The 2024 Kennedy Center Honors list, and 47th annual, includes a number of stellar names.
The 2024 Award Lifetime Artistic Achievements will recognize director and filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola, blues singer-songwriter and guitarist Bonnie Raitt, jazz trumpeter/pianist/composer Arturo Sandoval, the Apollo Theater (which will receive special Honors as “an iconic American institution”), and the four surviving members of countercultural rock band the Grateful Dead.
Guitarist Bob Weir, who collaborated with the National Symphony Orchestra to bring the Dead’s catalog to the Kennedy Center in 2022, told NPR he was speechless — and profusely thanked the Deadheads who’ve sustained the band for nearly six decades, as well as his deceased bandmates Jerry Garcia and Ron “Pigpen” McKernan.
“Not so long ago, we were sort of outsiders. Now all of that’s kind of changed,” Weir said. “We’ve been more or less accepted into the American musical tradition, which is where we’ve always been.”
“In December, we are thrilled to pay special tribute to New York City’s renowned Apollo Theater on its 90th anniversary,” said Kennedy Center President Deborah F. Rutter in a statement. “Throughout its history, The Apollo has guided us and the world forward by discovering and nurturing raw talent, molding a unique cultural identity that defines American culture still today.”
The 2024 Kennedy Center Honors ceremony is slated for Sunday, Dec. 8, and will air on CBS on Monday, Dec. 23.
