Virtuoso Pianist Martha Argerich Joins The Eagles and James Taylor for Kennedy Center Honors
Martha Argerich Image by Getty Images
This year’s list of Kennedy Center Honors winners mostly contains some familiar and not-all-that-surprising names. Among them, James Taylor, Al Pacino, Mavis Staples, and — for better or worse — The Eagles. But the most intriguing name on that list is 75-year-old Argentine pianist Martha Argerich. Kennedy Center president Deborah Rutter told the Washington Post that Argerich “ gives herself completely to the power of the music. She enters the music itself.” Described in The New York Times in 2008 as “a brilliant musician whose playing combines prodigious technique with uncanny musicality,” she is the granddaughter of Russian Jewish immgrants and was born in Buenos Aires. In 2013, she was the subject of the documentary “Bloody Daughter,” made by her daughter Stéphanie Argerich.
Why I became the Forward’s editor-in-chief
You are surely a friend of the Forward if you’re reading this. And so it’s with excitement and awe — of all that the Forward is, was, and will be — that I introduce myself to you as the Forward’s newest editor-in-chief.
And what a time to step into the leadership of this storied Jewish institution! For 129 years, the Forward has shaped and told the American Jewish story. I’m stepping in at an intense time for Jews the world over. We urgently need the Forward’s courageous, unflinching journalism — not only as a source of reliable information, but to provide inspiration, healing and hope.
— Alyssa Katz, editor-in-chief
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