Renée Fleming

Renée Fleming is internationally celebrated for her vocal and dramatic artistry and her advocacy for the arts in health. A 2023 Kennedy Center Honoree and winner of five Grammy Awards and the U.S. National Medal of Arts, she has sung for occasions from the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony to the Diamond Jubilee for Queen Elizabeth II. In 2008 she became the first woman in the Metropolitan Opera's 125-year history to solo headline an opening-night gala, and in 2014 the first classical artist to sing "The Star-Spangled Banner" at the Super Bowl. In 2023 the World Health Organization named her a Goodwill Ambassador for Arts and Health.

Fleming's latest recital and concert program, Voice of Nature: The Anthropocene, inspired by her 2023 Grammy-winning album, features an original film created by the National Geographic Society. In 2024 she reprised her role at the Metropolitan Opera in The Hours, an opera based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel and film, and in 2023 she portrayed Pat Nixon in a new production of Nixon in China at the Paris Opera.

An advocate for research at the intersection of arts, health, and neuroscience, Fleming published the anthology "Music and Mind: Harnessing the Arts for Health and Wellness" in 2024. Her live program Music and Mind, presented in more than 70 cities worldwide, earned Research!America's Rosenfeld Award for impact on public opinion and Harvard Medical School's David Mahoney Neuroscience Prize. She advises major initiatives including the NeuroArts Blueprint at Johns Hopkins University and launched the Renée Fleming NeuroArts Investigator Awards, funding interdisciplinary research by early-career scientists and creative artists.

Fleming has recorded everything from complete operas and song recitals to indie rock and jazz, and in 2023 Decca released a double-length album of her live Metropolitan Opera performances. She has sung with artists from Luciano Pavarotti and Andrea Bocelli to Elton John, Sting, and Joan Baez, and her voice is featured on the soundtracks of the best picture Oscar winners The Shape of Water and The Lord of the Rings.

Co-artistic director of the Aspen Opera Center and VocalArts at the Aspen Music Festival, Fleming also serves as advisor for special projects at LA Opera and artist development advisor at Wolf Trap Opera. Her other honors include the Fulbright Lifetime Achievement Medal, Germany's Cross of the Order of Merit, Sweden's Polar Music Prize, and honorary doctorates from 10 major universities.