In the Arts Gala Gold Medal - KENNEDY CENTER - SATURDAY, APRIL 14, 2018 - US Embassy South Africa

KENNEDY CENTER

 Gold Medal
  in the Arts
 Gala
SATURDAY, APRIL 14, 2018

    ZEITZ MUSEUM OF
CONTEMPORARY ART AFRICA
CAPE 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 Gala
celebrating

Basil J.R. Jones and Adrian P. Kohler
John Kani
Sibongile Khumalo
Dr. Gcina Mhlophe
McCoy Mrubata

Gold Medal in the Arts
Past Recipients
2005   ST. PETERSBURG                        2012   MADRID
       OLIVIA DE HAVILLAND,                         PEDRO ALMODÓVAR,
       VALERY GERGIEV, MARTHA                       SARA BARAS, PLÁCIDO
       INGRAM, IRWIN JACOBS,                        DOMINGO, PACO PEÑA,
       MÆRSK MCKINNEY MØELLER,                      TAMARA ROJO
       TREVOR NUNN
                                             2013   PRAGUE
2006   LONDON                                       JIŘÍ BĚLOHLÁVEK, SOŇA
       DARCEY BUSSELL,                              ČERVENÁ, KAREL KOMÁREK,
       MICHAEL CAINE, JUDI DENCH,                   JR.,MAGDALENA KOŽENÁ
       JEREMY IRONS, JACOB
       ROTHSCHILD, LILY SAFRA                2014   UAE
                                                    HOOR AL-QASIMI, BADR
2007   BEIJING                                      JAFAR, QUINCY JONES,
       SONG ZUYING,                                 ARIF AND FAYEEZA NAQVI,
       MINISTER SUN JIAZHENG                        ZAKI AL NUSSEIBEH

2008   BUENOS AIRES                          2015   PARIS
       NORMA ALEANDRO, JULIO                        PIERRE BOULEZ, LESLIE
       BOCCA, PALOMA HERRERA,                       CARON, ALEXANDRE DESPLAT,
       MERCEDES SOSA                                YASMINA REZA

2009   ISTANBUL                              2016   DUBLIN
       CIHAT AŞKIN, CANA GÜRMEN,                    SIR JAMES GALWAY, SIR VAN
       AHMET KOCABIYIK                              MORRISON, FIONA SHAW, JIM
                                                    SHERIDAN, ENDA WALSH
2010   TOKYO
       TADAO ANDO, MIDORI,                   2017   MILAN
       KANZABURO NAKAMURA,                          SALVATORE ACCARDO,
       YUKIO NINAGAWA                               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.

Performance
Handspring 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.

The Handspring Trust for Puppetry Arts, a non-profit organization, was established
in 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. As the nation’s largest permanent nonprofit performing arts organization, Cape
Town 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
singers with soloist potential the opportunity to consolidate and refine their technique
and stage skills before launching professional careers.

Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (Zeitz MOCAA)
MOCAA is a public not-for-profit contemporary art museum which collects, 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,
spread over nine floors, are dedicated to a large cutting edge permanent collection;
temporary exhibitions; and Centers for Art Education, Curatorial Excellence,
Performative Practice, Photography, the Moving Image, and the Costume Institute.

The grain silo complex where Zeitz MOCAA is located was once, at 57 meters, the
tallest 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
significant economic activities in Table Bay Harbor. Today, with a state-of-the-art
design by internationally acclaimed designer Thomas Heatherwick, it remains an
impressive icon, easily recognizable on the Mother City’s skyline.

2018 Gold Medal
Recipients Biographies
Basil 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
Michaelis Prize, Kohler joined at the Space
Theatre, then South Africa’s only theatre open
to all. Jones and Kohler subsequently left
the 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
also became active members of MEDU, the ANC’s cultural organization under the
leadership of Mongane Wally Serote and subsequently Tami Mnyele.

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.

For 5 years they traveled in a caravan/truck touring children’s shows to schools
throughout southern Africa and performing at theatres in the school holidays. With
the declaration of the Emergency in 1985, visiting schools was no longer possible and
they relocated the company to Johannesburg working in children’s TV. There they set
up the not-for-profit company, Handspring Trust, and raised funding from international
donors 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
first piece for adult audiences, 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
presented animals as animals in the central roles – the world’s first company to do this.

