The Peabody Post WRITES......Renée Fleming, an arts leader and advocate and one of the most acclaimed singers of our time, will address the graduates and receive the George Peabody Medal for Outstanding Contributions to Music in America during the Peabody Conservatory's 2021 Graduation ceremony, which will be held online on Wednesday, May 26. Applauded the world over in concert halls, opera houses, recordings, films, and television, Renée Fleming has been hailed as having "possibly the most beautiful soprano voice in the world." Recent triumphs have included a Tony-nominated appearance on Broadway in Carousel, the opening performances at The Shed, and the London premiere of the musical The Light in the Piazza. On Inauguration Day this year, she sang at the private church service attended by then President-elect Biden and Vice President-elect Harris, along with congressional leaders of both parties, prior to the ceremony. As a musical statesman, Fleming has been sought after on numerous distinguished occasions, from the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize ceremony to performances in Beijing during the 2008 Olympic Games. Awarded America's highest honor for an individual artist, the National Medal of Arts, as well as four Grammy awards, in 2014 she was the first classical artist ever to sing "The Star-Spangled Banner" at the Super Bowl. As Artistic Advisor for the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Fleming has spearheaded the Sound Health initiative, championing the work being done nationally at the intersection of health and the arts. READ THE FULL Peabody Post ARTICLE

Playbill's RYAN MCPHEE writes.....The Metropolitan Opera pays tribute to one of its biggest contemporary stars, soprano Renée Fleming, this week with free streams of seven of her signature roles. The lineup is the latest in the New York City company's Nightly Met Streams series. The week kicks off with her turn as the Countess Almaviva in Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro; later titles include Rossini's Armida, Massenet's Thaïs, Dvořák's Rusalka, and Strauss' Der Rosenkavalier. Since "retiring" from her traditional repertoire in 2017 with a performance of the aforementioned Strauss opera, the Grammy winner has explored other arenas to showcase her instrument, including a Tony-nominated turn in Broadway's Carousel, an album of show tunes, a multi-city run of The Light in the Piazza, and the world premiere of Norma Jeane Baker of Troy opposite Ben Whishaw. She is also attached to an operatic adaptation of The Hours alongside Joyce DiDonato and Kelli O'Hara. READ THE FULL Playbill ARTICLE

As the temporary shutdown of Broadway and theatres around the world continues, Playbill is reaching out to artists to see how they are physically and creatively responding to a changed world. ANDREW GANS checks in with… Grammy-Winning Opera Star and Carousel Tony Nominee Renée Fleming. The world-renowned artist will be seen December 31 on the PBS special United in Song: Celebrating the Resilience of America. A recipient of the National Medal of Arts who made her Broadway debut in Joe DiPietro's Living on Love and later received a Tony nomination for her performance as Nettie Fowler in the 2018 revival of Carousel. Fleming subsequently starred in several stagings of the Tony-winning The Light in the Piazza, including a limited engagement at London's Royal Festival Hall. She was most recently seen opposite Tony nominee Vanessa Williams in A Time to Sing, which launched the Kennedy Center's On Stage at the Opera House series, marking the first in-person performance at the Center since the pandemic began. This four-time Grammy winner, who has performed in virtually all of the world's greatest opera houses, will next be seen in United in Song: Celebrating the Resilience of America, which was filmed in front of a small, socially distanced audience at George Washington's Mount Vernon and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, and will premiere December 31 at 8 PM ET on PBS. The 90-minute special also features Tony winners Audra McDonald and Brian Stokes Mitchell and Tony nominees Anna Deavere Smith and Josh Groban, among others. READ THE Playbill Q&A

Listen this weekend starting Thursday at 2 p.m. for all the hits, favorites and "must hear" pieces in classical music. It's one essential classic after another for over 100 straight hours!  What Makes a Classic "Essential"? CPR Classical Music Director Jeff Zumfelde works to create just the right mix of music to get your heart relaxing, reveling, or revving this holiday weekend. And it's all about making connections big and small. Zumfelde looks for pieces that embody the essence of classical music and he sees that as a living thing. Each year the list of essentials is a little different.  Historical threads are the starting point: music that has stood the test of time and is widely known -- Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, the melodies most people can hum like Vivaldi's Four Seasons or the aria Largo al factotum sung by the clever and rebellious Figaro in Rossini's opera The Barber of Seville.  Zumfelde selects some essential pieces based on where and who we are as Americans: Appalachian Spring by Aaron Copland, Symphony No. 1 "Afro-American" by William Grant Still and West Side Story: Symphonic Dances by Leonard Bernstein. We'll hear performances that illustrate the musical riches of our state from the Colorado Symphony, Boulder Philharmonic, Kantorei, St. Martin's Chamber Choir and the Takacs Quartet, which just debuted its newest member this summer, violist Richard O'Neill. Local soloists this weekend include pianists Katie Mahan and David Korevaar as well as violinists Yumi Hwang-Williams, Charles Wetherbee and flutist Brook Ferguson - all part of Colorado's musical lifeblood and artists who often represent Colorado on the national and international stages.  It's also essential to share the music of women who have broken musical barriers over time from Hildegard von Bingen in the 12th century through to Fanny Mendelssohn, Clara Schumann and Lili Boulanger. In America, women like Amy Beach, Margaret Bonds and Peggy Stuart Coolidge laid important groundwork for female composers. Others followed, like Joan Tower, Libby Larsen and Jennifer Higdon, paving the way for an increasing number of successful young women writing music in recent years, including Pulitzer Prize winner Caroline Shaw, Reena Esmail and Missy Mazzoli. The newest Essential Classic this weekend premiered just a few weeks ago for the centenary of the 19th amendment, giving women the right to vote. CPR Classical will broadcast Stacy Garrop's Battle for the Ballot on Saturday, September 5th at 1:00 p.m., featuring narrated quotes from white and African American suffragists. Of course, we'll hear from essential superstar performers like cellists Yo-Yo Ma and Sheku Kanneh-Mason, guitarist Sharon Isbin, violinists Itzhak Perlman, Rachel Barton Pine and Joshua Bell, soprano Renée Fleming, pianist Lang Lang and the inspiring conductor, Gustav Dudamel.  "This is music for everybody because it's being made by everybody as well," says Zumfelde. "We invite people to see all of this music-making as a constant conversational stream of great stuff that we enjoy." READ THE FULL Colorado Public Radio ARTICLE

