FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 2, 2015
CONTACT:
Rebecca Bailey, Publicity Coordinator/Writer
Hopkins Center for the Arts, Dartmouth College
rebecca.a.bailey@dartmouth.edu
603.646.3991
“A defining voice of our time”: incomparable singer/actress Audra McDonald
performs on April 14
Photo: Audra McDonald. Photo by Autumn de Wilde.
HANOVER, NH—Winner of a record-breaking six Tony awards and two Grammys, barrier-breaking Broadway
legend Audra McDonald comes to the Hop for a stunning evening of show tunes and selections from her 2013
album Go Back Home, on Tuesday, April 14, at 7 pm, in Spaulding Auditorium. Singing she’ll be accompanied
by a trio led by her longtime musical director and pianist, Andy Einhorn, drummer Gene Lewin, who is active
on New York City’s jazz scene as well as serving as drummer, singer and composer for the innovative trio
GrooveLily; and bassist Dave Phillips, impressive in ensembles ranging from classical to jazz to world music, as
well as a long line of Broadway shows (currently The Book of Mormon) and recording sessions with artists
ranging from the Dixie Chicks to Richie Havens and Pink.
The concert was originally scheduled for April 2.
Currently, all available tickets are being held for
sale to Dartmouth students. Those that are not
bought by Tuesday, March 31, at 1 pm, will be
released for sale to the general public.
Blessed with a luminous soprano voice that can
shape-shift from the virtuosity of opera to the
ravaged ache of Billie Holiday in her final days (in
her 2014 Tony-winning show Lady Day at
Emerson’s Bar and Grill), McDonald also
possesses an incomparable gift for dramatic
truth-telling that shines on stages, and in film and
television, in singing and straight dramatic roles.
In concert, whether accompanied by a symphony
orchestra or (as at the Hop) by a trio led by her
longtime musical director and pianist, Andy
Einhorn, she puts audiences at ease with
anecdotes from her long, varied career, then
takes them deep into the world of each song.
“Absolutely thrilling,” wrote The New York Times of a Lincoln Center concert last year. “Ms. McDonald’s
soprano…seemed to unfurl in ever-richer textures as she imbued songs with a sense of bursting
possibility...One of Ms. McDonald’s greatest gifts is to find the story inside the song and deliver it with
immediacy and clarity, in a voice that finds a flexible, intuitive balance between storytelling and singing—a
defining voice of our time." Wrote The Boston Globe, “McDonald is one of the most consummate performers
there is, effortlessly intimate, casually masterly, seemingly more comfortable on stage than most people are
anywhere.”
Born into a musical family, McDonald grew up in Fresno, California, and received her classical vocal training at
the Juilliard School. A year after graduating, she won her first Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured
Actress in a Musical for Carousel at Lincoln Center Theater. She received two additional Tony Awards in the
featured actress category over the next four years for her performances in the Broadway premieres of
Terrence McNally’s Master Class (1996) and his musical Ragtime (1998), earning her an unprecedented three
Tony Awards before the age of 30. She won a fourth Tony in 2004 for A Raisin in the Sun and her fifth—and
her first in the leading actress category—in 2012 for her role in The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess. In 2014 she
made Broadway history and became the Tony Awards’ most decorated performer when she won her sixth
award for her portrayal of Billie Holiday in Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill. In addition to setting the record
for most competitive wins by an actor, she also became the first person to receive awards in all four acting
categories. McDonald’s other major theater credits include The Secret Garden (1993), Marie Christine (1999),
Henry IV (2004), 110 in the Shade (2007), and her Public Theater Shakespeare in the Park debut in Twelfth
Night alongside Anne Hathaway and Raúl Esparza (2009).
McDonald made her opera debut in 2006 at Houston Grand Opera, where she starred in a double bill:
Poulenc’s monodrama La voix humaine and the world premiere of its companion piece, Send, by Michael John
LaChiusa. She made her Los Angeles Opera debut in 2007 Kurt Weill’s Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny.
The resulting recording won McDonald two Grammy Awards, for Best Opera Recording and Best Classical
Album.
On the concert stage, McDonald has premiered music by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer John Adams and
sung with virtually every major American orchestra—including the Boston Symphony, Chicago Symphony,
Cleveland Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, National Symphony, New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia
Orchestra, and San Francisco Symphony—and under such conductors as Sir Simon Rattle, Esa-Pekka Salonen,
and Leonard Slatkin. She made her Carnegie Hall debut in 1998 with the San Francisco Symphony under the
baton of Michael Tilson Thomas in a season-opening concert that was broadcast live on PBS. Internationally,
she returns to the BBC Proms in London (where she was only the second American in more than 100 years
invited to appear as a guest soloist at the Last Night of the Proms) and at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, as
well as to the London Symphony Orchestra and Berlin Philharmonic.
