Japanese conductor Seiji Ozawa and Star Wars filmmaker George Lucas were among the artists who received this year's Kennedy Center Honors award Saturday for their lifetime contribution to American culture.
Ozawa took part in an award ceremony along with the three other recipients — singer-songwriter Carole King, actress and singer Rita Moreno and actress Cicely Tyson — at the State Department.
Legendary jazz pianist Herbie Hancock, who attended the event as a winner of the award in 2013, commended Ozawa's receipt of it this year, saying, "He conducts as though he was born with a baton in his hand," according to a tweet from the center.
The award recipients will meet with President Barack Obama at the White House and attend a gala dinner at The Kennedy Center nearby on Sunday.
In July, the center announced the award would also go to the American rock band the Eagles but decided to postpone the presentation to next year due to a health problem for guitarist and vocalist Glenn Frey.
Ozawa, 80, was music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, one of the leading American orchestras, for 29 years until 2002. He also served as vice conductor at the New York Philharmonic in 1961.
Ozawa has also performed with other orchestras around the world and devoted himself to teaching young musicians at the Seiji Ozawa International Academy Switzerland.
He has been suffering health problems particularly after he underwent surgery for esophagus cancer in January 2010, which sometimes forces him to cancel or shorten stage performances.