Professor Emerita Martina Arroyo to receive Kennedy Centers Honors

Martina Arroyo, an IU Jacobs School of Music distinguished professor emerita of voice, has been selected as a recipient of a 2013 Kennedy Center Honors award, according to an IU press release last Friday.

This year marks the 36th year of Kennedy Center Honors, and the annual award is presented for lifetime contributions to American culture.

Arroyo, a soprano opera singer, is one of five recently chosen to receive an award, and the prestige of the award is aparent in the recipients.

The four others being recognized are artists Herbie Hancock, Billy Joel and Carlos Santana and actress Shirley MacLaine.

The President and Mrs. Obama, members of the Artists Committee and the Kennedy Center Board of Trustees will receive the honorees at the White House.

Arroyo started at Jacobs in 1993, and was recognized as a distinguished professor before her retirement in May 2007.

Outside of her career at IU, Arroyo created a course that helped aspiring opera singers in New York City.

After seeing success with the course, Arroyo created the Martina Arroyo Foundation in New York City in June 2003.

The foundation still exists and works to instruct young singers in understanding public opera performances and applying that knowledge to personal aspirations.

Today, it offers a Spring Role Preparation Class and Prelude to Performance, a summer intensive course.

“The Kennedy Center celebrates five extraordinary individuals who have spent their lives elevating the cultural vibrancy of our nation and the world,” said Kennedy Center Chairman David M. Rubenstein on the Kennedy Center website. “Martina Arroyo has dazzled the world with her glorious soprano voice and continues to share her artistry with a new generation of opera singers.”

Honorees will receive their medallions on Dec. 7, the night before the Honors Gala.

For those interested in watching, the gala will be broadcast at 9 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 29, on CBS.

— Amanda Arnold