Meanwhile, McDonald also has built a television career, both as a singer and a dramatic actress, beginning
with the 1999 Peabody Award-winning CBS program Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters’ First 100 Years. Other
high-profile television roles include Grace Farrell in the lauded 1999 Disney/ABC television remake of Annie;
an Emmy-nominated role in HBO’s Wit in 2001; a 2008 Emmy-nominated reprise of her Tony-winning role in A
Raisin in the Sun; and, from 2007 to 2011, Dr. Naomi Bennett on the hit ABC medical drama, Private Practice.
In 2013, her critically acclaimed performance as the Mother Abbess in NBC’s live telecast of Rodgers and
Hammerstein’s The Sound of Music opposite Carrie Underwood as Maria was watched by an estimated 18.5
million people across America. McDonald has performed on numerous Tony Awards telecasts; in 2013, she
closed the show by performing a rap with Neil Patrick Harris.
A familiar face on PBS, McDonald has headlined numerous telecasts saluting the greats of American musical
theater as well as in the PBS television special, A Broadway Celebration: In Performance at the White House,
singing at the request of President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama. She has appeared on
numerous interview shows—including a recent Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon in which she hilariously sang
replies to real Yahoo! Answers to questions like, "Are White Castle's burgers any good?" In 2012, McDonald
was named the new official host of the PBS series Live From Lincoln Center, which earned her a third Emmy
nomination.
McDonald’s film career began with her role in Seven Servants in 1996, and her list of credits has since grown to
include The Object of My Affection (1998), Cradle Will Rock (1999), It Runs in the Family (2003), The Best Thief
in the World (2004), and She Got Problems (2009), a mockumentary movie musical written, starring, and
directed by her sister, Alison McDonald. Most recently, Audra McDonald appeared in the 2012 release
Rampart, starring Woody Harrelson.
As an exclusive Nonesuch recording artist, McDonald’s recent recordings include the 2014 original cast
recording of Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill and the 2013 Go Back Home, her first solo disc in seven years.
She has released four previous solo albums on the label, interpreting songs from the classic (Gershwin, Arlen
and Bernstein) to the contemporary (Michael John LaChiusa, Adam Guettel and Ricky Ian Gordon).
McDonald’s other accolades include five Drama Desk Awards, five Outer Critics Circle Awards, four NAACP
Image Awards nominations, an Ovation Award, a Theatre World Award, and the Drama League’s 2000
Distinguished Achievement in Musical Theatre and 2012 Distinguished Performance Award. In 2013 she was
named Musical America’s “Musician of the Year” and joined the esteemed company of previous winners such
as Leonard Bernstein, Leontyne Price, Beverly Sills and Yo-Yo Ma.
In addition to her professional obligations, McDonald is an ardent proponent of marriage equality. She sits on
the advisory board of the advocacy organization Broadway Impact and has been featured in campaigns for
Freedom to Marry, NOH8, and PFLAG NYC. In 2012, she and her now husband, actor Will Swenson, received
PFLAG National’s Straight for Equality Award. A dog lover, she has two canine companions, Butler and Georgia,
adopted from Eleventh Hour Rescue, a volunteer-based, non-profit organization that saves dogs from death
row. In 2014, she joined the Covenant House International Board of Directors, which oversees programs for
homeless youth in 27 cities in six countries across the United States, Canada and Latin America.
RELEVANT LINKS
http://audramcdonald.net/
https://hop.dartmouth.edu/Online/audra_mcdonald
http://imgartists.com/artist/audra_mcdonald
http://www.laopera.org/Artists/Cast/Andy-Einhorn/
http://www.parentswhorock.com/2010/05/gene-lewin.html
http://www.cleanfeed-records.com/artista.asp?intID=116
Download high-resolution photos:
https://hop.dartmouth.edu/Online/default.asp?doWork::WScontent::loadArticle=Load&BOparam::WScont
ent::loadArticle::article_id=A14ACB33-679C-469F-9E075A08469894E7&sessionlanguage=&SessionSecurity::linkName=
CALENDAR LISTING:
Audra McDonald in concert
Winner of a record-breaking six Tony awards and two Grammys, barrier-breaking Broadway legend
McDonald is blessed with a luminous soprano voice that can shape-shift from opera to Billie Holiday—and
an incomparable gift for dramatic truth-telling that shines on stages, and in film and television. Her
stunning evening of song at the Hop includes show tunes and selections from her 2013 album Go Back
Home.
Tuesday, April 14, 7 pm
Spaulding Auditorium, Hopkins Center for the Arts, Hanover NH
$35/65/75, Dartmouth students $10
Information: hop.dartmouth.edu or 603.646.2422
* * *
Founded in 1962, the Hopkins Center for the Arts is a multi-disciplinary academic, visual and performing
arts center dedicated to uncovering insights, igniting passions, and nurturing talents to help Dartmouth and
the surrounding Upper Valley community engage imaginatively and contribute creatively to our world. Each
year the Hop presents more than 300 live events and films by visiting artists as well as Dartmouth students
and the Dartmouth community, and reaches more than 22,000 Upper Valley residents and students with
outreach and arts education programs. After a celebratory 50th-anniversary season in 2012-13, the Hop
enters its second half-century with renewed passion for mentoring young artists, supporting the
development of new work, and providing a laboratory for participation and experimentation in the arts.