jmc's classics
The Kennedy Center Honors is a prestigious award given at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC to entertainers who have contributed to American Culture. Among this year's members Soprano Rene Fleming. There have been classical musicians in there before. Among them is pianist Van Cliburn (1934-2014) and conductor Eugene Ormandy (1899-1985) in 1982, tenors Luciano Pavarotti (1935-2007) in 2001 and Placido Domingo in 2000, violinists Alexander Schneider (1908-1993) in 1987 and Nathan Milstein (1904-1992) in 1988 and Isaac Stern(1920-2001) in 1984.
Fleming (1959-) is a lyric soprano and like most other opera singers does crossover to popular music. She is an arts advocate. She was born in Indiana, PA. Fleming has sung contralto rolls. Also among her accomplishments is that she sings operas of French, Russian, Czech and Italian origins. Many of the opera singers of the past were not as versatile. She is a graduate of the prestigious Julliard School in New York. The others who are being honored this year are actor/ comedian Billy Crystal, Dion Warwick, Barry Gibb of the Bee Gees, Queen Latifah. The awards ceremony will be this fall and will be broadcast on television. This is one of the most famous awards in the arts another one is the Mark twain prize for humor which I am not familiar with. The Kennedy Center awards have been given out since the 1970's.
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