Famed opera singer feted during Inauguration weekend by the Washington Performing Arts Society
WASHINGTON, DC - On Saturday, January 19, 2013 at the Top of the Hay in the Hay-Adams Hotel, Jessye Norman was presented with the Ambassador of the Arts Award by Attorney General Eric Holder on behalf of Washington Performing Arts Society (WPAS), an arts organization that provides arts presentations and education in the Washington, DC region.
Overlooking expansive views of the White House and Washington Monument, guests were treated to entertainment by Tony-Award winner Audra McDonald and members of WPAS’s Children of the Gospel Choir. Prominent attendees among the 150 guests were White House Chief of Protocol Capricia Marshall, Director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture Lonnie Bunch, BET President and CEO Debra Lee, Ambassador Ramon Gil-Casares of Spain, Ambassador Michael Oren of Israel, and Ambassadors of Italy, the Federal Republic of Germany and Morrocco; Calvin Cafritz, Cora Masters Barry, President and CEO of Marriott International Arne Sorenson, Congressman John Dingell, and Broadway star and film director Will Swenson.
WPAS Board Chair Reginald Van Lee (center) with Debra Lee and Dr. Sharon Malone
Paxton Baker and Rachel Stuart Baker
Michael and Tysha Hyter, and James Nixon
WPAS's Children of the Gospel Choir perform.
Tony Award winning performer Audra McDonald
Jessye Norman supports many organizations, among them Carnegie Hall, the New York Public Library, Dance Theatre of Harlem, National Music Foundation, Elton John AIDS Foundation and the Jessye Norman School of the Arts, an after school arts program in Augusta, Georgia.
Learn more about WPAS at www.wpas.org.
Photos courtesy of Chris Burch