Composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim has been awarded the Edward MacDowell medal in the United States.
Previous recipients which is named after composer Edward MacDowell, include poet Robert Frost and painter Georgia O'Keefe.
It is the first time the medal has been awarded for musical theatre.
The BBC reports Sondheim has won more Tony Awards than any other composer. His hit musicals include Follies, A Little Night Music and Sweeney Todd.
He also won a best original song Oscar in 1991 for Sooner or Later and the Pulitzer Prize for drama for Sunday In The Park With George in 1984.
Sondheim was awarded the medal at the MacDowell artist retreat colony in Peterborough, New Hampshire.
Other MacDowell fellows include Thornton Wilder, Alice Walker and Leonard Bernstein,