Audra Mcdonald

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Earning an unprecedented three Tony Awards before the age of 30 (Carousel, Master Class, and Ragtime) and a fourth in 2004 (A Raisin in the Sun), singer and actress Audra McDonald is frequently compared to legendary performers such as Judy Garland and Barbra Streisand. But like all great artists, she is a unique force, blending a luscious, classically-trained soprano with an incomparable gift for dramatic truth-telling. In addition to her theatrical work she maintains a major career as a concert and recording artist appearing regularly on many of the great stages of the world. Audra McDonald opened the 2008-2009 season of the Los Angeles Philharmonic with a gala concert at Disney Hall, celebrating Esa-Pekka Salonen’s final season as music director. During the summer of 2009 she returned to the New York stage as Olivia in the Public Theater’s Shakespeare in the Park production of Twelfth Night, directed by Daniel Sullivan. She was also heard performing a new song by Stephen Flaherty in the Macy’s Fourth of July Fireworks Spectacular, broadcast live on NBC. Along with her live performances, Ms. McDonald maintains a thriving television career, earning an Emmy nomination for her role in the made-for-television movie version of A Raisin in the Sun on ABC, alongside hip-hop mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs, her co-star from the 2004 Broadway revival. Returning to ABC in the fall of 2009, Ms. McDonald can be seen as Dr. Naomi Bennett in the third season of the hit television series Private Practice. Her most recent recordings are Kurt Weill’s The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny—winner of two 2009 Grammy Awards—and a new studio recording of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Allegro, released on the Sony MasterWorks Broadway label in February 2009.

During the 2007-2008 season, Audra McDonald appeared with the New Jersey Symphony, conducted by frequent collaborator Ted Sperling, as well as in concerts at Cal Performances, the Gilmore Festival, the Jorgensen Center for the Performing Arts, the Savannah Music Festival, the Purchase Performing Arts Center, the Thomasville Entertainment Foundation, the Shedd Institute for the Arts, the Ferst Center for the Performing Arts, the Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute, and a special Juilliard gala opposite Barbara Cook.

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