Press release from the National Endowment for the Arts

National Endowment for the Arts Announces the 2011 NEA Jazz Masters – The Nation’s Highest Honor in Jazz

NEA presents group award for first time in program’s history.

Washington, DC – June 24, 2010 – The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) today announced the recipients of the 2011 NEA Jazz Masters Award — the nation’s highest honor in this distinctly American music. For the first time in the program’s 29-year history, in addition to four individual awards, the NEA will present a group award to the Marsalis family, New Orleans’ venerable first family of jazz. All of the 2011 recipients will be publicly honored at the annual awards ceremony and concert on January 11, 2011 at Frederick P. Rose Hall, home of Jazz at Lincoln Center, and receive a $25,000 fellowship award.

The 2011 NEA Jazz Masters are:

Name: Hubert Laws
Art Form: Flutist
City, State: Los Angeles, CA

Each member of the 2011 NEA Jazz Masters class is a distinguished artist whose significant lifetime contributions have helped to enrich jazz and further the growth of the art form. One of the few to specialize in the flute, Hubert Laws is the premier musician on the instrument in jazz. In three decades of playing, he has also mastered pop, rhythm-and-blues, and classical genres.