34th Kennedy Center Honors

"This year, the Kennedy Center celebrates its 40th anniversary by selecting five extraordinary individuals whose collective artistry has contributed significantly to the cultural life of our nation and the world," said Kennedy Center Chariman David M. Rubenstein.

The annual Honors Gala will be held on Sunday, December 4, 2011 and will be broadcasted on CBS on December 27 at 8:00 CST. Honored this year are Barbara Cook, Neil Diamond, Yo-Yo Ma, Sonny Rollins and Meryl Streep.

Barbara Cook - Singer; born October 25, 1927, in Atlanta, Georgia
Cook began her singing and acting career in New York in 1950, when she was recommended for a summer camp show in the Poconos. In 1951 she had her Broadway debut, as Sandy in Sammy Fain and E.Y. "Yip" Harbur's musical Flahooley.

From there, she played such roles as Ado Annie - Oklahoma!, Carrie - Carousel, Babes in Toyland, Bloomer Girl and Plain and Fancy in 1955. She was also cast as Cunegonde in Leonard Bernstein's Candide. Laster she won a Tony Award as featured actress in a musical for her role as Marian the Librarian in Meredith Willson's 1957 The Music Man.

Cook has performed at Carnegie Hall in 1975, followed by performances at the Kennedy Center to San Francisco's Davies Hall, London's Royal Albert Hall, Venice's La Fenice, Barcelona's Gran Teare de Liceu, and the Sydney Opera House.


Neil Diamond - Sing and songwriter; born January 24, 1941, in New York, NY
Neil Diamond is an accomplished pop sonwriter in our era. He has written songs that encompass rock, folk and blues to country, Tin Pan Alley and top 40 pop.

He wrote his first song, "Hear Them Bells" when he was 16. In 1966 he produced his first three singles: "Solitary Man," "Herry Cherry," and "I Got the Feelin' (Oh No. No). In 1970 he wrote his first Number One hit "Cracklin' Rosie."

Diamond was named into the Songwriter Hall of Fame in 1984 and inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in March 2011. Paul Simon said of Diamond that "He was known as the Jewish Elvis Presley. In fact, in many synagogues across the country Elvis was considered a bogus Neil Daimond.


Yo-Yo Ma - Cellist, born October 7, 1955, in Paris, France
Ma first studied cello with his father. At the age of seven he played for Presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy. He made his American television debut at eight with Leonard Bernstein and studied with Leonard Rose at the Julliard School.

He records exclusively with Sony Records and has expanded his repertory beyond the classical to music of Appalachia as well as Brazil, China, and India.

In 1998, Ma founded the Silk Road Project and has established partnerships from the Mediterranean Sea to the Pacific Ocean. The Silk Road Ensemble have performed at workshops at the Tanglewood Music Center, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and Carnegie Hall.

"A good musician," Ma once said, "is someone who says: 'How can I contribute?'"

Sonny Rollins - Saxophonist, composer; born September 7, 1930, in Harlem, NY
Branford Marsalis has called him "the greatest improviser in the history of jazz" after Louis Armstrong. His playing, according to the New York Times, is "among the most satisfying experiences one can derive from listening to jazz."

Robbins discovered Fats Waller and Louis Armstrong as a teen. First playing alto sax, later switching to tenor. He was inspired by Louis Jordan, Coleman Hawkins, Charlie Park and Thelonious Monk, who became his mentor.

He made his first major recording in 1953: Sonny Rollins and the Modern Jazz Quartet, which is a jazz classic. Other recordings were St. Thomas, Blue 7, Freedom Suite and The Bridge in 1962. Rollins has received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences and the austrian Cross of Honor for Science and Arts.


Meryl Streep - Actress, born June 22, 1949, in Summit, New Jersey
Streep has made more than 45 movies and has received 16 Academy Award nominations, winning two, and 25 Golden Globe nominations, winning seven. She has more nominations than any other actor in the history of either award. She has earned two Emmy Awards, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, a Cannes Film Festival award, five New York Film cirtics Circle Awards, five Grammy Award nominations, A BAFTA awards, an an Australian Film Institute Award. In 2004, she was awarded the American Film Institute's Life Achievement Award.

Streep was first interested in opera, but decided to study theater instead, graduating from Vassar College in 1971. She later earned an M.F.A. from the Yalae School of Drama in 1975.

In 1978 blossom with her role in The Deer Hunter. She won her first Academy Award for best supporting actress for her role as Joanna Kramer in Kramer vs. Kramer. She has been the drriving force for some of biggest world-wide hits of the past few years: The Devil Wars Prada, Mamma Mia!, Julie and Julia, and It's Complicated.

"She is a great actress, probably the best of her generation, and has given one wonderful performance after another," says the film critic Rogert Ebert. Director Alan J. Pakula said, "If there's a heaven for directors, it would be to direct Meryl Streep your whole life."

Come to the Audiovisual room at the library and check out the display on these honorees in December.