Known as "America's Diva," Renée Fleming has performed in venues all over the world, singing in acclaimed productions of operas composed by Mozart, Puccini, Verdi, Dvorak and more. If you're no expert in the world of cabelettas, cavatinas and coloraturas, fear not! Renée has mastered jazz, country and just about every other music genre as well. She grew up in a musical household, the child of two music teachers, and she knew from a rather early age that music was her destiny. As a teen, she took chorus classes and music theory. A few years later she attended college at the Crane School of Music at the State University of New York at Postdam. There, she joined a jazz trio. An invitation was extended for her to go on tour with the band but she had other dreams in mind. Renée was awarded a Fulbright scholarship and attended graduate school at Julliard while performing professionally in the 1980s. Since then, she's performed with the New York City Opera in La bohème, with the Royal Opera in London in Cherubini's Médée and with the Metropolitan Opera and San Francisco Opera alike as Countess Almaviva in Le nozze di Figaro. She's appeared on popular movie soundtracks including The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King and The Shape of Water. She's also performed under truly unique circumstances like singing the National Anthem at the 2014 Super Bowl while 50 million people watched from home and Black Hawk helicopters flew overhead! There was also her performance at President Barack Obama's 2009 inauguration. It was...amazing. Lately, she's been working on stage in musicals. Her latest, The Light in the Piazza just wrapped up in Los Angeles, with productions in Chicago and Sydney on the horizon. Renée talk to Bullseye about managing acoustics, growing up in a musical home and not only cultivating her talent but her image, too. Plus, she gives Jesse some pretty solid singing tips. Renée also sings the music of Brahms, Schumann and Mahler.  LISTEN TO SEGMENT

Four-time Grammy winning soprano Renée Fleming presents her first full-length Lieder album in almost two decades. The new album, Lieder, features songs by Brahms, Schumann, and Mahler, each of whom bring Romantic poetry to life through exquisite word-setting and sublime melody. Fleming is joined by Christian Thielemann and the Munich Philharmonic in a performance of Mahler's Rückert Lieder. For songs of Brahms, including the beloved Lullaby, she is partnered by her long-standing artistic collaborator Hartmut Höll on piano. Fleming and Höll also perform Schumann's Frauenliebe und-leben. For July 6, 2019, Renée Fleming: Lieder by Brahms, Schumann & Mahler is the WFMT: Chicago 'Featured New Release' SEE THE PAGE p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #4d4d4d} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #4d4d4d; min-height: 14.0px}

This Friday, June 28, at 9 a.m., Tanglewood marks one of the most anticipated events of the 2019 music season, the official opening weekend of the four-building Linde Center for Music and Learning and Tanglewood Learning Institute programs, with a public ribbon-cutting ceremony that will include speeches from a cross-section of the administration, builders, and funders who made the new complex and programming initiatives possible. Following the ribbon-cutting, the public can tour the facility, located along the top of the Highwood ridge, overlooking Ozawa Hall and the Berkshire Hills. The first fundamental expansion in programming in many decades, the offerings of the Tanglewood Learning Institute-more than 140 activities-reflect today's wider cultural shift towards learning and participatory activities that complement the concert experience. These programs have been designed to encourage thought-provoking conversations as they explore ways to better understand the world through the lens of music and break down traditional boundaries between performer and audience. Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, soprano Renee Fleming, cellist Yo-Yo Ma, BSO Music Director Andris Nelsons, and playwright Tom Stoppard, are among the many luminaries joining Tanglewood for these expansive programs. Complete program details of the first summer season of the Tanglewood Learning Institute are available here. READ THE FULL Live 95.9 ARTICLE

After a star turn as Margaret Johnson in The Light in the Piazza in London, Renée Fleming will headline the musical stateside. Daniel Evans' production, which premieres at Southbank Centre's Royal Festival Hall in June, is on the roster for L.A. Opera's newly announced 2019–2020 season. Performances will run October 12–20. Dove Cameron, recently Off-Broadway in the musical adaptation of Clueless, is set to play Margaret's daughter Clara in London; no word yet on casting for the Los Angeles bow of Adam Guettel and Craig Lucas musical aside from Fleming. p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #4d4d4d} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #4d4d4d; min-height: 14.0px} READ THE FULL Playbill ARTICLE

Legendary soprano Renée Fleming is set to present SongStudio at Carnegie Hall between Jan. 21-26, 2019. The program is aimed at exploring the future of the voice recital and will see Fleming mentoring 10 young singers and 10 collaborative pianists. Fleming stated. "I fell in love with song literature through Marilyn Horne. I'm grateful that she devoted her artistry and agency to this art form," SongStudio has evolved out of her contribution. My initial goal, beyond honing skills crucial for this art form, will be encouraging singers to be more adventurous in their approach to performance, and to experiment with incorporating movement, media, and unconventional repertoire and venues." p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #4d4d4d} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #4d4d4d; min-height: 14.0px} SEE THE OPERAWIRE PAGE

