Pete Seeger and Bruce Springsteen have been selected as two of this year’s nine Performing Arts–Criticism and Practice initiates into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. The Academy, founded in 1780, is based in Cambridge, MA, and represents a collection of leaders in the fields of academia, the arts, business affairs, and public policy. Members are honored for their previous contributions to the field for which they are initiated and aim to further contribute to public awareness of challenges in the discipline and ways to overcome them. There are 198 total initiates in the 2013 class, and they will be honored on October 12 at the Academy’s Cambridge Headquarters. Seeger and Springsteen have collaborated before, most notably performing Woody Guthrie’s classic “This Land is Your Land” preceding President Obama’s inauguration in 2009. Springsteen has also recorded a personal tribute to Seeger, entitled We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions, released in 2006. The two will share the initiation ceremony with seven other stars of the performing arts, including Robert DeNiro, Herbie Hancock, Renee Fleming and Sally Field.

— Jess Sepe