Philip Glass will receive the 2010 National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Opera Honors Award at The Kennedy Center Opera House in Washington, DC, tonight. The Metropolitan Opera’s Artistic Manager Sarah Billinghurst will present the composer with his award.

Tonight's awards ceremony and concert will feature appearances by Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and NEA Senior Deputy Chairman Joan Shigekawa. Musical tributes will be given by artists like tenor Richard Croft, soprano Leah Partridge, baritone Marian Pop, and mezzo-soprano Dolora Zajick, joined by the Washington National Opera Orchestra under the baton of conductor Philippe Auguin.

Also being honored tonight are soprano Martina Arroyo; David DiChiera, the founding general director of Michigan Opera Theatre; and Eve Queler, music director of the Opera Orchestra of New York. A panel discussion with the honorees and NPR host Tom Huizenga will take place prior to the awards ceremony.

All honorees are being acknowledged for their exceptional contributions to opera in America and for having made a lasting impact on the nation's cultural landscape. Glass's first opera, the groundbreaking 1976 piece Einstein on the Beach, "changed the course of music theater," music critic Tim Page once wrote in the Washington Post, "and won Glass (and his collaborator Robert Wilson) deserved and lasting fame."

John Adams received the NEA Opera Honors Award last year.

For more information on the award, visit nea.gov.