Renée Fleming was recently nominated for a Tony award for her performance in the Rodgers & Hammerstein musical "Carousel." She has a new album of Broadway songs from the 1920s to the present day. In the album's press release, Fleming says, "This repertoire is so rich, and the sheer quality of the music is so high that it's been a joy to record these songs." The album includes music of Rodgers & Hammerstein, Meredith Willson, Adam Guettel and Stephen Sondheim, among others. Renee Fleming - Broadway is the IPR: Featured Classical New Release. CLICK HERE TO SEE THE PAGE p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #606060} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #606060; min-height: 14.0px}

Superstar Soprano Renee Fleming opens the season for the Pittsburgh Symphony and Manfred Honeck on Saturday September 15th. She talked about her program for "A Voyage at Sea: A Passage to the Mediterranean" with WQED-FM's Jim Cunningham.  Renee remembers visiting her Grandmother in Indiana, PA; all her Western Pennsylvania family ties; her new Broadway cd; singing at the John McCain funeral; appearing to float on water in the Washington Monument reflecting pool for the PBS broadcast of "A Capitol Fourth 2018;" whether Live From the Met broadcasts to theaters hurt live ticket sales; why we don't have classical music on The Tonight Show so much these days; and much more in her dressing room backstage at Heinz Hall on Friday afternoon. LISTEN TO THE INTERVIEW

Renée Fleming is an American operatic soprano whose clear, beautiful voice has captured the hearts of millions. From her performance of the national anthem at the Superbowl to her upcoming role in ‘Bel Canto, the celebrated  singer whose signature roles include the Countess Almaviva in Mozart's Marriage of Figaro, and Violetta in Verdi's La Traviata. here's everything you need to know about the opera singer.  READ/WATCH CLASSIC fm LIST

About a month before she opens on Broadway in the revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Carousel, Renée Fleming is sitting in a broadcast booth talking to me about neuroscience and music. I'm able to grab time with the celebrated soprano to discuss Sound Health: Music and the Mind, a collaboration between the Kennedy Center, the National Institutes of Health, and the National Endowment for the Arts, before she makes a concert appearance on campus. LISTEN TO THE Stanford Scope INTERVIEW   p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #606060}

Famed soprano Renee Fleming is to give the commencement address at Northwestern University this year. The Grammy Award winning opera singer will give remarks at the Evanston school's June 22nd commencement ceremony at Ryan Field. Fleming previously led a master class featuring four Northwestern voice and opera students at the university's Bienen School of Music in 2014. Fleming has received the National Medal of Arts and has had her work chosen by the U.S. Library of Congress for inclusion in the National Recording Registry. She is a creative consultant with the Lyric Opera of Chicago and is scheduled to be in a production of "Carousel" on Broadway this spring. SEE THE Seattle Times PAGE p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #606060} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #606060; min-height: 14.0px} p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #606060} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #606060; min-height: 14.0px}

In a career spanning more than 30 years, Renée Fleming has performed for heads of state and royalty. She has thrilled audiences around the globe with her magnificent soprano voice. Fleming, who performs at Stanford's Bing Concert Hall on Wednesday, Jan. 31, presents a diverse repertoire at her recitals. This concert will include pieces by Handel, Brahms and Oscar Straus, new works by Pulitzer Prize winner Caroline Shaw, an aria from a Rufus Wainwright opera, as well as a tribute to Broadway/cabaret star Barbara Cook, a friend of Fleming's who died in August. Fleming, artistic advisor at large at the Kennedy Center, has been exploring the relationship between neuroscience and music, and on Tuesday, Jan. 30 at Stanford, she will speak about music and wellness, joined in conversation by UCSF's Dr. Charles Limb. "It's sort of the greatest hits of what I've learned about childhood development and music, about research and music and about therapies and music," Fleming said.  READ THE FULL Mercury News ARTICLE p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #606060} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #606060; min-height: 14.0px}

A sold-out house greeted Renée Fleming at the Kravis Center in West Palm Beach on Saturday night for a recital that ranged through Baroque and romantic operatic arias, lieder and art songs and Broadway standards.  Fleming commented that it has been ten years since she last sang on the Kravis stage. Indeed the beloved soprano is moving toward retirement or, perhaps, a change of musical paths. Last season she gave what was billed at the time as her final opera performances in the Met's acclaimed new production of Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier. She continues to make recital and orchestral appearances but it seems that musical theater looms in her future. READ THE FULL South Florida Classical Review p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #606060} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #606060; min-height: 14.0px}

Like a friendly Pied Piper, the violinist keeps up a toe-tapping beat as dancers weave through busy hospital hallways and into the chemotherapy unit, patients looking up in surprised delight. Upstairs, a cellist plays an Irish folk tune for a patient in intensive care. Music increasingly is becoming a part of patient care - although it's still pretty unusual to see roving performers captivating entire wards, like at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital one fall morning. READ THE FULL Bradenton Herald ARTICLE p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px}

