of Guy's impoverished upbringing and how he improvised a guitar from the strands of a porch screen, paint can and his mother's hair pins.

"In Buddy's immortal phrase, the blues is 'Something you play because you have it. And when you play it, you lose it.'"

It was a version of the blues that drifted over the Atlantic to Britain and came back in the finger-rattling rock sound of Led Zeppelin.

Jimmy Page, 68, was the guitar impresario who anchored the compositions with vocalist Robert Plant, 64, howling and screeching out the soul. Bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones, 66, rounded out the band with drummer John Bonham, who died in 1980.

The incongruity of the famously hard-partying rock stars sitting in black tie under chandeliers at a White House ceremony was not lost on Obama.

"Of course, these guys also redefined the rock and roll lifestyle," the president said, to laughter and sheepish looks from the band members.

"So it's fitting that we're doing this in a room with windows that are about three inches thick - and Secret Service all around," Obama said. "So, guys, just settle down."

The gala will be aired on CBS television on December 26.

source: abs-cbnnews.com