KENNEDY CENTER

Gold Medal in the Arts Gala

SATURDAY, APRIL 14, 2018

ZEITZ MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART AFRICACAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA

Stephanie and Karel Komárek, Co-Chairs

The Kennedy Center International Committee on the Arts

welcome you to the

Kennedy Center

Gold Medal in the Arts Galacelebrating

Basil J.R. Jones and Adrian P. KohlerJohn KaniSibongile KhumaloDr. Gcina MhlopheMcCoy Mrubata

Gold Medal in the Arts Past Recipients2005 ST. PETERSBURG OLIVIA DE HAVILLAND,

VALERY GERGIEV, MARTHA INGRAM, IRWIN JACOBS, MÆRSK MCKINNEY MØELLER, TREVOR NUNN

2006 LONDON DARCEY BUSSELL,

MICHAEL CAINE, JUDI DENCH, JEREMY IRONS, JACOB ROTHSCHILD, LILY SAFRA

2007 BEIJING SONG ZUYING,

MINISTER SUN JIAZHENG

2008 BUENOS AIRES NORMA ALEANDRO, JULIO

BOCCA, PALOMA HERRERA, MERCEDES SOSA

2009 ISTANBUL CIHATAŞKIN,CANAGÜRMEN,

AHMET KOCABIYIK

2010 TOKYO TADAO ANDO, MIDORI,

KANZABURO NAKAMURA, YUKIO NINAGAWA

2012 MADRID PEDRO ALMODÓVAR,

SARA BARAS, PLÁCIDO DOMINGO, PACO PEÑA, TAMARA ROJO

2013 PRAGUE JIŘÍBĚLOHLÁVEK,SOŇA

ČERVENÁ,KARELKOMÁREK,JR.,MAGDALENAKOŽENÁ

2014 UAE HOOR AL-QASIMI, BADR

JAFAR, QUINCY JONES, ARIF AND FAYEEZA NAQVI, ZAKI AL NUSSEIBEH

2015 PARIS PIERRE BOULEZ, LESLIE

CARON, ALEXANDRE DESPLAT, YASMINA REZA

2016 DUBLIN SIR JAMES GALWAY, SIR VAN

MORRISON, FIONA SHAW, JIM SHERIDAN, ENDA WALSH

2017 MILAN SALVATORE ACCARDO,

CARLOS BULGHERONI, RENATO BRUSON, GIANANDREA NOSEDA

The Kennedy Center International Committee on the Arts proudly bestows the Gold Medal in the Arts in recognition of extraordinary achievement in the arts each year at its international summit. The Committee awards inspiring individuals, whose lifetime achievements have created, nurtured, supported, and championed the world’s greatest arts and artists.

PerformanceHandspring Puppet Company

Handspring Puppet Company was founded in 1981 and, for 30 years, has grown under the leadership of Artistic Director Adrian Kohler and Executive Producer Basil Jones, both of whom are honorees tonight. Based in Cape Town, the company provides an artistic home and professional base for a group of performers, designers, theatre artists, and technicians. Handspring’s work has been presented in more than 30 countries.

TheHandspringTrustforPuppetryArts,anon-profitorganization,wasestablishedin 2010. The trust’s programs identify, mentor, and champion the next generation of puppetry artists through workshops, academic engagement, and the support of ongoing projects in rural areas and townships.

Cape Town Opera

Africa’s premier opera company, Cape Town Opera provides a stage that allows local talent to launch international careers and attracts international talent to South Africa.Asthenation’slargestpermanentnonprofitperformingartsorganization,CapeTown Opera fosters the expression of a national identity through the creation and performance of new South African operas and musicals.

The Cape Town Opera Studio Training Program is the only comprehensive advanced curriculum of its kind for young graduate singers in South Africa. The program gives singerswithsoloistpotentialtheopportunitytoconsolidateandrefinetheirtechniqueand stage skills before launching professional careers.

Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (Zeitz MOCAA)

MOCAAisapublicnot-for-profitcontemporaryartmuseumwhichcollects,preserves,researches, and exhibits 21st century art from Africa and its Diaspora; hosts international exhibitions; develops supporting educational and enrichment programs; encourages cultural understanding; and guarantees access for all. Over 100 galleries, spreadoverninefloors,arededicatedtoalargecuttingedgepermanentcollection;temporary exhibitions; and Centers for Art Education, Curatorial Excellence, Performative Practice, Photography, the Moving Image, and the Costume Institute.