On Fri. Dec. 8 at 1:30 p.m. the Gaillard Center features a special talk from visiting Soprano, Renee Fleming, called Sound Health: Music and the Mind. Fleming will be joined by executive director of the Clinical Biotechnology Research Institute at St. Francis Hospital, Dr. Jacobo Mintzer; principal cellist with the Charleston Symphony Orchestra, Norbert Lewandowski; and CEO and president of Network Neurology, Dr. Robert Turner. Impressed yet? Us too. Fleming's talk comes on the eve of her Gaillard Center performance, held on Sat. Dec. 9 at 7:30 p.m., where she'll perform classic opera arias as well as Broadway standards. If you attend Friday's talk, you can bring your ticket stub to Saturday night's performance and receive $10 off your purchase.  READ THE FULL Charleston City Paper ARTICLE p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Arial} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Arial; min-height: 11.0px}

p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Arial} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Arial; min-height: 11.0px} What's On FOR TVInsider?  For classical fans, Renee Fleming joins the Vienna Philharmonic for the annual Summer Night Concert from Schönbrunn Palace, a PBS Great Performances special (Friday, 9/8c. One of the most beloved and celebrated singers of our time, soprano Renée Fleming captivates audiences with voice, artistry, and presence. At a White House ceremony in 2013, President Obama awarded her the National Medal of Arts, America's highest honor for an individual artist. Winner of the 2013 Grammy Award for Best Classical Vocal Solo, Fleming continues to grace the world's greatest opera stages and concert halls, now extending her reach to include other musical forms and media. Flemings's ‘Distant Light' ( Decca Classics ) recording is her first orchestral album in three years. It features an adventurous mix of music by Samuel Barber, Anders Hillborg and Björk. SEE THE FULL TVInsider PAGE

Renee Fleming, America's most popular soprano, performed her first concert in Korea in 15 years on Monday. "I missed you," Fleming said after singing the first song, "C'est Thais, l'idole fragile" from the opera "Thais" by Massenet at her recital in the Seoul Arts Center. The whole audience-close to 2,000 seats- cheered enthusiastically for this long-awaited performance. She sang and smiled, moving her skirt back and forth like a teenage girl. The audience enjoyed the concert with a big smile under her spell. p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px '.Apple SD Gothic NeoI'} span.s1 {font: 10.0px '.Apple SD Gothic NeoI'} The first part of the concert was filled with French, Italian, and German songs, while the second part featured popular songs such as "West Side Story." When she sang Brahms' pieces, the audience felt like they were at the outdoor stage on a clear and quiet summer night. Fleming asked the audience to whistle for the song "I Whistle a Happy Tune" from "The King and I," saying that she's not good at whistling. READ FULL donga.com REVIEW

More than 400 guests turned out to support the First Initiative Foundation World In Tune Charity Gala, including famous soprano Renée Fleming, Canto-pop King Eason Chan, singer Miriam Yeung, Cantonese opera sensation Connie Chan and many more. The annual stellar soiree, organised by Michelle Ong, founder of the FIF charity, raised funds to support art education projects. During the gala, Ong also revealed that Fleming and Chan will collaborate on a new song titled I Want to be released by the end of this year in benefit of the charitable cause. SEE South China Morning Post PAGE p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Arial} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Arial; min-height: 11.0px}

New in the KUCI Classical Library - Renee Fleming -  Distant Light   - (Decca)  Soprano Fleming is noted not only for the pureness of her tone but for the broadness of her repertoire. Performing here with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Sakari Oramo, conductor, she takes on Samuel Barber's "Knoxville: Summer of 1915", contemporary Swedish composer Anders Hillborg's , "The Strand Settings", and three Bjork tunes, "Virus", "Joga", and "All Is Full of Love". These works, although resolutely modern, hew deeply to the Romantic tradition. For me, the most interesting musically is the Hillborg piece, which like Stephen Sondheim's music, feels like the currents of the subconscious mind seep up to the surface to inundate our perceptions.     READ THE REVIEW by: Hobart Taylor

The standing ovation shook the Metropolitan Opera on Saturday afternoon, with confetti made from ripped-up programs cascading down from the theater's highest balcony as a bouquet of pink roses was tossed to the stage. Renée Fleming, the star soprano, had just bid farewell to one of her signature roles - the Marschallin in Richard Strauss's "Der Rosenkavalier" - closing an important chapter in a storied career that has taken her from opera to far wider fame. p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Arial} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Arial; min-height: 11.0px} Her final performance as the Marschallin - which was beamed live to cinemas around the world as part of the Met's popular Live in HD series - came at a moment of transition for Ms. Fleming, 58. In recent years she has been steadily retiring the big prima donna roles and singing more recitals, appearing on Broadway and taking positions behind the scenes, including as a creative consultant at the Lyric Opera of Chicago. Next season she plans to appear as Nettie Fowler in a Broadway production of "Carousel." READ THE FULL New York Times ARTICLE & WATCH THE VIDEO

Despite reports that renowned soprano Renée Fleming is taking a bow from singing, this diva is not departing. Fleming, 58, plans to perform in concerts on stages around the world, and to take roles offstage as well. Fleming joins Jeffrey Brown at the Metropolitan Opera to discuss what's next for her. JUDY WOODRUFF: And, finally, a little change of pace. Opera lovers let out a collective gasp recently when a New York Times profile of renowned soprano Renee Fleming suggested her current engagement at the Metropolitan Opera would mark the end of her storied career. But hold on. As she recently told Jeffrey Brown at the Met, there's plenty of singing and much more to be done. LISTEN TO THE PBS NewsHour SEGMENT p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Arial} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Arial; min-height: 11.0px}

The opera star Renée Fleming and the violinist Joshua Bell - two musicians whose fame transcends classical music - will share the stage in "Time, Creativity and the Cosmos," a multimedia spectacle to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the World Science Festival in New York. The performance, on May 30 at Jazz at Lincoln Center, is among the more than 50 events in the festival, which runs from May 30 through June 4 and for the first time will stage events in Times Square. "Time, Creativity and the Cosmos," narrated by Brian Greene, a physicist, the author of "The Elegant Universe" and a founder of the festival, is billed as a "celebration of science and art examining our collective longing to transcend the boundaries of space and time." The evening will feature performances by Ms. Fleming, Mr. Bell and the dance troupe Pilobolus. It will be directed by John Christian Plummer, who at last year's festival directed "Awakening the Mind: A Celebration of the Life and Work of Oliver Sacks." Ms. Fleming is performing in Strauss's "Der Rosenkavalier" at the Metropolitan Opera through May 13. READ FULL NYTimes ARTICLE p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Arial} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Arial; min-height: 11.0px}

