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Audra McDonald is unparalleled in the breadth and versatility of
her artistry, as both a singer and an actress. The winner of a
record-breaking six Tony Awards, two Grammy Awards, and an Emmy
Award, she was named one of Time magazine's 100
most influential people of 2015 and received a 2015 National Medal
of Arts-America's highest honor for achievement in the arts-from
President Barack Obama. Blessed with a luminous soprano and an
incomparable gift for dramatic truth-telling, she is as much at
home on Broadway and opera stages as she is in roles on film and
television. In addition to her theatrical work, she maintains a
major career as a concert and recording artist, regularly appearing
on the great stages of the world.
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 Ragtime (1998), for
an unprecedented total of three Tony Awards before the age of 30.
In 2004 she won her fourth Tony, starring alongside Sean "Diddy"
Combs in A Raisin in the Sun, and in 2012 she won her
fifth-and her first in the leading actress category-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-the
role which also served as the vehicle for her 2017 debut on
London's West End. 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
theater credits include The Secret
Garden (1993), Marie
Christine (1999), Henry
IV (2004), 110 in the Shade (2007),
her Public Theater Shakespeare in the Park debut
in Twelfth Night (2009), and Shuffle Along,
Or, The Making of the Musical Sensation of 1921 and All That
Followed (2016).
McDonald made her opera debut in 2006 at Houston Grand Opera,
where she starred in a double bill: the monodrama La voix
humaine by Francis Poulenc and the world premiere
of Send by Michael John LaChiusa. She made her
Los Angeles Opera debut in 2007 starring alongside Patti LuPone in
John Doyle's production of 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 has sung at 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 with the London Symphony Orchestra and Berlin
Philharmonic.
It was the Peabody Award-winning CBS program Having Our
Say: The Delany Sisters' First 100 Years that introduced
McDonald to television audiences as a dramatic actress. She went on
to co-star with Kathy Bates and Victor Garber in the lauded 1999
Disney/ABC television remake of Annie, and in 2000
she had a recurring role on NBC's hit series Law &
Order: Special Victims Unit. After receiving her first Emmy
nomination for her performance in the HBO film version of the
Pulitzer Prize-winning play Wit, directed by Mike
Nichols and starring Emma Thompson, McDonald returned to network
television in 2003 in the political drama Mister
Sterling, produced by Emmy Award-winner Lawrence O'Donnell,
Jr. (The West Wing) and starring Josh Brolin. In early
2006 she joined the cast of the WB's The Bedford
Diaries, and over the next season she had a recurring role on
NBC's television series Kidnapped. In 2008 she
reprised her Tony-winning role in A Raisin in the
Sun in a made-for-television movie adaption, earning her
a second Emmy Award nomination. From 2007 to 2011, she played 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 duet
with Neil Patrick Harris.
A familiar face on PBS, McDonald has headlined telecasts including
an American Songbook season-opening concert, a presentation of
Sondheim's Passion, a Rodgers and Hammerstein tribute
concert titled Something Wonderful, and five galas
with the New York Philharmonic: a New Year's Eve performance in
2006, a concert celebrating Sondheim's 80th birthday, Carnegie
Hall's 120th anniversary concert, One Singular Sensation!
Celebrating Marvin Hamlisch, and, most
recently, Sweeney Todd. She was also featured in the
PBS television specials A Broadway Celebration: In
Performance at the White House and A
Celebration of American Creativity, singing at the request of
President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama. McDonald has
appeared three times on the Kennedy Center Honors; been profiled
by 60 Minutes, Today, PBS
NewsHour, and CBS Sunday Morning; been a guest
on The Late Show with Stephen
Colbert and David
Letterman, The Tonight Show with Jimmy
Fallon, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, The Colbert
Report, Charlie Rose, CBS This
Morning, NewsNation with Tamron
Hall, PoliticsNation with Al
Sharpton, Iron Chef
America, The Megan Mullally Show, The Rosie
O'Donnell Show, The Tavis Smiley
Show, The Wendy Williams Show,
and The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore; and has
guest co-hosted on The View with Barbara
Walters. In 2012, McDonald was named the new official host of the
PBS series Live From Lincoln Center, and she won her
first Primetime Emmy Award for hosting the Creative Arts Special
Program in 2015, having previously been nominated in 2013. In 2016,
she received her fifth Emmy nomination for her role in HBO's film
version of Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill. In
2018, she joins the cast of The Good Fight for
the second season of the CBS All Access original drama series.
McDonald launched her film career with Seven
Servants in 1996; 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), She Got Problems (2009) -a
mockumentary movie musical written, starring, and directed by her
sister, Alison McDonald-and Rampart (2012). She
recently appeared opposite Meryl Streep in Ricki and the
Flash (2015), and played Madame de Garderobe in Disney's
live-action Beauty and the Beast (2017). She
appears in the upcoming movie-musical Hello
Again.
