Hawes will receive a distinguished achievement award from university President Jolene Koester during a special ceremony before the performance at 7 p.m. at the Performing Arts Center on the east side of the campus off Zelzah Avenue.

"Bess Lomax Hawes has made a major contribution not just to our university, but to the nation. Her efforts to preserve America's folk traditions has left a legacy that will be treasured by generations to come," Koester said.

The AMAN Folk Ensemble continues Hawes' traditions by researching, preserving, interpreting and performing traditional dances and music from the many ethnic groups residing in the United States.

Their performance April 21 will be a tribute to Hawes and her work.

Tickets are $19.50 for general admission, $15 for seniors and students and $10 for CSUN students with identification.

For more information about or tickets for the performance, call (818) 677-2488.

As a child, Hawes studied classical piano. Her interest in folk music was sparked by her father, John A. Lomax, who traveled the world collecting folk music and lecturing at leading universities. She entered the University of Texas at 15 and her interest in folk music expanded as her father and brother, Alan, introduced her to such traditional singers as Leadbelly and the Grant family. When she was 16, she helped transcribe field recordings for her father and brother's book, Our Singing Country.

As Hawes grew older she met many of the folk artists then living in New York, and was received by them as a talented artist in her own right and a kindred spirit. Among those she sometimes performed with were Pete Seeger, Butch Hawes (whom she later married), Earl Robinson, Woody Guthrie and Burl Ives. They later formed The Almanac Singers.

World War II led to the break up of the group and Hawes joined the Office of War Information, where she worked in the music division preparing material for broadcast to Europe and the Near East. After the war, she and her husband moved to Boston where she taught guitar, and soon earned a reputation as one of the best folk music instructors in the country. While in Boston, she wrote "The M.T.A. Song" with Jacqueline Steiner. The song became a national hit for the Kingston Trio.

In the 1950s, Hawes and her family moved to California where she continued to teach music. She continued to be a much sought-after performer, receiving invitations from around the country to appear at national folk festivals, concerts and theaters.

She joined the faculty of San Fernando Valley State College, which later became California State University, Northridge, in the early 1960s as an anthropology professor. She also served as a summer faculty member at the Idyllwild School of Music and the Arts. In 1998, she donated her archives to Cal State Northridge.

In 1982, Hawes, then creator/director of the Folk Arts Program of the National Endowment for the Arts, established the National Heritage Fellowship Awards. She modeled the award after the Japanese concept of honoring national living treasures. More than 200 artists have received the award since its creation. In 1993, she was awarded the National Medal of Arts.

In 2000, the National Endowment for the Arts created the Bess Lomax Hawes Award to honor those individuals who have made major contributions to the excellence, vitality and public appreciation of the folk and traditional arts through teaching, collecting, advocacy and preservation work.