The third of these productions was War Horse, (2007), produced by the Royal National
Theatre 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.

Through their non-for–profit entity, Handspring Trust, they have a longstanding
commitment 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).

Jones and Kohler were officially married in Oudtshoorn in 2007. They live in Kalk Bay,
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
Athol Fugard since 1965 when he joined
the 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® for Best Actor in 1975
for 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’s film credits include The 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 Truth played at the Baxter Theater and Opera House in Port Elizabeth prior to
running 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.

In 2005, John received the Order of Ikhamanaga in Silver for his contribution to a
democratic, 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
Port Elizabeth. He is a former Chairman of the Board of the Apartheid Museum and
was 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
could not be admitted to university through lack of funds or required educational
qualification. The Lab now also has outreach and community training programs and
stages 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’s influence, she developed her singing
talents which range from opera to jazz and
choral 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,
both in the classical art song, opera as well as jazz genres.

Khumalo has music degrees from the University of Zululand and Wits University, and
an Honorary Licentiate in Music from the University of South Africa. She has qualified
with a Post-Graduate Diploma in Human Resource Management from Wits Business
School.

She has been conferred with honorary doctorates by Rhodes University (D. Mus-
Honoris Causa), the University of Zululand (D. Phil-Honoris Causa), and the University
of South Africa (D. Musicology-Honoris Causa). In addition, she is a Fellow of the
Africa Leadership Initiative (ALI), an Africa-wide collective of leaders interested in
developing a cohort of values-based leadership.

Among her many accolades for her stage and recorded work, including four South
African Music Awards (SAMA), a South African Traditional Music Award (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
performances called “More Than 3 Faces”, at her 60th Birthday celebrations in 2017.

She holds the National Order of Ikhamanga in Silver (OIS), by Order of the President
of 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, performer and storyteller. Influenced
by 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
collaborated with Ladysmith Black Mambazo
on a children’s CD. She again worked with
Ladysmith Black Mamabazo and Francis
Bebey quartet in a unique production, Africa at
the 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
from BBC Africa, and the Joseph Jefferson Award in Chicago. In 1992 she founded
and directed the Zanendaba storytelling company, Johannesburg, RSA. She has
received honorary doctorates from the London Open University(UK); University
of 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: Mother of Books, is available as a book which is accompanied by a CD
that formed the joyful soundtrack of the roadshow. In April 2012 she was awarded
her fifth Honorary Doctorate by University of Johannesburg.

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
University in 2014. She is also one of the 21 ICONS in 2015 with the likes of Lillian
Cingo, 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, a collaborative CD with Bheki Khoza, Ntakemazolo HP
School and Umlazi JP School, was released in an effort to resuscitate the culture
of African children’s rhymes and rhythms with jazz music. Latest works include the
recording 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

South Africans). Dr. Mhlophe is due to receive the Kennedy Centre International
Artists award as well as he seventh Honorary Doctorate from the Nelson Mandela
University in Port Elizabeth, in April 2018.

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
sounds of African music: the soulful hymns of
the 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
the aftermath of the 1976 uprising, the young
McCoy, then playing flute, studied informally
under Langa greats like Madoda Gxabeka,
Winston Ngozi, the Ngcukanas, Ezra and
Duke, Blackie Tempi, and Robert Sithole.

By the early 1980s he was playing in cover bands, and from there moved to crossover
outfit Louis and the Jive. In 1987, McCoy was spotted by bandleader Sipho Hotstix
Mabuse who helped him make Joburg his home. In 1988, he joined PJ Powers band
and was sported by veteran producer Koloi Lebona. Lebona offered him a recording
deal 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, Lawrence Matshiza, and the late Moses Molelekwa, among others. He also
created his own bands, Cape to Cairo and McCoy and Friends. In the mid 1990s,
he made the first of a series of albums as leader for the independent Sheer Sound
label, 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
African Music Award in the Traditional Jazz category, Icamagu Livumile, which won
the same award in 2005, and Brasskap Sessions: Volume 1, which won the award in
2008. McCoy also won awards with bands The Sheer All Stars and Kulturation.

