Audra Mcdonald E D L I W
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Saturday, December 6, 2014, 8pm Zellerbach Hall Audra McDonald e d l i W e d n m u t u A Audra McDonald soprano Andy Einhorn music director, piano Mark Vanderpoel bass Gene Lewin drums Tonight’s program will be announced from the stage. Cal Performances dedicates this concert to the memory of Trustee Nancy Douglass, with deep appreciation for her tireless advocacy in behalf of Cal Performances’ Education and Community Programs. Funded, in part, by the Koret Foundation, this performance is part of Cal Performances’ A?@B–A?@C Koret Recital Series, which brings world-class artists to our community. Cal Performances’ – season is sponsored by Wells Fargo. CAL PERFORMANCES 19 ABOUT THE ARTISTS unprecedented 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 cat - egory—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 re - ceive awards in all four acting categories. Ms. McDonald’s other theater credits include The Secret Garden (1993 ), Marie Christine (1999 ), Henry IV (2004 ), @@? in the Shade (2007 ), and her Public Theater Shakespeare in n o the Park début in Twelfth Night alongside s l i W Anne Hathaway and Raúl Esparza ( 2009 ). l e a h Ms. McDonald made her opera début in c i M 2006 at Houston Grand Opera, where she Audra McDonald (soprano ) is unparalleled starred in a double bill: Poulenc’s monodrama in the breadth and versatility of her artistry, as La voix humaine and the world première of its both a singer and an actress. With a record six companion piece, Send, written by one of Tony Awards, two Grammy Awards, and a Ms. McDonald’s frequent collaborators, long list of other accolades to her name, she is Michael John LaChiusa. She made her Los among today’s most highly regarded per - Angeles Opera début in 2007 starring along - formers. Blessed with a luminous soprano and side Patti LuPone in John Doyle’s production an incomparable gift for dramatic truth- of Kurt Weill’s Rise and Fall of the City of telling, she is equally at home on Broadway Mahagonny . The resulting recording won and opera stages as she is in roles on film and Ms. McDonald two Grammy Awards, for Best television. In addition to her theatrical work, Opera Recording and Best Classical Album. she maintains a major career as a concert and On the concert stage, Ms. McDonald has recording artist, regularly appearing on the premièred music by Pulitzer Prize-winning great stages of the world. composer John Adams and sung with virtu - Born into a musical family, Ms. McDonald ally every major American orchestra— grew up in Fresno, California, and received including the Boston Symphony, Chicago her classical vocal training at the Juilliard Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, Los Angeles School. A year after graduating, she won her Philharmonic, National Symphony, New York first Tony Award for Best Performance by a Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, and Featured Actress in a Musical for Carousel at San Francisco Symphony—and under such Lincoln Center Theater. She received two ad - conductors as Sir Simon Rattle, Esa-Pekka ditional Tony Awards in the featured actress Salonen, and Leonard Slatkin. She made her category over the next four years for her per - Carnegie Hall début in 1998 w ith the San formances in the Broadway premières of Francisco Symphony under the baton of Terrence McNally’s Master Class (1996 ) and Michael Tilson Thomas in a season-opening his musical Ragtime (1998 ), earning her an concert that was broadcast live on PBS. PLAYBILL ABOUT THE ARTISTS Internationally, she has sung with the BBC Wonderful , and five galas with the New York Proms in London (where she was only the sec - Philharmonic: a New Year’s Eve performance ond American in more than 100 years invited in 2006, a concert celebrating Sondheim’s 80th to appear as a guest soloist at the Last Night of birthday, Carnegie Hall’s 120th anniversary the Proms) and at the Théâtre du Châtelet in concert, One Singular Sensation! Celebrating Paris, as well as with the London Symphony Marvin Hamlisch , and, most recently, Sweeney Orchestra and the Berlin Philharmonic. Todd . She was also featured in the PBS televi - It was the Peabody Award –winning CBS sion special, A Broadway Celebration: In program Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters’ First Performance at the White House , singing at the @?? Years that first introduced Ms. McDonald request of President Barack Obama and First to television audiences as a dramatic actress. Lady Michelle Obama. Ms. McDonald has ap - She went on to co-star with Kathy Bates and peared three times on the Kennedy Center Victor Garber in the lauded 1999 Disney/ABC Honors; been profiled by D? Minutes , Today , television remake of Annie , and in 2000 she PBS