Folk singer Pete Seeger to be honored by arts academy

Singer Pete Seeger performs at the 2009 Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize special outdoor tribute at Hunts Point Riverside Park on Sept. 3, 2009, in New York City.

/ Photo by Astrid Stawiarz/Getty Images

(CBS/AP) Folk music legend Pete Seeger is receiving a "Distinguished Service" award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the 92-year-old may sing a song to celebrate.

According to academy's executive director, Virginia Dajani, Seeger might perform at the May 16 ceremony, at which playwright Tony Kushner will present Seeger a certificate and a check for $1,000.

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In an acceptance letter sent to the academy, and shared with The Associated Press, Seeger wrote that his father, Charles Louis Seeger, Jr., would have been "especially pleased." The elder Seeger was a composer, conductor and pioneer of "ethnomusicology."

"I am glad we are all realizing that the arts, in a broad sense, may save the world, save the human race," Pete Seeger wrote to the academy.

The arts academy is an honorary society founded in 1898. It has a core membership of 250 writers, artists and musicians.