One of the most beloved and celebrated singers of our time, soprano Renée Fleming captivates audiences with her sumptuous voice, consummate artistry, and compelling stage presence. At a White House ceremony in 2013, President Obama awarded her the National Medal of Arts, America's highest honor for an individual artist. Known as "the people's diva" and winner of the 2013 Grammy Award for Best Classical Vocal Solo, she continues to grace the world's greatest opera stages and concert halls, now extending her reach to include other musical forms and media. In recent years, Renée has hosted a wide variety of television and radio broadcasts, including the Metropolitan Opera's Live in HD series for movie theaters and television, and Live From Lincoln Center on PBS. She brought her voice to a vast new audience in 2014, as the first classical artist to sing the National Anthem at the Super Bowl. Fleming discusses acting on Broadway versus performing opera on FOX News - Power Player Plus with Chris Wallace. WATCH

Few singers around the world have as long a list of accomplishments as soprano opera singer Renée Fleming. With four Grammy award wins, she has traveled the world performing a plethora of operatic roles. In 2013, President Obama awarded Fleming the National Medal of Arts, and in 2014, she was the first opera singer to sing the national anthem at the Super Bowl. The soprano's new Decca album "Distant Light," featuring songs from composers Anders Hillborg, Björk and Samuel Barber,  Fleming will sing at the UGA's Hodgson Concert Hall on Feb. 14 as part of a Valentine's Day performance, and spoke with the Red & Black about her current projects, musical influences and her views on the importance of the arts in America. READ THE Q&A p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Helvetica; min-height: 12.0px} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Helvetica} span.Apple-tab-span {white-space:pre}

Lyric Opera of Chicago is taking a break this weekend from the usual sounds that come from the company's famous stage. And quite a break it is. It's a concert called Chicago Voices, and it showcases an array of musical styles from performers who all have ties to the city including: Brett and Rennie Sparks of the alt-country duo The Handsome Family, Shemekia Copeland, who was born in Harlem, but now lives in Chicago, and Evanston's Jessie Mueller. Mueller, Copeland and The Handsomes are just three of a wide variety of acts taking the stage at Lyric Opera this weekend for a concert called Chicago Voices. It's the brainchild of a renowned soprano who's been on that vaunted stage Renée Fleming, Chicago Voices Creator:  p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Helvetica; min-height: 12.0px} Fleming has some experience curating a tapestry of voices into one concert. About three years ago she produced a program called American Voices at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. As Lyric Opera of Chicago's creative consultant, Fleming says she wanted to replicate that concert on a local level but had to do quite a bit of research that she says was ear-opening for her. READ WTTW ARTICLE & WATCH VIDEO

As classical music and opera evolve into the 21st century, so must musicians. Star soprano Renée Fleming spoke with WFMT Radio's Stephen Raskauskas and inside the Civic Opera House in Chicago shares some advice for today's young singers. Hear her share the most important thing a young singer can do to ensure a successful career in opera below. As Lyric Opera of Chicago's creative consultant, Fleming will present masterclasses in anticipation of the Chicago Voices Concert, which takes places on February 4, 2017 and for which Fleming serves as artistic director. WATCH THE WFMT: Chicago VIDEOS p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Helvetica; min-height: 12.0px}

Soprano Renée Fleming returns with a new recital of songs. Her selections include Samuel Barber's famous Knoxville: Summer of 1915 and The Strand Settings, a four-song cycle by Anders Hillborg which was commissioned by Carnegie Hall and is dedicated to Fleming. The recital finishes with three new arrangements of songs by Icelandic singer Björk.  Hillborg: The Strand Settings: Dark Harbor XI (5:41) from Renee Fleming - Distant Light on Decca is the WFMT: Chicago - Featured New Release for FEBRUARY 3, 2017.
Renée Fleming, soprano; Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra / Sakari Oramo     p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Helvetica; min-height: 12.0px}

In December 2015, operatic soprano Renee Fleming collaborated with Chicago jazz singer-pianist Patricia Barber in a genre-defying performance at the Harris Theater. Jazz and classical languages intertwined as Fleming and Barber performed a world-premiere program of Barber's art songs and other repertoire, two singular artists elegantly blurring distinctions between their musical realms (and subsequently taking the show on the road). Come Saturday evening, Fleming will venture still further out stylistically in "Chicago Voices," a musically far-reaching, multimedia program at the Civic Opera House modeled after the "American Voices" project Fleming brought to the Kennedy Center in Washington in 2013. This time, Fleming serves as artistic director for a concert designed to reflect Chicago's enormous contribution to the world of song. READ THE FULL Chicago Tribune ARTICLE p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Helvetica; min-height: 12.0px}

Their names are not likely to be uttered in the same breath on a regular basis, and fans of one may never have listened to the music of the others. The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts has named three new "artistic partners" for its 2016-17 season, the center announced Tuesday as part of a whirlwind of news about its upcoming programs. Renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma, celebrated opera singer Renée Fleming and influential recording artist and producer Q-Tip have all been appointed to new roles. "I have invited three very forward-thinking artists, Yo-Yo, Renée and Q-Tip, to collaborate with us on the deepest levels as we shape the future of the center's programming and seize our responsibility to represent the performing arts in contemporary culture," Kennedy Center President Deborah F. Rutter outlining the 2016-17 season. "I expect the outcomes of our work with these exceptional artists will have a transformative impact on the way arts patrons interact not only with the Kennedy Center but the arts in communities around the country."  READ THE FULL NewsWeek ARTICLE READ DC Theatre Scene

