Nominations are made to the Board of Trustees by past honorees and members of the center's national artists committee. For the 2004 Honors, recommendations came from
Dan Aykroyd , Christine Baranski , Angela Bassett , Joshua Bell , Adrien Brody , Dave Brubeck , Cy Coleman , Benicio Del Toro , Michael Douglas , Suzanne Farrell , Renee Fleming , Morgan Freeman , Rosemary Harris , Paloma Herrera , Philip Seymour Hoffman , Nathan Lane , Yo-Yo Ma , Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg , Steven Spielberg , Meryl Streep and Pinchas Zukerman .
The awards are given at a United States Department Of State dinner held the night before the annual Honors Gala at the Kennedy Center Opera House. A White House reception is also given in their honor.
The ceremony is recorded during the first weekend of December and is not telecast live. Edited versions are currently shown on CBS .
- 2005 Tony Bennett , Suzanne Farrell , Julie Harris , Robert Redford , and Tina Turner
- 2004 Warren Beatty , Ossie Davis & Ruby Dee , Elton John , Joan Sutherland , and John Williams
- 2003 James Brown , Carol Burnett , Loretta Lynn , Mike Nichols , and Itzhak Perlman
- 2002 James Earl Jones , James Levine , Chita Rivera , Paul Simon , and Elizabeth Taylor
- 2001 Julie Andrews , Van Cliburn , Quincy Jones , Jack Nicholson , and Luciano Pavarotti
- 2000 Mikhail Baryshnikov , Chuck Berry , Plácido Domingo , Clint Eastwood , and Angela Lansbury
- 1999 Victor Borge , Sean Connery , Judith Jamison , Jason Robards , and Stevie Wonder
- 1998 Bill Cosby , Fred Ebb & John Kander , Willie Nelson , André Previn , and Shirley Temple Black
- 1997 Lauren Bacall , Bob Dylan , Charlton Heston , Jessye Norman , and Edward Villella
- 1996 Edward Albee , Benny Carter , Johnny Cash , Jack Lemmon , and Maria Tallchief
- 1995 Jacques D'Amboise , Marilyn Horne , B.B. King , Sidney Poitier , and Neil Simon
- 1994 Kirk Douglas , Aretha Franklin , Morton Gould , Harold Prince , and Pete Seeger
- 1993 Johnny Carson , Arthur Mitchell , George Solti , Stephen Sondheim , and Marion Williams
- 1992 Lionel Hampton , Paul Newman , Joanne Woodward , Ginger Rogers , Mstislav Rostropovich , and Paul Taylor
- 1991 Roy Acuff , Betty Comden , Adolph Green , Fayard Nicholas , Harold Nicholas , Gregory Peck , and Robert Shaw
- 1990 Dizzy Gillespie , Katharine Hepburn , Rise Stevens , Jule Styne , and Billy Wilder
- 1989 Harry Belafonte , Claudette Colbert , Alexandra Danilova , Mary Martin and William Schuman
- 1988 Alvin Ailey , George Burns , Myrna Loy , Alexander Schneider , Roger L. Stevens
- 1987 Perry Como , Bette Davis , Sammy Davis Jr , Nathan Milstein and Alwin Nikolais
- 1986 Lucille Ball , Hume Cronyn , Jessica Tandy , Yehudi Menuhin , Antony Tudor and Ray Charles
- 1985 Merce Cunningham , Irene Dunne , Bob Hope , Alan Jay Lerner & Frederick Loewe and Beverly Sills
- 1984 Lena Horne , Danny Kaye , Gian Carlo Menotti , Arthur Miller and Isaac Stern
- 1983 Katherine Dunham , Elia Kazan , Frank Sinatra , James Stewart and Virgil Thomson
- 1982 George Abbott , Lillian Gish , Benny Goodman , Gene Kelly and Eugene Ormandy
- 1981 Count Basie , Cary Grant , Helen Hayes , Jerome Robbins and Rudolf Serkin
- 1980 Leonard Bernstein , James Cagney , Agnes De Mille , Lynn Fontanne and Leontyne Price
- 1979 Aaron Copland , Ella Fitzgerald , Henry Fonda , Martha Graham and Tennessee Williams
- 1978 Marian Anderson , Fred Astaire , George Balanchine , Richard Rodgers and Arthur Rubinstein
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