This year's awards included quite a few musicians / people related to music.

Alex Ross: the New Yorker music critic

Leila Josefowicz: violinist, noted for the "juxtaposition of the avant-garde and eclectic with the more traditional."

Walter Kitundu: composer and instrument maker, for "inventing instruments inspired by experimental and traditional musical forms to produce electro-acoustic works that navigate the boundary between live and recorded performance."

Miguel Zenon: saxophonist, "drawing from a variety of jazz idioms and the indigenous music of his native Puerto Rico to create a new language of complex, yet accessible sounds that overflow with emotion."

Jennifer Tipton, Stage LIghting designer (she was involved in some operas).

The Fellows receive USD 100,000 a year for 5 years, with no strings attached..

I know two of them personally- Carl Woese and Todd Martinez.

They're really some incredible people, aren't they?

I have met Miguel Zenon and Walter Kitundu. I know several past MacArthur fellows. (Not so many Nobelists, though.)

Wow, I didn't know performers were considered for these awards. I thought it was just composers and others producing original work.

Where do I apply?

(Just kidding. I know you can't apply.)

I did not list the scientist awards but there are some interesting choices, as usual.

Of course PW can nominate someone.. although nominating individuals, just like nominees, are by invitation only..

Any comment on the choice of musicians? I thought Josefiwcz was an interesting choice..I have never seen her perform live but I have read excellent reviews of her recent Shostakovitch CD.

Don't forget Reginald Robinson, ragtime composer.

You cannot apply and you cannot nominate. Only members of the Foundation's committee can nominate, and they are kept anonymous. They go about their work during the year quietly seeking out deserving candidates and discussing their recommendations with the committee. There is interestingly no age limit for winners, and some people well beyond retirement have won for a lifetime of work that was innovative, beneficial, but somehow unappreciated.

Stephen Hough was awarded a Fellowship a while back.

He used some of the money to sound-proof his London studio...

(he said you could hammer out the Tschaikowsky 1 and people upstairs would think it was Bach)

In fact he was the only pianist to have received this award, if you exclude Cecil Taylor who is a jazz pianist and a composer. Most of the awards in music usually go to composers (John Harbison, Wuorinen etc..). Marin Alsop, a rare woman conductor, has also received it a couple of years ago.