ThegrainsilocomplexwhereZeitzMOCAAislocatedwasonce,at57meters,thetallest building in sub-Saharan Africa. After its opening in August 1924, it became integral to South Africa’s industrial and agricultural development and allowed for significanteconomicactivitiesinTableBayHarbor.Today,withastate-of-the-artdesign by internationally acclaimed designer Thomas Heatherwick, it remains an impressiveicon,easilyrecognizableontheMotherCity’sskyline.

2018 Gold Medal Recipients BiographiesBasil J.R. Jones and Adrian P. Kohler

Basil Jones and Adrian Kohler met at The Michaelis School of Fine Art in Cape Town 1981 and have been together ever since.

After graduating from art school with the MichaelisPrize,KohlerjoinedattheSpaceTheatre, then South Africa’s only theatre open toall.JonesandKohlersubsequentlyleftthe country, working in community theatre in Birmingham UK. They then spent 3 years in Botswana, where Kohler ran the University of Botswana’s National Popular Theatre Program and Jones worked as a graphic artist and the National Museum and Art Gallery. They alsobecameactivemembersofMEDU,theANC’sculturalorganizationundertheleadershipofMonganeWallySeroteandsubsequentlyTamiMnyele.

In January 1981, they returned to Cape Town, South Africa to form Handspring Puppet Company with Jill Joubert and Jon Weinberg – all former art school students. Jones and Kohler continue to run the company.

For5yearstheytraveledinacaravan/trucktouringchildren’sshowstoschoolsthroughout southern Africa and performing at theatres in the school holidays. With thedeclarationoftheEmergencyin1985,visitingschoolswasnolongerpossibleandthey relocated the company to Johannesburg working in children’s TV. There they set upthenot-for-profitcompany,HandspringTrust,andraisedfundingfrominternationaldonors to make a multimedia science education program, acknowledged in Britain and the USA as a leading example of creative engagement in this sphere.

Whilst in Johannesburg, Handspring began working with directors who had seen their firstpieceforadultaudiences,Episodes of an Easter Rising directed by Esther van Ryswyk for the Baxter Theatre. They participated in productions at the Market Theatre with Barney Simon, Malcolm Purkey, and Mark Fleishman.

In 1982, they began a ten-year collaboration with director William Kentridge. Their plays all featured Kentridge’s charcoal animations and Adrian Kohler’s puppets. Woyzeck on the Highveld, Faustus in Africa, Ubu and the Truth Commission, Il Riturno d’Ulisse and Confessions of Zeno won many awards in South Africa and toured widely in Europe and North America.

In 1999 Handspring relocated to Cape Town and there followed three plays, which presentedanimalsasanimalsinthecentralroles–theworld’sfirstcompanytodothis.

The third of these productions was War Horse,(2007),producedbytheRoyalNationalTheatre of Great Britain in collaboration with Handspring. This production became the most successful show ever mounted by the National Theatre and had extended seasons on Broadway and London’s West End. It continues to tour in the UK and China.

Or You Could Kiss Me, written and directed by Neil Bartlett, premiered at the National Theatre in 2010 and featured the lives of two geriatric gay men. A Midsummer Night’s Dream directed by Tom Morris, 2013 played at The Bristol Old Vic and in the USA at the Spoleto Festival and the International Festival of Arts & Ideas in the Kennedy Centre in Washington D.C.

Throughtheirnon-for–profitentity,HandspringTrust,theyhavealongstandingcommitment to community theatre and the Ukwanda Puppetry and Design Collective. Handspring has received numerous awards including a Special Tony Award, an Olivier Award, as well as Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, and LA Drama Critics Circle awards. Kohler has had solo exhibitions at the Kennedy Center, South African National Gallery, Cape Town, and the Museum for African Art in New York. His puppets are represented in public collections in Munich, Germany; Atlanta, Georgia; the Constitutional Court in Johannesburg; The Old Mutual Collection in Cape Town; and in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

In 2012, the University of Cape Town awarded Jones and Kohler the degree of D.Lit. (honoris causa).

