Buddy Guy, Dustin Hoffman, David Letterman, Ntalia Makarova, and Led Zeppelin to receive the 35th annual Kennedy Center Honors. What a wonderful group they selected this year!
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts today announced the selection of the seven individuals who will receive the 2012 Kennedy Center Honors. Recipients to be honored at the 35th annual national celebration of the arts are: bluesman Buddy Guy, actor Dustin Hoffman, comedian and television host David Letterman, ballerina Natalia Makarova, and rock band Led Zeppelin. While Led Zeppelin is being honored as a band, keyboardist/bassist John Paul Jones, guitarist Jimmy Page, and singer Robert Plant will each receive the Kennedy Center Honors.
“With their extraordinary talent, creativity and tenacity, the seven 2012 Kennedy Center Honorees have contributed significantly to the cultural life of our nation and the world,” said Kennedy Center Chairman David M. Rubenstein. “Buddy Guy is a titan of the blues and has been a tremendous influence on virtually everyone who has picked up an electric guitar in the last half century; Dustin Hoffman’s unyielding commitment to the wide variety of roles he plays has made him one of the most versatile and iconoclastic actors of this or any other generation; David Letterman is one of the most influential personalities in the history of television, entertaining an entire generation of late-night viewers with his unconventional wit and charm; Natalia Makarova’s profound artistry has ignited the stages of the world’s greatest ballet companies and continues to pass the torch to the next generation of dancers; and Led Zeppelin’s John Paul Jones, Jimmy Page and Robert Plant transformed the sound of rock and roll with their lyricism and innovative song structures, infusing blues into the sound of rock and roll and laying the foundation for countless rock bands.”
The Honors Gala on December 2, 2012 will be recorded for broadcast on the CBS Network for the 35th consecutive year as a two-hour primetime special on Wednesday, December 26 at 9:00 p.m. (ET/PT).
George Stevens, Jr. will produce and co-write the Honors for the 35th year. Stevens and his Honors producing partner, Michael Stevens, have received three consecutive Emmy Awards for Outstanding Television Special for the Honors and are nominated again this year for the sixth consecutive time.
Past Honors recipients, as well as members of the Kennedy Center’s national artists committee, made recommendations of possible 2012 Honorees. Artists making recommendations included: Alan Alda, Joshua Bell, Stephen Colbert, Renée Fleming, Kris Kristofferson, Patti LuPone, Audra McDonald, Mark Morris, Lionel Richie, Frederica von Stade. Previous Kennedy Center Honorees, including Edward Albee, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Kirk Douglas, Angela Lansbury, Meryl Streep, Barbra Streisand, and Oprah Winfrey, also made nominations.
LINK
The Kennedy Center Honors website.
Note: Information supplied by John Dow of The Kennedy Center.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LpYsfgzTcIg&list=AL94UKMTqg-9CDxXoLwLjW311UUX6P-Pfk&index=3&feature=plcp
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Q7Vr3yQYWQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BAhT6WMwdfg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTOpkW4ZUMI