With an El Nino-powered storm drenching the streets of Berkeley Saturday night, Renee Fleming seemed slightly astonished to be greeted by a full house for her vocal recital in Zellerbach Hall. No one else could have been surprised. Clearly, it takes more than precipitation to keep this singer's fans away. Presented by Cal Performances, Saturday's event marked the superstar soprano's first return to Zellerbach Hall since 2009, and her program of works by Richard Strauss, Robert Schumann, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Rodgers and Hammerstein, and Patricia Barber demonstrated that she's still very much in top form. It also suggested that she's steering her own musical course these days. Fleming recently announced that she will step away from fully staged operas after an upcoming production of Strauss's "Der Rosenkavalier" at the Metropolitan Opera, and Saturday's program, deftly accompanied by pianist Olga Kern, included only one opera aria, Puccini's "O mio babbino caro," sung during the encores.  READ THE FULL San Jose Mercury News ARTICLE

Crossover Media artists - Cellist Yo-Yo Ma and soprano Renee Fleming will host the Kennedy Center's Arts Summit. The center announced in a news release Thursday that its annual summit designed to bring leaders from the arts and related fields together will be held April 25. The summit is being presented in collaboration with the Aspen Institute Arts Program and Seattle-based Citizen University. The center says this year's summit will serve as a blueprint for the Kennedy Center's celebration of President John F. Kennedy's 100th birthday. The summit will focus on the idea of citizen artistry and using the arts to make positive change in people's lives. The center says participants will examine the idea and possible applications in today's society through ideals Kennedy set forth: innovation, creativity, courage, community service and social justice.

Today's output of classical albums is (pardon me while I scribble on the back of an envelope) something like triple what it was a generation ago. I won't vouch for that exact ratio, but I will for Anne Midgette's description of how it feels: "Keeping up with the stream of new releases is like trying to drink from a fire hose." Now imagine trying to capture a hose's jet-spray in a bucket, and you'll see why making a classical "best-of-year" list in 2015 struck many writers as a thankless task, even a hopeless one. Yet that didn't stop more of us than ever from trying - perhaps enough of us to be called a crowd. Could that crowd, taken together, have some kind of collective wisdom? That was more or less the premise behind my "Classical Mega-Meta-List" last year (inspired by economist /blogger Tyler Cowen). I tallied every "best of year" list I could find - a total of 36, comprising about 100 writers.  This year I found far more: 64 lists, with at least 160 contributors, which makes this year's meta-list 60-77% more mega. It's not surprising that almost twice as many releases made the final cut, defined by being chosen for more than three best-of-year lists. Last year, 28 albums reached that threshold; this year, 50 albums did. That's a 78% increase. Renee Fleming & Emerson String Quartet's 'Lyric Suite & Sonnets of Elizabeth Barrett Browning' received 6-7 votes in this pole. A great American soprano and string quartet deliver evocative performances of masterpieces from interwar Vienna. Composer/violist Jonathan Blumhofer wrote, "Every once in a while you encounter a performance so well conceived, so finely executed, and so deeply expressive of the many faces of Viennese Modernism that the simple joy - yes, joy! - of hearing it all makes you forget the politics behind the period and /or the rigorous complexity of the compositional process. ...Fleming and the Emersons own these songs." READ THE FULL IOWA PUBLIC RADIO PAGE

Renée Fleming releases her first-ever holiday album. While known mostly as an opera singer, Fleming's career has encompassed numerous genres and styles of singing. For ‘Christmas in New York,' she sings in a more intimate style. The album features guest artists Wynton Marsalis, Chris Botti, Brad Mehldau, Kelli O'Hara and others. Selected as one of WFMT: Chicago /  'Best Christmas Recordings Of 2014'

The afternoon of last year's Super Bowl, Renée Fleming was in a familiar place - onstage at Boston's Symphony Hall, performing a selection of arias in a Celebrity Series concert. When the Seattle Seahawks and Denver Broncos met in February for this year's title game, she was a little closer to the action - on the field, in fact, singing "The Star-Spangled Banner" for assembled fans and a television audience of well more than 100 million viewers. It was a milestone. The popular soprano, often nicknamed "the people's diva," was the first classical singer ever to nab that most populist of assignments. Afterward, the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History acquired the Vera Wang gown she wore. "You would think they would want someone who would get phenomenal sales as a result of this," Fleming says. "A classical musician would not be that person. Red Hot Chili Peppers? Maybe, yeah." But she's used to bumping against the boundaries that often keep her peers penned up in a gated musical community, set off from a pop culture where the gaudy, highly ornamental vocal style rewarded on television shows like "American Idol" seems de rigueur. (She says she received a ton of mail after the Super Bowl, much of it from viewers who thanked her for "singing it straight.") She's known for a broad taste in operatic repertoire, having sung more than 50 different roles to date. But she also has much affection for show tunes, and in 2010 released a pop album that featured material by Arcade Fire, Death Cab for Cutie, and Leonard Cohen. As the featured soloist for the opening-night Boston Symphony Orchestra concert at Tanglewood on July 5, she'll sing Samuel Barber's wistful "Knoxville: Summer of 1915" before turning to a selection of Broadway favorites from "The Sound of Music," "South Pacific," and other shows. READ THE FULL Boston Globe ARTICLE.

