Bette Midler, Joni Mitchell, Lorne Michaels among this year’s Kennedy Center honorees
Five artistic luminaries have been selected to receive Kennedy Center honors this year, as the arts institution gears up to hold its 44th annual awards ceremony.
Legendary folk singer Joni Mitchell, “Saturday Night Live” creator Lorne Michaels and stage and screen icon Bette Middler, Motown creator Berry Gordy and operatic bass-baritone Justino Díaz will grace the stage later this year with a ceremony back at full capacity.
Their “art and creativity have enriched us beyond measure,” Kennedy Center Chairman David Rubenstein said in a statement.
The 44th class of honorees for lifetime achievement in the creative arts is heavy on musical performers.
There is Díaz who, with his “distinguished, deeply resonant voice and storied operatic career” has sung at the world’s great opera houses “and today stands as one of the greatest bass-baritones of our time,” Rubenstein said.
There’s “visionary music producer and songwriter” Gordy, who “brought the quintessential soulfulness of Detroit into every home in America, elevating the Motown sound to become a national treasure.”
As for Michaels, he “created the most enduring ‘must-see television’ with “Saturday Night Live,” a show that is both mirror and muse for life in America; an artistic tour de force.”
Then there is “America’s Divine Miss M,” Midler, who during an “unrivaled and prolific career” has entertained millions with her “wondrous voice and trademark comedic wit.”
Folks singer and overall songstress Mitchell “blends raw, deeply personal lyrics with her stunningly ethereal voice” and has become “one of the most influential singer-songwriters and cultural figures in 20th-century popular music.” Rubenstein said, noting her 19 albums.
“This year’s Honorees represent the unifying power of the Arts and surely remind us of that which binds us together as human beings,” Kennedy Center president Deborah Rutter said in the statement. “These artists are equal parts genius, inspiration, and entertainment.”
“After the challenges and heartbreak of the last many months, and as we celebrate 50 years of the Kennedy Center, I dare add that we are prepared to throw ‘the party to end all parties’ in D.C. on December 5th, feting these extraordinary people and welcoming audiences back to our campus,” Rutter continued.
That came with a bit of a caveat, given the uncertainties of the pandemic’s course.
Deborah Rutter, president of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, said The current plan is to pack the center’s opera house to full capacity and require all attendees to wear masks, she told The Associated Press.
But these plans remain fluid, and Rutter said they’re ready to adapt to changing circumstances depending on the country’s COVID-19 situation.
“We don’t know for sure what it’s going to be like,” Rutter told AP. “But don’t you think we all deserve to have a party?”
Last year’s festivities were delayed from December 2020, given the lack of indoor programming. In May the center held a slimmed-down ceremony consisting of a series of small socially distanced gatherings and pre-taped video performances replacing the normal gala event.
“We know how to do it now. We will make whatever adjustments we need,” Rutter told AP. “We’re going to be wearing masks right up until we don’t have to.”
The 75-year-old Midler has won four Grammy Awards, three Emmys, and two Tony Awards, along with two Oscar nominations. Her albums have sold over 30 million copies.
She was “stunned and grateful beyond words,” she said, at her nomination. “For many years I have watched this broadcast celebrating the best talent in the performing arts that America has to offer, and I truly never imagined that I would find myself among these swans.”
“I wish my mother and father were alive to see this,” the Canadian-born Mitchell, 77, said in a statement. “It’s a long way from Saskatoon.”
Gordy told AP that President John Kennedy had long been one of his idols, “”So to be honored in his name just means the world to me.”
Díaz, who with his singing voice hails from San Juan, Puerto Rico, said it was “such a great privilege to be able to say I shared this space with all these geniuses.”
With News Wire Services