JonesandKohlerwereofficiallymarriedinOudtshoornin2007.TheyliveinKalkBay,Cape Town.

John Kani

John Kani is an actor, a director and a playwright. On stage, John has appeared in, among others, The Blood Knot, Driving Miss Daisy, Othello, The Lion and the Lamb, Waiting for Godot, The Death of Bessie Smith, Playland, “Master Harold”… and the Boys, Hedda Gabler, and My Children! My Africa!, which earned him an Olivier Award and won him an AA life Vita Award in 1990 for his role as Mr. M. John has worked with playwright AtholFugardsince1965whenhejoinedthe Serpent Players at the Market Theatre; directing most of their plays and collaborating to create The Coat, The Last Bus, and Friday’s Bread on Monday, among others.

As well as acting in Sizwe Banzi is Dead and The Island, John also co-wrote the plays with Fugard and Winston Ntshona and won a Tony Award®forBestActorin1975for his performance in the productions, later earning an Evening Standard Award nomination during the shows’ run on the West End. John has taken these two shows to London, Paris, Stockholm, Montreal, and Washington, DC at the Kennedy Center.

John’sfilmcreditsincludeThe Wild Geese, The Grass is Singing, Marigolds in August, A Dry White Season, Sarafina!, and Saturday Night at the Palace for which he won a Taormina Golden Award at the Milan International Festival. He has also appeared in The Ghost and the Darkness with Michael Douglas and Val Kilmer, The Tichbourne Claimant with Robert Pugh and Sir John Gielgud, The Suit, Captain America: Civil War, and Black Panther.

Nothing but the Truth, John’s debut as sole playwright, opened at Johannesburg’s Market Theatre in 2002 to critical acclaim, winning three Fleur du Cap Awards for Best Actor, Best New South African Play, and Best Director for Janice Honeyman. Nothing but the TruthplayedattheBaxterTheaterandOperaHouseinPortElizabethpriortorunning in Johannesburg, Los Angeles, Boston, Brisbane, Sydney, and Lincoln Center in New York City. John later made his directorial debut with Nothing but the Truth, which won awards at the FEPASCO, Cameroon, Zimbabwe, and Milan Film Festivals, in addition to a SAFTA Best Screenplay award in 2009.

In2005,JohnreceivedtheOrderofIkhamanagainSilverforhiscontributiontoademocratic, non-racial, non-sexist South Africa throughout his work in the arts. He has also received a special SAFTA Lifetime Achievement Award as well as lifetime recognitions from the Arts and Culture Trust and the Nelson Mandela Metropole of PortElizabeth.HeisaformerChairmanoftheBoardoftheApartheidMuseumandwas appointed by the Minister of Higher Education to the Wits University Governing Council.

John is a Trustee of the Market Theatre Foundation and in 1989 with Barney Simon founded the Market Theatre Laboratory—a drama school for young people who couldnotbeadmittedtouniversitythroughlackoffundsorrequirededucationalqualification.TheLabnowalsohasoutreachandcommunitytrainingprogramsandstages annual Community Festivals.

Sibongile Khumalo

Sibongile Khumalo is the most celebrated member of a musical dynasty, marked by an extraordinary vocal gene-pool and passion for making music. She was born and grew up in Orlando West, Soweto. Her parents, Mrs. Grace and Prof. Khabi Mngoma, were cultural workers and arts activists, involved in the upliftment of the communities in which they lived. They instilled in her an abiding love and appreciation for music education and for South African music and culture. Through her father’sinfluence,shedevelopedhersingingtalentswhichrangefromoperatojazzandchoral music, always grounded by the traditional and folk music of South Africa.

An award winning musician, she has been lauded as one of the great singing talents of her time, and has inspired the creation of new music by South African composers, bothintheclassicalartsong,operaaswellasjazzgenres.

Khumalo has music degrees from the University of Zululand and Wits University, and anHonoraryLicentiateinMusicfromtheUniversityofSouthAfrica.Shehasqualifiedwith a Post-Graduate Diploma in Human Resource Management from Wits Business School.

