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09 May 2018 (Toronto, ON) - 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, conducted by Andy Einhorn. Recorded live on May 1 at David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center, the recording presents 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 will be performing on her upcoming North American concert tour. The album will be quickly mastered and sequenced before being released on digital platforms on May 11 and physical formats on June 22.
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 theatre. 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 from President Barack Obama — America’s highest honour for achievement in the arts. 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 with performances 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 of 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 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.
About Universal Music Classics (UMC):
Universal Music Classics (UMC) is home to Decca Gold, the new US classical music label based in NYC. It serves as the permanent American home for all new classical artists, continuing the rich tradition of a historic legacy dating back to 1956 with artists such as Andrés Segovia, Leonard Bernstein, Claudio Arrau, and Dave Brubeck. The revitalized imprint has recently forged new partnerships with the New York Philharmonic, The Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, and Carnegie Hall’s Lullaby Project, as well as new artist signings with the acclaimed Emerson String Quartet, Anthony Roth Costanzo, and more to be announced. Under UMC, Decca Gold sits aside European imprints Deutsche Grammophon, Decca, Mercury KX and ECM. The present roster includes Andrea Bocelli, Lang Lang, Renée Fleming, André Rieu, Max Richter, Cecilia Bartoli, Daniil Trifonov, Anna Netrebko, Tori Amos, and Ólafur Arnalds.
About the New York Philharmonic:
The New York Philharmonic plays a leading cultural role in New York City, the United States, and the world. Each season the Philharmonic connects with up to 50 million music lovers through live concerts in New York City and on its worldwide tours and residencies; digital recording series; international broadcasts; education programs; and the New York Philharmonic Leon Levy Digital Archives. The Philharmonic has commissioned and / or premiered works by leading composers from every era since its founding in 1842 — including Dvořák’s New World Symphony, John Adams’s Pulitzer Prize–winning On the Transmigration of Souls, dedicated to the victims of 9/11, Esa-Pekka Salonen’s Piano Concerto, Wynton Marsalis’s The Jungle (Symphony No. 4), and Anna Thorvaldsdottir’s Metacosmos. A resource for its community and the world, the Philharmonic complements its annual free citywide Concerts in the Parks, Presented by Didi and Oscar Schafer, with Philharmonic Free Fridays, its famed Young People’s Concerts, and the Shanghai Orchestra Academy and Residency Partnership. The oldest American symphony orchestra and one of the oldest in the world, the New York Philharmonic has made more than 2,000 recordings since 1917 and produced its first-ever Facebook Live concert broadcast in 2016. Jaap van Zweden will become Music Director in 2018–19, succeeding musical leaders including Alan Gilbert, Maazel, Masur, Zubin Mehta, Boulez, Bernstein, Toscanini, and Mahler.