NewsHour , and CBS Sunday Morning ; had a recurring role on NBC’s hit series Law been a guest on Late Show with David and Order: Special Victims Unit . After receiv - Letterman , The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy ing her first Emmy Award nomination for her Fallon , Late Night with Jimmy Fallon , The performance in the HBO film version of the Colbert Report , Charlie Rose , CBS This Pulitzer Prize-winning play Wit , directed by Morning , NewsNation with Tamron Hall , Mike Nichols and starring Emma Thompson, PoliticsNation with Al Sharpton , Iron Chef Ms. McDonald returned to network television America , The Megan Mullally Show , The Rosie in 2003 in the political drama Mister Sterling , O’Donnell Show , Tavis Smiley , and The Wendy produced by Emmy-winner Lawrence Williams Show ; and has guest co-hosted on O’Donnell, Jr. ( The West Wing ), and starring The View with Barbara Walters. In 2012 , Josh Brolin. In early 2006 she joined the cast of Ms. McDonald was named the new official the WB’s The Bedford Diaries , and over the host of the PBS series Live from Lincoln Center , next season she had a recurring role on NBC’s which earned her a third Emmy nomination. television series Kidnapped . In 2008 , she Ms. McDonald’s film career began with her reprised her Tony-winning role in A Raisin in role in Seven Servants in 1996 , and her list of the Sun in a made-for-television movie adap - credits has since grown to include The Object tion, earning her a second Emmy nomination. of My Affection (1998 ), Cradle Will Rock From 2007 to 2011, she played Dr. Naomi (1999 ), It Runs in the Family (2003 ), The Best Bennett on the hit ABC medical drama Thief in the World (2004 ), and She Got Private Practice . In 2013 , her critically ac - Problems (2009 ), a mockumentary movie claimed performance as the Mother Abbess in musical written, starring, and directed by her NBC’s live telecast of Rodgers and sister, Alison McDonald. Most recently, Hammerstein’s The Sound of Music opposite Ms. McDonald appeared in the 2012 release Carrie Underwood as Maria was watched by Rampart , starring Woody Harrelson. an estimated 18.5 million people across As an exclusive Nonesuch recording artist, America. Ms. McDonald has performed on Ms. McDonald released her most recent numerous Tony Awards telecasts; in 2013, she album, Go Back Home , in 2013 , marking her closed the show by performing a rap with Neil first solo disc in seven years. She has released Patrick Harris. four previous solo albums on the label, inter - A familiar face on PBS, Ms. McDonald has preting songs from the classic (Gershwin, headlined telecasts including an American Arlen, and Bernstein) to the contemporary Songbook season-opening concert, a presen - (Michael John LaChiusa, Adam Guettel, and tation of Sondheim’s Passion , a Rodgers and Ricky Ian Gordon). The New York Times Hammerstein tribute concert titled Something dubbed her first Nonesuch album, 1998’s Way CAL PERFORMANCES ABOUT THE ARTISTS Back to Paradise , as Adult Record of the Year. National’s Straight for Equality Award. A dog Following the bestselling How Glory Goes in lover, she has two canine companions, Butler 2000 and Happy Songs in 2002, she released and Georgia, adopted from Eleventh Hour the 2006 album Build a Bridge , which saw the Rescue, a volunteer-based, nonprofit organi - singer stretch her repertoire to include songs zation that saves dogs from death row. In by the likes of Randy Newman, Elvis Costello 2014, she joined the Covenant House and Burt Bacharach, Rufus Wainwright, and International Board of Directors, which over - Nellie McKay. Her ensemble recordings in - sees programs for homeless youth in 27 cities clude the acclaimed EMI version of in six countries across the United States , Bernstein’s Wonderful Town conducted by Sir Canada, and Latin America. Simon Rattle, the New York Philharmonic re - Of all her many roles, Ms. McDonald’s fa - lease of Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd , and vorites are the ones performed offstage: wife Dreamgirls in concert, as well as the first to her husband and mother to her daughter, recording of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Zoe Madeline. Allegro and Broadway cast albums of Carousel , Ragtime , Marie Christine , @@? in the Andy Einhorn (music director, Shade , and The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess . She piano ) boasts Broadway credits is also featured on a number of audiovisual for Rodgers & Hammerstein’s recordings available on DVD and Blu-ray, in - Cinderella , Evita, Brief Encoun ter , cluding Sondheim! The Birthday Concert ; The Light in the Piazza , and Christmas with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Sondheim on Sondheim (Grammy and Orchestra at Temple Square ; Weill’s Rise nomination).