She has been conferred with honorary doctorates by Rhodes University (D. Mus-HonorisCausa),theUniversityofZululand(D.Phil-HonorisCausa),andtheUniversityofSouthAfrica(D.Musicology-HonorisCausa).Inaddition,sheisaFellowoftheAfricaLeadershipInitiative(ALI),anAfrica-widecollectiveofleadersinterestedindeveloping a cohort of values-based leadership.

Among her many accolades for her stage and recorded work, including four South AfricanMusicAwards(SAMA),aSouthAfricanTraditionalMusicAward(SATMA)and a Vita Award for her classical and opera work, Khumalo has been bestowed with a Lifetime Achievement award by the Naledi Theatre awards. She reprised her 1993 breakout performance called “The 3 Faces Of Sibongile Khumalo” in a triune of performancescalled“MoreThan3Faces”,ather60thBirthdaycelebrationsin2017.

SheholdstheNationalOrderofIkhamangainSilver(OIS),byOrderofthePresidentof South Africa, in recognition of her contribution to the advancement within arts and culture.

This singer-songwriter-producer is also an ardent proponent for Arts Education. She is the Founding-Trustee of the Khabi Mngoma Foundation Trust whose primary aim is to provide support for the Khongisa Academy for the Performing Arts. She is also the current Deputy Chairman of the Southern African Music Rights Organisation (SAMRO).

Dr. Gcina Mhlophe

Gcina Mhlophe is an author, poet, playwright, director,performerandstoryteller.Influencedby her grandmother’s tales when she was a child, Mhlophe’s written and performance talent has transported her from South Africa to South and North America to Europe, Greenland and Japan. She has performed her stories in theatres like Royal Albert Hall, the Kennedy Centre in the US and collaboratedwithLadysmithBlackMambazoon a children’s CD. She again worked with LadysmithBlackMamabazoandFrancisBebeyquartetinauniqueproduction,Africaatthe Opera, which toured Opera houses in Germany.

For her work in theatre, she received an OBIE Award in New York for her performance in Born in the RSA. Her autobiographical play, Have You Seen Zandile? would earn her the Fringe First Award at the Edinburgh Festival, Sony Award for Radio Drama fromBBCAfrica,andtheJosephJeffersonAwardinChicago.In1992shefoundedand directed the Zanendaba storytelling company, Johannesburg, RSA. She has receivedhonorarydoctoratesfromtheLondonOpenUniversity(UK);Universityof KwaZulu – Natal; Pretoria University and Fort Hare, for a body of work that has contributed to Literature and helping to preserve the Heritage of African storytelling.

Dr. Mhlophe has worked tirelessly for the past 16 years running NOZINCWADI Mother of Books Literacy Campaign to help make S. Africa a Reading Nation. The Nozincwadi:MotherofBooks,isavailableasabookwhichisaccompaniedbyaCDthat formed the joyful soundtrack of the roadshow. In April 2012 she was awarded herfifthHonoraryDoctoratebyUniversityofJohannesburg.

MZANSI MAGIC TV Channel gave her National ICON Award in May 2012. She is currently the Executive Director of GCINAMASIKO ARTS & HERITAGE TRUST , which is the umbrella body where all their other project, SPIRIT OF LIGHT Celebrations, Annual NOZINCWADI Story & Book Festival, Creative Writing Workshops, are hosted and produced. She was awarded her sixth Honorary Doctorate came from Rhodes Universityin2014.Sheisalsooneofthe21ICONSin2015withthelikesofLillianCingo, Bishop Tutu, Nadine Gordimer and Tata Mandela.

She has released several CDs including Songs & Stories of Africa which won a SAMA award and the isiZulu version of the same CD won the PanSALB Award for indigenous languages.IMILOLOZELO,acollaborativeCDwithBhekiKhoza,NtakemazoloHPSchoolandUmlaziJPSchool,wasreleasedinanefforttoresuscitatethecultureofAfricanchildren’srhymesandrhythmswithjazzmusic.Latestworksincludetherecording of 2 CD’s - African Mother Christmas & HOPE SONG. Both will help raise funds for the soon to be opened MEMORY HOUSE (Oral History Museum for ordinary

SouthAfricans).Dr.MhlopheisduetoreceivetheKennedyCentreInternationalArtists award as well as he seventh Honorary Doctorate from the Nelson Mandela UniversityinPortElizabeth,inApril2018.

