The 2002 World Food Prize Laureate ceremony will feature world-class entertainment, with performances by 15-time Grammy award-winning singer Ray Charles, the Des Moines Symphony Orchestra and Latin music ensemble Las Guitarras de Mexico.

Kenneth Quinn, president of the World Food Prize Foundation, says a main highlight of the evening will be Charles’ performance. Charles will perform “America The Beautiful” as a tribute to World Food Prize creator Norman Borlaug, 2002 Nobel Prize recipient and former president Jimmy Carter, and Des Moines businessman and philanthropist John Ruan.

Charles’ appearance is sponsored by the Iowa Lottery and Powerball, says Ed Stanek, Iowa Lottery commissioner. Charles did a series of advertisements for the Des Moines-based 10-state lottery game in 2001 and agreed to a Central Iowa performance as part of his contract, Stanek says.

“[Powerball] felt that [Charles] performing at the World Food Prize Ceremony would be a great idea for the concert,” he says. “[Charles] agreed to do this because the World Food Prize is such a major and significant event.”

Stanek, who received a doctoral degree from Iowa State in 1972, says Charles’ performance will be a rare opportunity for Iowans to hear a world-renowned musician in top form.

“Ray Charles usually reserves performances of this nature for events such as the Super Bowl and the national Fourth of July celebration,” he says. “For a man of his prowess and reputation, it’s quite something for him to come all this way at no charge for such an important event.”

Another highlight of the ceremony will be a special performance by the Des Moines Symphony Orchestra. The orchestra will be performing a piece commissioned especially for the World Food Prize and composed by David Heitzeg, “Symphony to the Prairie Farm.”

David Stuart, associate professor of music and trombonist for the Des Moines Symphony Orchestra, says Heitzeg wrote the piece as a tribute to the “Father of the Green Revolution,” Iowan Norman Borlaug. The piece draws its inspiration from Heitzeg’s family dairy farm in Minnesota.

“The symphony’s four movements are meant to portray various aspects of the vanishing of the prairie and the family farm,” Stuart says. “The philosophical ideas [Heitzeg] is trying to put across are really amazing.”

As a musician, Stuart says he greatly appreciates the opportunity to perform at the ceremony and the importance of the World Food Prize itself.

“The World Food Prize should make us aware of the extremes of the unbelievable bounty of what we have [in the U.S.] and acknowledging there are people who have nothing — the whole point of the prize is to bring those together,” he says. “It’s important for us to use music to try to bring dignity to the enormousness of this event — it’s the least we can do.”

The evening’s entertainment will end with a special performance by Las Guitarras de Mexico. The Des Moines-based ensemble will perform the traditional Cuban anthem “Guantanamera” in conjunction with the Ames Youth Choir, the Des Moines Youth Chorus and the ISU Singers to honor 2002 World Food Prize recipient Pedro Sanchez, Quinn says.

“The World Food Prize is the highest scientific honor ever given to a native of Cuba,” he says. “We wanted to end with a very special Cuban song, and [Guantanamera] is a song that reaches across the political divide between Cubans and Cuban Americans.”