John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, in Washington DC, has this week announced the selection of five honorees to receive 2019 Kennedy Center Honors for lifetime artistic achievement – including American conductor Michael Tilson Thomas.
The 2019 honorees are:
- Conductor Michael Tilson Thomas
- Actress Sally Field
- Singer Linda Ronstadt
- Band Earth Wind & Fire
- TV Show Sesame Street
"The Kennedy Center Honors celebrates icons who, through their artistry, have left an indelible stamp on our collective cultural consciousness ... the primary criterion in the selection process is excellence," Kennedy Center Chairman David M. Rubenstein has this week said.
The accolades will be presented at a live ceremony at the venue on the 7th of December this year.
Previous recipients include: Frank Sinatra, Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly, Ella Fitzgerald, Aretha Franklin, Count Basie, Tennessee Williams, Stevie Wonder, Barbra Streisand, Oprah Winfrey, Arthur Rubinstein, Aaron Copland, Leonard Bernstein, Rudolf Serkin, Eugene Ormandy, Isaac Stern, Yehudi Menuhin, Nathan Milstein, Mstislav Rostropovich, Georg Solti, Jessye Norman, Andre Previn, Placido Domingo, Van Cliburn, Luciano Pavarotti, James Levine, Itzhak Perlman, Joan Sutherland, John Williams, Zubin Mehta, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Leon Fleisher, Seiji Ozawa and Martha Argerich.