September 2018 will see the 10th edition of the NOZINCWADI Books and Storytelling Festival in Durban.

McCoy Mrubata

Born in Cape Town’s historic Langa township, Reedman McCoy Mrubata grew up with the soundsofAfricanmusic:thesoulfulhymnsofthe Zion Church, the chants and rhythms of traditional healers, and the brassy jive of the Merry Macs band who rehearsed opposite his home. When schooling became impossible in theaftermathofthe1976uprising,theyoungMcCoy,thenplayingflute,studiedinformallyunder Langa greats like Madoda Gxabeka, WinstonNgozi,theNgcukanas,EzraandDuke, Blackie Tempi, and Robert Sithole.

By the early 1980s he was playing in cover bands, and from there moved to crossover outfitLouisandtheJive.In1987,McCoywasspottedbybandleaderSiphoHotstixMabuse who helped him make Joburg his home. In 1988, he joined PJ Powers band andwassportedbyveteranproducerKoloiLebona.Lebonaofferedhimarecordingdeal with a British based record company, Zomba Records, the same record company that produced music for Jonathan Butler and Billy Ocean. McCoy’s debut album, Firebird was released the following year.

In 1989, he formed Brotherhood, which included guitarist Jimmy Dludlu, pianist Nhlanhla Magagula, and Lucas Khumalo, and later, Moses Molelekwa. In 1990, the band won the Gilbey’s Music for Africa competition, beating top bands like Bayethe, Peto, Stax, and Zanusi.

In 1992, he began touring with Hugh Masekela’s Lerapo, alongside Vusi and Bakithi Khumalo,LawrenceMatshiza,andthelateMosesMolelekwa,amongothers.Healsocreated his own bands, Cape to Cairo and McCoy and Friends. In the mid 1990s, hemadethefirstofaseriesofalbumsasleaderfortheindependentSheerSoundlabel, Tears of Joy. The personnel of Friends, including pianist Paul Hanmer, bassist Andre Abrahamse, and trombonist Jabu Magubane, among others, have formed a consistent team of collaborators for McCoy. Since those days, more albums have followed:Phosa Ngasemva, Hoelykit, Face the Music, which won the 2003 South AfricanMusicAwardintheTraditionalJazzcategory,Icamagu Livumile, which won thesameawardin2005,andBrasskap Sessions: Volume 1, which won the award in 2008. McCoy also won awards with bands The Sheer All Stars and Kulturation.

McCoyhascollaboratedwithanarrayofSouthAfricanjazzplayersaswellasoverseas artists. He has been involved in drama, creating scores for South African productions. McCoy also worked in three Norwegian productions with the Nordic BlackTheatre;twoin1994and1995inSouthAfricaandOsloontwoBobMarleymusicals and one in 2001 starring in a play based on the life of John Coltrane Beyond the Blues, playing a leading role. He has also created what he calls the Young Friends, acollaborationwiththenextgenerationofSouthAfricanjazzmen.

McCoy’s other projects include Kulturation, a duo-led album with pianist Wessel van Rensburg exploring new interpretations of tunes from the African and Afrikaans communities. This project blends together familiar tunes from the Xhosa and Zulu cultures with Afrikaans folk music tunes fusing these into contemporary versions of local South Africa music. Vivid Africa, is another collaboration with multi- instrumentalistGregGeorgiadis,usinginstrumentslikeoudhandbouzoukialongsidesaxophones to explore the musical spices of the East African coast. McCoy was also a member of a super band Sheer All Stars, which consisted of some of the best musiciansinSouthAfricanJazz:thelateSiphoGumede,ErrolDyers,PaulHanmer,Frank Pako, Wessel van Rensburg, and Louis Mhlanga.

In January 2011, McCoy and his pianist Luyanda Madope collaborated with Norwegian musicians in a project called Indibano, and they performed at the Nordic BlackTheatreinOslo.McCoyalsoconductedthe2012SouthAfricanYouthJazzBand in June and July at the Grahamstown Arts Festival and in August at the Joy of JazzinNewtown,JHB,SouthAfrica.

