News Release
Dave Brubeck to Receive Kennedy Center Honors
(September 9, 2009) -
The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts announced today that famed jazz pianist and composer Dave Brubeck will be recognized during the Kennedy Center Honors on Dec. 6, Brubeck's 89th birthday. Besides being featured at the televised Washington, D.C., event, Brubeck also will be invited to a reception at the White House hosted by President Obama and the First Lady. Brubeck graduated from Pacific, now home to the Brubeck Institute, in 1942.
The ceremony will put Brubeck's name among the treasured performing artists recognized by the Kennedy Center. It also will cap off an amazing 18 months for Brubeck: he was the first recipient of the State Department's "Benjamin Franklin Award for Public Diplomacy," was inducted into the California Hall of Fame, and celebrated the 50th anniversary of his ground-breaking album "Time Out," along with the debut of his latest orchestral work "Ansel Adams: America."
"I feel surprised, proud and humbled to receive such a high honor," Brubeck said.
Brubeck will be honored along with musician Bruce Springsteen, actor Robert DeNiro, actor/writer/director Mel Brooks and opera singer Grace Bumbry. He will be among a handful of jazz musicians celebrated by the Kennedy Center. Other jazz musicians previously honored include Tony Bennett in 2005, B.B. King in 1995, Lionel Hampton in 1992, Dizzie Gillespie in 1990, Ray Charles in 1986, Lena Horne in 1984, Frank Sinatra in 1983, Benny Goodman in 1982, Count Basie in 1981 and Ella Fitzgerald in 1979.
Brubeck has released more than 100 albums, including last year's "50 Years of Dave Brubeck: Live At The Monterey Jazz Festival, 1958-2007." He is most well-known for his album "Time Out" which introduced odd time signatures in popular music. That album is named on many "most influential albums of all time" lists and continues to be one of the top-selling jazz albums. In 2007, he recorded a solo album CD titled "Indian Summer." Brubeck continues to tour as part of the Dave Brubeck Quartet and makes regular appearances at the Monterey Jazz Festival.
In 2000, Brubeck and his wife Iola - a 1945 graduate of Pacific - helped establish the Brubeck Institute at Pacific by donating recordings, business papers, letters and other artifacts collected by the Brubecks during more than 60 years of performances. The collection makes up the Brubeck Collection which is open to scholars researching music history or the Brubecks and their associates. The Institute, host of the annual Brubeck Festival, also has an outreach program, sponsors the Brubeck Fellowship Program and holds the Summer Jazz Colony for gifted high school musicians.
"The Kennedy Center Honors is another, most-fitting tribute to one of the world's greatest musicians, and to someone who has given so much to his country and to this University," said Pamela A. Eibeck, president of Pacific. "All of us at Pacific are extremely proud of him."
For more information about the Brubeck Institute or Dave Brubeck, visit http://www.brubeckinstitute.org. For more information on the Kennedy Center Honors, visit http://www.kennedy-center.org/programs/specialevents/honors/history.cfm.
