Capital Salutes 5 Stars With Kennedy Center Honors Jonathan Ernst/Reuters Billy Joel at the White House on Sunday with fellow Kennedy Center Honors recipients, from left, Carlos Santana, Shirley MacLaine, Herbie Hancock and the opera singer Martina Arroyo. WASHINGTON - Justice Sonia Sotomayor was 15 when Carlos Santana gave his renowned performance at Woodstock - one that would help catapult his music career, eventually taking him to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998, and now to the White House and the State Department as a Kennedy Center honoree. "I used to dance to Carlos Santana when I was in high school and college," Ms. Sotomayor said after congratulating him on the award. Every one of them is a living legend. Mr. Santana, along with the opera singer Martina Arroyo, the musicians Herbie Hancock and Billy Joel, and the actress Shirley MacLaine, received the 36th annual Kennedy Center Honors for lifetime achievement in the performing arts. President Obama and Michelle Obama joined a rare mix of Hollywood stars and presidential cabinet members at a gala for the artists at the Kennedy Center on Sunday. CBS will broadcast the event on Dec. 29. "I am a little disappointed that Carlos Santana wore one of his more conservative shirts this evening," Mr. Obama said. Back in the day, you could see those things from space. The awards committee had been criticized in recent years for a lack of diversity among the honorees, specifically for apparently neglecting Latino stage performers and musicians. This year's class is the first since the board revised its selection process to make it more transparent. It's not just one decision. We all nominate people, and then there's a committee that puts it all together and they decide," said Debbie Allen, an artist in residence at the Kennedy Center for more than 15 years and a member of the nominating committee. On Saturday, the honorees were toasted by friends and colleagues at a dinner in the Benjamin Franklin room at the State Department, surrounded by gold wall trimmings and crystal chandeliers as the prize medallions were hung around their necks. "There's a simple rule in music: Everyone before you is a god, and everyone after you is a punk," the country singer Garth Brooks said while giving a toast to his friend Mr. Joel. He mentioned a time when Paul McCartney flew from Europe to perform with Mr. Joel at Shea Stadium. People, that's a freaking Beatle. Of Ms. Arroyo, Secretary of State John Kerry said her voice bridged the distance between her hometown, New York - she grew up in Harlem - and the many opera houses around the world where she has performed. Among them: the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, the Teatro alla Scala in Milan, the Paris Opera and the Royal Opera House in London's Covent Garden. Mr. Hancock had come to the Kennedy Center Honors before as an attendee, but returned this year as one of the guests of honor. "There's such a magic to this award," he said. With 14 Grammys, an Oscar and the distinction of performing at the inauguration celebrations for Mr. Obama in 2009, he said he was nonetheless shocked to earn a prize that has gone to such luminaries as Diana Ross, Elton John and Yo-Yo Ma. "The bar is pretty high for this," he said. The names that are on that list, it's so hard to believe that my name is going to go up there. The actress Anna Kendrick, toasting Ms. MacLaine, who has won an Oscar, an Emmy and four Golden Globes and has written numerous memoirs, described her as "absolutely heaven."