In2012,McCoywasamongthetopJazzeducatorswhohelpedtolaunchtheJazzFacultyatUniversityOfSouthAfricaandhassubsequentlyconductedworkshopsand master classes commissioned by the Institution.

Kennedy Center International Committee on the Arts Members

Natalia and Ara Abramyan, RussiaYulia Abramyan, United StatesDaris Clifton-Alloy and Martin Alloy,

United StatesAbbe Aron, United StatesJulietandJoshuaBerkowitz,UnitedStatesWilma and Stuart Bernstein, United StatesNancy G. Brinker, United StatesNatalia Bulgheroni, Argentina and SpainNancy Jean Davis, United StatesRachael Dedman, United StatesLizDubin,UnitedStatesLindsay and Henry Ellenbogen,

United StatesA. Huda and Samia Farouki, Jordan and

the United StatesAmraandDamirFazlic,Bosniaand

HerzegovinaMikhail Fridman, RussiaVirginia McGehee Friend, United StatesNorma Lee and Morton Funger,

United StatesNancyandCarlGewirz,UnitedStatesAlma and Joseph Gildenhorn, United StatesLaurel and Vinod Gupta, United StatesHelen Lee Henderson, United StatesDebbie Driesman and Frank Islam,

United StatesHeather and Jim Johnson, United StatesY. Michele Kang, South Korea and the

United StatesKellyFisherKatzandMartinKatz,

United StatesRobert and Arlene Kogod, United StatesElizabethandC.MichaelKojaian,

United StatesStephanie and Karel Komárek,

CzechRepublicDale LeFebvre, United StatesMartha and Carl Lindner, United StatesAmalia Perea Mahoney and William

Mahoney, United States

Marlene and Frederic Malek, United States Christina Co Mather, United States Catherine and Michael Mayton,

United StatesBonnie McElveen-Hunter, United StatesJoAnn McGrath, United StatesDonna and Thomas F. McLarty,

United StatesPaula and G. Mac McNichols, United StatesLinda and Tobia Mercuro, United StatesConstance Milstein, United StatesNoémiandMichaelNeidorff,UnitedStatesSuzanneNiedland,UnitedStatesMary and Mandell† Ourisman, United StatesLaura Pels, France and the United StatesSuzyandBobPence,UnitedStatesJania and Phillips Peter, United StatesEdwin and Linda Phelps, United StatesMarziaandDalePrecoda,UnitedStates,

Switzerland,andItalyCatherine and Wayne Reynolds,

United StatesLinda and Albert Rosecan, United StatesDavid M. Rubenstein, United StatesJeanne Weaver Ruesch, United StatesLily Safra, MonacoClarice Smith, United StatesMichelle Smith, United StatesPaul and Ann Stern, United StatesTaeko and Kenji Tanaka, JapanSusie Trees, United StatesAdarsh and Ranvir Trehan, United States

and IndiaMakiko Tanaka and Takeshi Ueshima, Japan

and the United StatesCatherine Vaillant, France Allen A. Vine, United StatesSherry and Edward Wachs, United StatesLarisa Zelkova, Russia

*Membership list as of March 2018

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Washington, DC

President Kennedy’s words resonate more strongly than ever for the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in the 21st century. The Center, which opened on September8,1971,continuesitseffortstofulfillPresidentKennedy’svisionbyproducing and presenting an unmatched variety of theater and musicals, dance andballet,orchestral,chamber,jazz,popular,world,andfolkmusic,andmulti-media performances for all ages. Every year the institution that bears President Kennedy’s name brings his dream to fruition, touching the lives of millions of people through thousands of performances by the greatest artists from across America and around the world. The Center also nurtures new works and young artists, creating performances, broadcasts, and touring productions while serving the nation as aleaderinartseducation.TheKennedyCenter,locatedon17acresoverlookingthe Potomac River in Washington, D.C., is America’s living memorial to President Kennedy as well as the nation’s busiest arts facility. Touring Kennedy Center productions and its television, radio, and Internet broadcasts reach more than 40 million people around the world. As part of the Kennedy Center’s Performing Arts for Everyoneprogram,morethan400freeperformancesareofferedeachyearfeaturinginternational, national and local artists. These include daily 6pm concerts on the Millennium Stage which are broadcast live over the internet and digitally archived on the Kennedy Center website.