UApresents closed its 2013-14 season Sunday with soprano Renée Fleming making her first Tucson appearance in a dozen years. But her concert at Centennial Hall was not all arias and serious vocal muscle flexing. It was fun, sometimes downright giddy, with some fanciful Mozart to open the night, a pair of Rachmaninoff love songs, a handful of French love songs and Kurt Weill's made-for-Broadway-and-Hollywood lament "Foolish Heart." This was a program of cherry-picked songs mined from operas and song cycles including Rachmaninoff's "Twelve Romances" and "Songs of Simeon"; Handel's "Samson" and "Semele"'; and Dvorák's "Gypsy Songs." A trio of French love songs was punctuated by the sassy Canteloube folk tale "Wretched the Man Who Has A Wife," which Fleming performed with a wink-wink. READ THE FULL Arizona Daily Star REVIEW.

On Sunday, Feb. 2, world-famous opera singer Renée Fleming reached a whole new audience when she became the first opera singer in Super Bowl history to sing the National Anthem before the game's kickoff - and she nailed it, but not without a few jitters. "I basically woke up in the middle of the night for a month every night," Fleming recalls, "and I don't typically have that problem. I was pretty worried about this; there was a lot of pressure." Renée Fleming is used to a lot pressure. The stakes are pretty high every time she takes the stage. On her latest recording, she releases some of that pressure by sharing a few Guilty Pleasures.   READ THE FULL ARTICLE AND LISTEN TO JULIE AMACHER'S INTERVIEW  

Opera superstar Renee Fleming sits down with the Classic FM's Jamie Crick to discuss vocal technique, inspiration behind her new album Guilty Pleasures, and what makes Opera a unique art.

