Series of Annual $10,000 Awards Named for Broadway Legend

(WASHINGTON, D.C.)—The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts is seeking nominations for the 2012 Kennedy Center/Stephen Sondheim Inspirational Teacher Awards – a series of annual grants that recognize inspiring teachers across the United States.  The awards were created last year, in honor of Stephen Sondheim’s 80th birthday and were initiated and funded through the generous support of Mr. Sondheim’s friends and education philanthropists Myrna and Freddie Gershon.  Broadway legend Stephen Sondheim frequently attributes his success to the teachers from all subjects in his life. The Kennedy Center/Stephen Sondheim Inspirational Teacher Awards are presented each year on Sondheim’s birthday – March 22 – to a handful of teachers, kindergarten through college, who are nominated via the Kennedy Center website (kennedy-center.org/sondheimteacherawards).

Last year, 11 teachers were recognized from around the nation for their outstanding influence on students. The recipients each received a $10,000 prize and their stories, as told by the nominating student, were featured on a web site dedicated to inspirational teachers.

In many people’s lives there is at least one teacher who inspired them, and helped them become who they are today.  These inspirational people are not often recognized for the life changing role they have played.  The Kennedy Center/Stephen Sondheim Inspirational Teacher Awards seek to spotlight those teachers and to recognize them publicly for their significant role in society.  The Kennedy Center/Stephen Sondheim Inspirational Teacher homepage features leaders and celebrities, including Warren Buffett, Dr. Jill Biden, J. J. Abrams, Bill Bradley and many others describing their favorite teachers and the impact good teachers make on communities and schools.

“Teachers define us,” stated Stephen Sondheim.  “In our early years, when we are still being formed, they often see in us more than we see in ourselves, more even than our families see and, as a result, help us to evolve into what we ultimately become.  Good teachers are touchstones to paths of achieving more than we might have otherwise accomplished, in directions we might not have gone.”

Winner of the Special Tony Award® for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre, Stephen Sondheim has received more Tonys® than any other composer.  Mr. Sondheim wrote the music and lyrics for Saturday Night, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Anyone Can Whistle, Company, Follies, A Little Night Music, The Frogs, Pacific Overtures, Sweeney Todd, Merrily We Roll Along, Sunday in the Park With George (for which he received a Pulitzer Prize), Into the Woods, Assassins, Passion and Road Show.  There are five musical revues based entirely on his work. Revues of his work include Sondheim on Sondheim, Side by Side by Sondheim, Marry Me a Little, You’re Gonna Love Tomorrow, and Putting It Together. For films and television, he composed the scores of Stavisky and Reds and wrote songs for Dick Tracy, for which he received an Academy Award, and Evening Primrose. He was also the recipient of The Kennedy Center Honors in 1993. Mr. Sondheim is on the Council of the Dramatists Guild, having served as its president from 1973 to 1981 .In 2010, A new Broadway Theater was named the after him.

To nominate a teacher for the award in any field, please visit kennedycenter.org/sondheimteacherawards.  Nomination deadline is December 16, 2011.

About Education at the Kennedy Center

For more than 35 years, educational programming has been at the central core of the Kennedy Center’s mission.  The Kennedy Center, along with its affiliates/partners (the National Symphony Orchestra, Washington National Opera and VSA), offers inclusive educational performances and programs in the arts to people of all ages. The educational resources focus on producing, presenting, and touring performances and educational events for young people and their families; school- and community-based residencies and other programs that directly impact teachers, students, administrators, and artists through professional development; systemic and school improvement through the arts and arts integrated curricula; partnerships; creating and providing educational materials via print and the Internet; the development of careers in the arts for young people and aspiring professionals; and strengthening the management of arts organizations.

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