Arts Correspondent for CBS News´ Sunday Morning since December 1980, Eugenia Zukerman´s work has been recognized in the field. Her portrait of Itzhak Perlman was nominated for an Emmy and she has been a recipient of the New York Foundation for the Arts´ Champions of the Arts award. During her twenty years on the program, she has interviewed more than three hundred artists in the fields of music, visual arts, dance, theater, and film. She continues to do `pieces´ on extraordinary talents, some well-known, and others who are emerging artists. From Yo Yo Ma to Paul McCartney, from dancer Peter Martins to film maker Anthony Minghella, Zukerman leads viewers into the hearts of her subjects and shows us what makes them tick, what inspires them, and what it is they try to achieve.

``Of all the many persons you have had through the years, my favorite, by far, is Eugenia Zukerman,´´ wrote a viewer from Van Nuys, California. ``I love her voice. I love her face. I love her smile. Her vast knowledge of music astounds me. What talent!´´ Van Gordon Sauter, the former head of CBS News wrote this to Sunday Morning: ``If we are going to cover classical music, and thank goodness your broadcast has given us that opportunity, I can´t imagine us doing better for a reporter and interpreter than Ms. Zukerman. She uses all the fancy words, but in a way that is not intimidating. Also, I understand more from her than I do from the print people. Beyond that, I think she is engaging and leads me into subjects that under normal conditions I would ignore.´´

Shad Northshield, who, along with Charles Kuralt, created the show, called Zukerman twenty years ago, introduced himself and said, ``I have a job for you, you´re going to do it, you´re going to love it.´´ Zukerman says she had neither seen the show, nor did she have any former on-camera journalistic experience. But Northshield was persistent, and she took on the challenge. As she says, ``I don´t love the job. I adore it! I am deeply inspired by talking with the greatest artists of our time. I have learned so much from these amazing people. And the collaboration with the CBS team is enormously gratifying.´´

In Utah with award winning CBS camera man Isadore Bleckman.

Among Zukerman´s favorite profiles over the years was one with the late pianist, Lily Kraus, who was 86 at the time of their interview. Kraus had been arrested by the Japanese during a tour of Java during World War II. While a prisoner of war she had been kept in solitary confinement and her hands had been severely damaged. Yet after the war, she resumed her career, and when Zukerman asked her what music still gives her, she answered, ``What it always has - music brings me nostalgia, happiness, infinite flight of imagination.´´ The conductor and pianist Leon Fleisher said, ``Music is an adventure in anti-gravity.´´ And when Zukerman asked guitarist Andres Segovia, shortly before his death, if he ever thought of retiring, he answered, ``No... because I will have the eternity to rest, you know. God makes me remember the prayer that I always say: ``My Lord, I am a terrible sinner, and I always was. I do not deserve your glory. I ask You only one favor: Let me stay here.´´

Zukerman looks forward to many more seasons with CBS Sunday Morning and to continuing to present fascinating profiles of the finest and most intriguing artists of our time.