Composer Philip Glass to Receive Prestigious 2018 Kennedy Center Honor

The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts has announced the selection of five honorees to receive 2018 'Kennedy Center Honors' for lifetime artistic achievements

John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, in Washington DC, has this week announced the selection of five honorees to receive 2018 'Kennedy Center Honors' for lifetime artistic achievements - including composer Philip Glass.

The 2018 honorees are:

• Composer and pianist Philip Glass
• Singer and actress Cher
• Country music entertainer Reba McEntire
• Jazz saxophonist and composer Wayne Shorter
• Broadway musical 'Hamilton' co-creators: Lin-Manuel Miranda, Thomas Kail, Andy Blankenbuehler and Alex Lacamoire.

"The Kennedy Center Honors recognizes exceptional artists who have made enduring and indelible marks on our culture ..." Kennedy Center Chairman David M. Rubenstein has said.

"The world looks to America for its creative instincts and artistic courage ... this year’s slate of Honorees represents the pinnacle of our nation’s originality and the rich mosaic of diverse perspectives and art forms that has come to define who we are as a people," he has said.

The accolades will be presented at a live ceremony at the venue on the 2nd of December.

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.

President Trump, who broke with tradition by not attending last year's ceremony, has yet to RSVP, event organizers have indicated.

In 2017, Philip Glass, 80, famously referred to Trump as "an idiot"' in a well-publicized interview with Italy's RAI News.