Sergio Mims: New York Philharmonic: Audra McDonald’s 2018 New York Philharmonic Performance Set for Release on Decca Gold

Audra McDonald performing with the New York

 Philharmonic 

Photo: Chris Lee

Sergio Mims forwards this release:

New York Philharmonic

SING HAPPY IS SET FOR RELEASE ON DIGITAL PARTNERS MAY 11, PHYSICAL FORMATS MAY 25

Decca Gold is proud to announce the forthcoming release of Sing Happy, the live performance of the New York Philharmonic’s 2018 Spring Gala starring Grammy, Emmy, and Tony Award winner Audra McDonald, and conducted by Andy Einhorn. Recorded live on May 1 at David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center, the recording represents McDonald’s first collaboration with Decca Gold — as well as her first solo recording with full orchestra.

Sing Happy features many songs that are either new to McDonald’s repertoire or have never before been recorded by her — such as “I Am What I Am” from La Cage aux Folles, “Vanilla Ice Cream” from She Loves Me, and “Children Will Listen” from Into the Woods — and offers a sneak peek at the repertoire she’s performing on her upcoming North American concert tour. The album will be quickly mastered and sequenced and set for digital release on May 11 and physical formats on May 25.

Acclaimed by The New York Times as a “one-of-a-kind musical super-talent,” Audra McDonald has won a record-breaking six Tony Awards, making her the most decorated performer in American theater. The singer and actress 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. McDonald is currently starring in the CBS All Access drama The Good Fight and has a series of concert dates throughout North America on which she’s presenting many of the songs from Sing Happy. In addition to her work on stage and screen, McDonald is noted as a passionate advocate for equal rights, LGBTQ causes, and underprivileged youth.

Audra McDonald made her New York Philharmonic debut in May 2000 as the Beggar Woman in the Philharmonic’s production of Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler’s Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. She has since appeared with the Orchestra 20 times, including in Weill’s The Seven Deadly Sins (2001), Sondheim: The Birthday Concert (2010), and songs by Ellington at Carnegie Hall’s 120th Anniversary Gala (2011). For her Philharmonic appearance in Sweeney Todd in March 2014, she both hosted the Live From Lincoln Center telecast of the performance, which won an Emmy Award, and made a surprise return in the role of the Beggar Woman. Inducted into Lincoln Center’s inaugural Hall of Fame last year, McDonald has a history with the institution that dates back to her days as a classical voice student at The Juilliard School and her subsequent breakthrough performance in Lincoln Center Theater’s Carousel, for which she won her first Tony.