McCoy has collaborated with an array of South African jazz players as well as
overseas artists. He has been involved in drama, creating scores for South African
productions. McCoy also worked in three Norwegian productions with the Nordic
Black Theatre; two in 1994 and 1995 in South Africa and Oslo on two Bob Marley
musicals 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,
a collaboration with the next generation of South African jazzmen.

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-
instrumentalist Greg Georgiadis, using instruments like oudh and bouzouki alongside
saxophones 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
musicians in South African Jazz: the late Sipho Gumede, Errol Dyers, Paul Hanmer,
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
Black Theatre in Oslo. McCoy also conducted the 2012 South African Youth Jazz
Band in June and July at the Grahamstown Arts Festival and in August at the Joy of
Jazz in Newtown, JHB, South Africa.

In 2012, McCoy was among the top Jazz educators who helped to launch the Jazz
Faculty at University Of South Africa and has subsequently conducted workshops
and master classes commissioned by the Institution.

Kennedy Center International Committee on the Arts Members

Natalia and Ara Abramyan, Russia             Marlene and Frederic Malek, United States
Yulia Abramyan, United States                Christina Co Mather, United States
Daris Clifton-Alloy and Martin Alloy,        Catherine and Michael Mayton,
    United States                                United States
Abbe Aron, United States                     Bonnie McElveen-Hunter, United States
Juliet and Joshua Berkowitz, United States   JoAnn McGrath, United States
Wilma and Stuart Bernstein, United States    Donna and Thomas F. McLarty,
Nancy G. Brinker, United States                  United States
Natalia Bulgheroni, Argentina and Spain      Paula and G. Mac McNichols, United States
Nancy Jean Davis, United States              Linda and Tobia Mercuro, United States
Rachael Dedman, United States                Constance Milstein, United States
Liz Dubin, United States                     Noémi and Michael Neidorff, United States
Lindsay and Henry Ellenbogen,                Suzanne Niedland, United States
    United States                            Mary and Mandell† Ourisman, United States
A. Huda and Samia Farouki, Jordan and        Laura Pels, France and the United States
    the United States                        Suzy and Bob Pence, United States
Amra and Damir Fazlic, Bosnia and            Jania and Phillips Peter, United States
    Herzegovina                              Edwin and Linda Phelps, United States
Mikhail Fridman, Russia                      Marzia and Dale Precoda, United States,
Virginia McGehee Friend, United States           Switzerland, and Italy
Norma Lee and Morton Funger,                 Catherine and Wayne Reynolds,
    United States                                United States
Nancy and Carl Gewirz, United States         Linda and Albert Rosecan, United States
Alma and Joseph Gildenhorn, United States    David M. Rubenstein, United States
Laurel and Vinod Gupta, United States        Jeanne Weaver Ruesch, United States
Helen Lee Henderson, United States           Lily Safra, Monaco
Debbie Driesman and Frank Islam,             Clarice Smith, United States
    United States                            Michelle Smith, United States
Heather and Jim Johnson, United States       Paul and Ann Stern, United States
Y. Michele Kang, South Korea and the         Taeko and Kenji Tanaka, Japan
    United States                            Susie Trees, United States
Kelly Fisher Katz and Martin Katz,           Adarsh and Ranvir Trehan, United States
    United States                                and India
Robert and Arlene Kogod, United States       Makiko Tanaka and Takeshi Ueshima, Japan
Elizabeth and C. Michael Kojaian,                and the United States
    United States                            Catherine Vaillant, France
Stephanie and Karel Komárek,                 Allen A. Vine, United States
    Czech Republic                           Sherry and Edward Wachs, United States
Dale LeFebvre, United States                 Larisa Zelkova, Russia
Martha and Carl Lindner, United States
Amalia Perea Mahoney and William
    Mahoney, United States                           *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
September 8, 1971, continues its efforts to fulfill President Kennedy’s vision by
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through thousands of performances by the greatest artists from across America and
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