Kennedy Center Honors facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Kennedy Center Honors |
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Logotype symbolizing "a spectrum of many skills within the performing arts"
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| Awarded for | Lifetime contributions to American culture through the performing arts. |
| Presented by | Board of Trustees of the Kennedy Center |
| Country | US |
| First awarded | 1978 |
The Kennedy Center Honors is a special award given every year. It celebrates people who have made amazing contributions to American culture through the performing arts. This includes artists from all over the world, not just Americans.
Since 1978, these awards have been given out every December. There's a big, exciting show at the Kennedy Center Opera House to celebrate the winners. The people who receive this award are often famous artists. They might be movie directors, playwrights, or songwriters. Most of them are American. The President of the United States usually comes to the awards show. The ceremony takes place in Washington, D.C. at the Kennedy Center.
From 1978 to 2002, a famous news reporter named Walter Cronkite hosted the event. Since 2003, Caroline Kennedy has been the host.
Contents
Honoring Great Artists: Kennedy Center Recipients
1970s Honorees
- 1978 – Marian Anderson, Fred Astaire, George Balanchine, Richard Rodgers and Arthur Rubinstein
- 1979 – Aaron Copland, Ella Fitzgerald, Henry Fonda, Martha Graham and Tennessee Williams
1980s Honorees
- 1980 – Leonard Bernstein, James Cagney, Agnes de Mille, Lynn Fontanne, and Leontyne Price
- 1981 – Count Basie, Cary Grant, Helen Hayes, Jerome Robbins, and Rudolf Serkin
- 1982 – George Abbott, Lillian Gish, Benny Goodman, Gene Kelly, and Eugene Ormandy
- 1983 – Katherine Dunham, Elia Kazan, Frank Sinatra, James Stewart, and Virgil Thomson
- 1984 – Lena Horne, Danny Kaye, Gian Carlo Menotti, Arthur Miller, and Isaac Stern
- 1985 – Merce Cunningham, Irene Dunne, Bob Hope, Alan Jay Lerner & Frederick Loewe, and Beverly Sills
- 1986 – Lucille Ball, Hume Cronyn & Jessica Tandy, Yehudi Menuhin, Antony Tudor, and Ray Charles
- 1987 – Perry Como, Bette Davis, Sammy Davis, Jr., Nathan Milstein, and Alwin Nikolais
- 1988 – Alvin Ailey, George Burns, Myrna Loy, Alexander Schneider, and Roger L. Stevens
- 1989 – Harry Belafonte, Claudette Colbert, Alexandra Danilova, Mary Martin, and William Schuman
1990s Honorees
- 1990 – Dizzy Gillespie, Katharine Hepburn, Risë Stevens, Jule Styne, and Billy Wilder
- 1991 – Roy Acuff, Betty Comden & Adolph Green, Fayard & Harold Nicholas, Gregory Peck, and Robert Shaw
- 1992 – Lionel Hampton, Paul Newman & Joanne Woodward, Ginger Rogers, Mstislav Rostropovich, and Paul Taylor
- 1993 – Johnny Carson, Arthur Mitchell, Georg Solti, Stephen Sondheim, and Marion Williams
- 1994 – Kirk Douglas, Aretha Franklin, Morton Gould, Harold Prince, and Pete Seeger
- 1995 – Jacques d'Amboise, Marilyn Horne, B.B. King, Sidney Poitier, and Neil Simon
- 1996 – Edward Albee, Benny Carter, Johnny Cash, Jack Lemmon, and Maria Tallchief
- 1997 – Lauren Bacall, Bob Dylan, Charlton Heston, Jessye Norman, and Edward Villella
- 1998 – Fred Ebb & John Kander, Willie Nelson, André Previn, and Shirley Temple Black
- 1999 – Victor Borge, Sean Connery, Judith Jamison, Jason Robards, and Stevie Wonder
2000s Honorees
- 2000 – Mikhail Baryshnikov, Chuck Berry, Plácido Domingo, Clint Eastwood, and Angela Lansbury
- 2001 – Julie Andrews, Van Cliburn, Quincy Jones, Jack Nicholson, and Luciano Pavarotti
- 2002 – James Earl Jones, James Levine, Chita Rivera, Paul Simon, and Elizabeth Taylor
- 2003 – James Brown, Carol Burnett, Loretta Lynn, Mike Nichols, and Itzhak Perlman
- 2004 – Warren Beatty, Ossie Davis & Ruby Dee, Elton John, Joan Sutherland, and John Williams
- 2005 – Tony Bennett, Suzanne Farrell, Julie Harris, Robert Redford, and Tina Turner
- 2006 – Zubin Mehta, Dolly Parton, Smokey Robinson, Steven Spielberg, and Andrew Lloyd Webber
- 2007 – Leon Fleisher, Steve Martin, Diana Ross, Martin Scorsese, and Brian Wilson
- 2008 – Morgan Freeman, George Jones, Barbra Streisand, Twyla Tharp, and Pete Townshend & Roger Daltrey
- 2009 – Mel Brooks, Dave Brubeck, Grace Bumbry, Robert De Niro, and Bruce Springsteen
2010s Honorees
- 2010 — Merle Haggard, Jerry Herman, Bill T. Jones, Paul McCartney and Oprah Winfrey
- 2011 — Barbara Cook, Neil Diamond, Yo-Yo Ma, Sonny Rollins and Meryl Streep
- 2012 — Buddy Guy, Dustin Hoffman, Led Zeppelin (John Paul Jones, Jimmy Page and Robert Plant), David Letterman and Natalia Makarova
- 2013 — Martina Arroyo, Herbie Hancock, Billy Joel, Shirley MacLaine and Carlos Santana
- 2014 — Al Green, Tom Hanks, Patricia McBride, Sting and Lily Tomlin
- 2015 – Carole King, George Lucas, Rita Moreno, Seiji Ozawa, and Cicely Tyson
- 2016 – Martha Argerich, Eagles (Don Henley, Glenn Frey, Timothy B. Schmit, Joe Walsh). Al Pacino, Mavis Staples, and James Taylor
- 2017 – Carmen de Lavallade, Gloria Estefan, LL Cool J, Norman Lear, and Lionel Richie
- 2018 – Cher, Philip Glass, Reba McEntire, Wayne Shorter, the creators of Hamilton: An American Musical (Lin-Manuel Miranda, Thomas Kail, Alex Lacamoire, and Andy Blankenbuehler)
Images for kids
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The 2006 honorees at the Kennedy Center on December 6, 2006, with President George W. Bush and First Lady Laura Bush; from left, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Steven Spielberg, Dolly Parton, Zubin Mehta, Smokey Robinson, Vice President Dick Cheney and Second lady Lynne Cheney.
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The surviving members of Led Zeppelin were honored in 2012 and are pictured here with President Barack Obama.
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President Joe Biden giving a speech to the 2021 honorees Justino Díaz, Berry Gordy, Lorne Michaels, Bette Midler, and Joni Mitchell.
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The 2019 honorees Earth, Wind & Fire, Sally Field, Linda Ronstadt and Sesame Street with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo
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See also
In Spanish: Kennedy Center Honors para niños