As an exclusive Nonesuch recording artist, McDonald released her
most recent album, Go Back Home, in 2013. 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). The New York Times named her first
Nonesuch album, 1998's Way Back to Paradise, as Adult
Record of the Year. Following the bestselling How Glory
Goes in 2000 and Happy Songs in 2002,
she released the 2006 album Build a
Bridge, which saw the singer stretch her
repertoire to include songs by the likes of Randy Newman, Elvis
Costello/Burt Bacharach, Rufus Wainwright, and Nellie McKay. Her
ensemble recordings include the acclaimed EMI version of
Bernstein's Wonderful Town conducted by Sir
Simon Rattle, the New York Philharmonic release of
Sondheim's Sweeney Todd,
and Dreamgirls in concert, as well as the first
recording of Rodgers and
Hammerstein's Allegro and Broadway cast albums
of Carousel, Ragtime, Marie
Christine, 110 in the Shade, The
Gershwins' Porgy and Bess, and Lady Day at Emerson's
Bar & Grill. She is also featured on a number of
audiovisual recordings available on DVD and Blu-ray,
including Sondheim! The Birthday
Concert; Christmas with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir
and Orchestra at Temple Square; Weill-Rise and Fall
of the City of Mahagonny; Bernstein-Wonderful
Town; Audra McDonald: Live at the Donmar,
London; and My Favorite Broadway: The Leading
Ladies.
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, the Drama League's 2000
Distinguished Achievement in Musical Theatre and 2012 Distinguished
Performance Award, a 2015 Rockefeller Award for Creativity, and
Roundabout Theatre's 2016 Jason Robards Award for Excellence in
Theatre. In 2015, she was named to the Time
100-Time magazine's list of the most influential
people in the world-and in 2017, honored as one of Variety
Magazine's Power of Women alongside Chelsea Clinton,
Blake Lively, and Gayle King. In 2013, she was honored
as Musical America's "Musician of the Year," joining
the esteemed company of previous winners such as Leonard Bernstein,
Leontyne Price, Beverly Sills, and Yo-Yo Ma, and in 2017 she was
inducted into Lincoln Center's Hall of Fame as a member of the
inaugural class, which included Ma, Price, Placido Domingo, Louis
Armstrong, and Harold Prince. Besides her six Tony wins, she has
received nominations for her performances in Marie
Christine and 110 in the Shade. In 2016,
McDonald received an honorary doctorate from Yale University.
In addition to her professional obligations, McDonald is a
passionate advocate for equal rights, LGBTQ causes, and
underprivileged youth. In 2014, she joined the Covenant House
International Board of Directors, which oversees programs for
homeless young people in 27 cities in six countries across the
United States, Canada, and Latin America. McDonald's outspoken
activism for marriage equality helped put the issue on the national
agenda. In 2009, she joined Twitter to promote the cause, using the
Twitter handle @AudraEqualityMc, and in 2011 she joined Mario
Batali and other pro-equality marchers in Albany to lobby New York
state senators in the days leading up their groundbreaking vote for
legalization. McDonald was featured in marriage equality and
anti-bullying 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. Of all her many roles, her favorites are the
ones performed offstage: passionate advocate for equal rights and
homeless youth, wife to actor Will Swenson, and mother to her
children.
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Audra McDonald, soloist
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Leading Broadway music director and conductor, Andy Einhorn,
directs concerts in the 17/18 season with the Utah Symphony,
Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra,
National Arts Centre Orchestra and the New Jersey Symphony. He's
currently the Music Supervisor and Musical Director for the new
Broadway production of Hello Dolly! starring
Bette Midler. Einhorn's Broadway credits include Holiday
Inn, Woody Allen's Bullets Over Broadway,
Rodgers + Hammerstein's Cinderella, Evita, Brief
Encounter, The Light in the Piazza, and Sondheim on
Sondheim. He recently served as music director and
conductor for the Châtelet Theatre's production of
Sondheim's Passion in Paris and in Einhorn made
his New York Philharmonic debut with world-renowned trumpeter Chris
Botti.
Since 2011 Einhorn has served as music director and pianist for
Six-Time Tony Award Winner, Audra McDonald, performing with her at
such prestigious orchestras and venues including The Philadelphia
Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, National Symphony Orchestra, Los
Angeles Opera, Avery Fisher Hall, Carnegie Hall, Walt Disney
Concert Hall and Teatro Real, Madrid. They recently recorded
performances for an upcoming telecast with the Sydney Symphony at
the Sydney Opera House in Australia. Einhorn has also music
directed for Barbara Cook at Feinstein's and Toronto's Royal
Conservatory of Music.
His tour work includes Sweeney Todd, The
Light in the Piazza, Mamma Mia!, and The Lion
King. Einhorn's work can be heard on the current touring
production of Rodgers & Hammerstein's The Sound of
Music. Einhorn has worked at Goodspeed Opera House, Signature
Theatre, Oregon Shakespeare Festival and PaperMill Playhouse. He
was principal vocal coach and pianist for Houston Grand Opera's An
Evening with Audra McDonald, a double-bill of Poulenc's La
Voix Humaine and LaChiusa's Send.
Recording credits include Bullets Over Broadway,
Cinderella, Evita, Sondheim on Sondheim (Grammy
Nom) Stage Door Canteen and McDonald's newest
release, Go Back Home. He served as the music director for HBO's
Peabody Award winning documentary Six by Sondheim and music
supervisor for Great Performances Peabody Award winning special
"Broadway Musicals: A Jewish Legacy" on PBS.
Andy Einhorn is an honors graduate of Rice University in
Houston, Texas.
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Andy Einhorn, musical director
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