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Renée Fleming

In the ten years since her sublime soprano last soared through the Foellinger Great Hall, Kennedy Center Honoree and US National Medal of Arts recipient Renée Fleming added a fifth Grammy to her count, the 2024 Award for Best Classical Vocal Solo for her album Voice of Nature: The Anthropocene with Yannick Nézet-Seguin as pianist. Renée Fleming highlights the peril and fragility of the natural world in this recital program, presented as an uninterrupted set along with projected video from National Geographic. “The music . . . begins in a time almost two centuries ago, when people had a profound connection to the beauty of nature” says Fleming. “Now we have reached a moment when we see all too clearly the effects of our own activity.” Through Romantic era art songs by Grieg, Liszt, Fauré, and Hahn, and new commissions from Nico Muhly, Caroline Shaw, and Kevin Puts, this program explores nature as both inspiration and casualty of humanity.

Known for bringing new audiences to classical music and opera, Fleming has sung not only with Luciano Pavarotti and Andrea Bocelli, but also with Elton John, Paul Simon, Sting, Josh Groban, and Joan Baez. Her voice is featured on the soundtracks of Best Picture Oscar winners The Shape of Water and The Lord of the Rings.

In addition to her performance activity, Renée Fleming tirelessly advocates for research at the intersection of arts, health, and neuroscience. Her new anthology, Music and Mind: Harnessing the Arts for Health and Wellness, is a collection of essays from leading scientists, artists, creative arts therapists, educators, and physicians about the powerful impacts of music and the arts on health and the human experience. “This extraordinary volume edited by Renée Fleming is the most comprehensive compilation of the role of music in every aspect of life, from biological evolution to our own mental, physical, and spiritual well-being.” (Deepak Chopra, M.D.)

As a World Health Organization Goodwill Ambassador for Arts and Health, and as Artistic Advisor to the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Renée launched the first ongoing collaboration between America’s national cultural center and its largest health research institute, the National Institutes of Health. She created her own program called Music and the Mind, which she has presented in more than 50 cities around the world, earning Research!America’s Rosenfeld Award for Impact on Public Opinion. In 2020, Renée launched Music and Mind LIVE, a weekly web show exploring the connections between arts, human health, and the brain, amassing nearly 700,000 views, from 70 countries. She is now an advisor for major initiatives in this field, including the Sound Health Network at the University of California San Francisco and the NeuroArts Blueprint at Johns Hopkins University.

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