Four-Time Grammy Winner Renée Fleming Releases New Album of Romantic Songs and Arias 'Guilty Pleasures' On Decca. Ms. Fleming, the recipient of Prestigious 2012 National Medal of Arts is now putting out the eagerly-awaited sequel to her 1999 best-selling, landmark recording, The Beautiful Voice. Guilty Pleasures is a musical feast poised to delight old and new admirers, featuring some of Renée's personal favorite selections she has long wanted to record.  The album includes arias from operas by Dvorak, Smetana and Tchaikovsky, coupled with indulgences such as "Danny Boy," John Corigliano's "The Ghosts of Versailles" and the 'Flower Duet' from Delibes Lakmé, for which she is joined by the incomparable Susan Graham. Fifteen years have passed since the release of The Beautiful Voice, her first Grammy® Award-winning album. The American soprano, ranked among the greatest operatic divas of all time, now directs her artistry to its long-awaited successor, Guilty Pleasures. The new, inspired collection once again showcases her beguiling tonal warmth, expressive range and seductive vocal beauty.  The recording's tongue-in-cheek title was born organically during the recording process.  Fleming explains, "I've indulged in a bit of musical cherry-picking, with some treasures culled from larger works – there is the guilt! The pleasure, of course, is the chance to revel in the unabashed beauty of these melodies." She is joined by the Philharmonia Orchestra and the German conductor Sebastian Lang-Lessing. News of the release of Guilty Pleasures follows on the heels of President Barack Obama presenting Fleming with the 2012National Medal of Arts on July 10th "for her contributions to American music." Among those who also received honors in the East Room of the White House, in the presence of the First Lady, were filmmaker George Lucas, comedy actress Elaine May and jazz legend Allen Toussaint.  The Medal is the highest honor for achievement in the arts conferred to an individual artist on behalf of the American people. The White House citation said: "Known to many as ‘the people's diva,' Ms Fleming has captivated audiences around the world with an adventurous repertoire spanning opera and the classical tradition to jazz and contemporary pop." Since her debut at New York's Metropolitan Opera in 1991, Renée Fleming has won over audiences with her lustrous sound, insightful musicianship and charismatic stage presence. Most recently the winner of the 2013 Grammy Award for Best Classical Vocal Solo for her Decca album, Poèmes, she continues to grace the world's greatest opera stages and concert halls, also extending her reach to include other musical forms and media. Over the past few seasons, Ms. Fleming has hosted a wide variety of television and radio broadcasts, including the Metropolitan Opera's Live in HD series for movie theaters and television, and Live From Lincoln Center on PBS. As a musical statesman, Renée Fleming has been sought after on numerous distinguished occasions, from the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize ceremony to performances in Beijing during the 2008 Olympic Games. In January 2009, Ms. Fleming was featured in the televised We Are One:The Obama Inaugural Celebration at the Lincoln Memorial concert for President Obama. In 2012, in an historic first, Ms. Fleming sang on the balcony of Buckingham Palace in the Diamond Jubilee Concert for HM Queen Elizabeth II. Ms. Fleming has also performed for the United States Supreme Court and, in November 2009, celebrated the 20th anniversary of the Czech Republic's "Velvet Revolution" at the invitation of Václav Havel. An additional distinction was bestowed in 2008 when, breaking a precedent, Ms. Fleming became the first woman in the 125-year history of the Metropolitan Opera to solo headline an opening night gala. Ms. Fleming is currently a member of the Board of Trustees of the Carnegie HallCorporation and the Board of Sing for Hope. In 2010, she was named the first ever Creative Consultant at Lyric Opera of Chicago. Liner Notes from Guilty Pleasures from Renée Fleming
Renée Fleming is unique not only for her radiant voice and masterful technique, but also for the exceptional stylistic diversity and musical curiosity that distinguish her career. It's difficult to imagine any other artist today possessing the sense of adventure needed to gather together the wide-ranging collection of arias and songs heard on this disc. After her previous album, Poèmes, with its focus on French concert repertoire, Fleming has gone in an altogether different direction, giving herself the joy of musical cherry-picking. Singing in no fewer than eight languages, both opera arias and songs, the soprano is presenting music she views as "guilty pleasures". "Some of these treasures are culled from larger works - there is the guilt! The pleasure, of course, is the chance to revel in the unabashed beauty that is the shared attribute of these melodies and their texts." The programme's operatic portion takes Fleming far off the beaten track, the result being several marvellous discoveries for her listeners. Two of the arias were inspired in large part by her fascination with comparing different composers' treatment of the same character. Consider, for example, the sorceress she has portrayed so successfully in Rossini's Armida; here she revisits that heroine, as depicted by Dvořák in the last of his ten operas. Armida's lovelorn entrance aria represents the apotheosis of the Czech composer's matchlessly fervent lyrical style. Dvořák'sRusalka, another Fleming signature role, has an exact counterpart in Tchaikovsky's Undina. Having written the opera of that name when still in his twenties, Tchaikovsky destroyed his score four years later. Five excerpts survive, although they remain unfamiliar to the public. How fortunate, then, that Fleming has resurrected Undina's aria, the sweet, open-hearted reflections of a character who - like Rusalka - is a water nymph longing for a soul. There is more Slavic repertoire to savor, including another Czech gem. In Smetana's "folk opera" Hubička(The Kiss) the protagonist is a strong-willed young woman, Vendulka, who refuses to kiss her fiancé, the widower Lukáš, until they're married. One of the role's more intimate moments is the lullaby Vendulka sings to Lukáš's baby. The melody is actually an original folk tune appropriated by the composer, communicating a disarming simplicity befitting the story. Turning to Russian song literature, Fleming performs Rachmaninov's "Sumerki" ("Twilight"), one of twelve incomparably expressive songs comprising his Opus 21. This is Rachmaninov in a restrained mode: he employs simple stepwise motion and ascending arpeggios in the vocal line to maximum effect in summoning the image of the solitary young girl gazing into "the boundless azure of the darkening sky". The disc's single Italian-language track is Refice's Ombra di nube, one of the most haunting of all Italian art songs, definitely deserving greater favour among today's audiences. (Has any song composer ever more eloquently conveyed humanity's longing for peace and serenity?) It is familiar to many historically minded listeners through a recording by the legendary Claudia Muzio. An artist of the more recent past, Victoria de los Angeles, was a source of inspiration for Fleming when planning her programme - particularly with reference to two of Falla's Seven Popular Spanish Songs, "Canción" (lovesick in its text, yet lively and in a major key) and "Nana" (a setting of the tender Andalusian lullaby sung to the composer in his childhood); and also "Villanelle," Berlioz's sunny opening song of his cycle Les Nuits d'été.Still more effervescent in tone is Delibes's "Les Filles de Cadiz," with its irresistible bolero rhythm and spicy text. Fleming contrasts those two French pieces with another, Duparc's Phidylé, a supreme test of legato and a singer's ability to build slowly from profound intimacy to rhapsodic expressiveness. Fleming adds that the beauty of this vocal writing heightens her disappointment that Duparc destroyed his operatic version of Roussalka. The French selections also include what has in recent years become the world's favorite soprano–mezzo duet - the intoxicating "Dôme épais" from Delibes's Lakmé, for which Fleming is joined by her cherished colleague and friend Susan Graham. Onstage the pair's artistic rapport has been gloriously evident in Der Rosenkavalier, Le nozze di Figaro, andAlcina. The Lakmé duet figured prominently in a greatly acclaimed, all-French recital they performed in a tour to six American cities during the 2012–13 season. Fleming has no plans to sing Wagner's Isolde, but this disc provides the next best thing: "Träume," a study for Tristan und Isolde's love duet. In every phrase the song's depth of feeling reminds the listener of Wagner's passionate attachment to the author of this text, Mathilde Wesendonck. For her second German-language selection, Fleming turns to the realm of Viennese operetta - specifically, Walzer aus Wien, a stage hit of the 1930s more famous in its English version, The Great Waltz. For this work Julius Bittner and Erich Wolfgang Korngold (the latter known not only for his powerful, haunting opera Die Tote Stadt and brilliant film scores, but also as one of the greatest orchestrators of the twentieth century) adapted the melodies of Johann Strauss, Jr., to accommodate a plot based on that composer's own life. "Frag mich oft" presents a deeply soulful melody in an arrangement abounding in sheer sensuous appeal. The sentiment expressed here, too, is captivating - essentially, "If I had to do it over again, I'd choose to be a musician again." Orchestration that Fleming considers "ravishingly beautiful" lured her to two of the Chants d'Auvergne, the folksong collection arranged by Joseph Canteloube to texts in Occitan (the language of southern France's Auvergne region). Sombre yet tonally lush, "La delaïssado" sets before the listener the abandoned girl whose only company now is the evening star.  Creating the greatest possible contrast is a delicious piece of folk wisdom, "Malurous qu'o uno fenno." The song proclaims that both the man who wants a wife and the man who doesn't are unhappy. The wife who has her man is happy, but even happier is the woman who needs no man at all! This programme would be incomplete without English-language repertoire. Early in her career Fleming created Countess Almaviva in the premiere of John Corigliano's The Ghosts of Versailles at the Metropolitan Opera. Deeply moved by Teresa Stratas's portrayal of the anguished French queen Marie Antoinette, Fleming is thrilled to have an opportunity to explore this character and her music. The queen has her moment of catharsis in a powerful monologue near the end of the opera, demanding exceptional range, variety of colour and emotional intensity. The other English-language selection contrasts notably with Corigliano's full-blown drama. A touching simplicity imbues Danny Boy with an appeal that has made it one of the most recognisable and beloved melodies in the world. What a joy it is for listeners to be guided by Renée Fleming on this musical journey. To the entire program she brings her treasurable musicality, limitless interpretative insight, and of course, that uniquely beautiful voice. Roger Pines, dramaturg and broadcast commentator at Lyric Opera of Chicago, writes frequently for recording companies and major music publications internationally.