Audra McDonald, a board member of Covenant House International, has embarked on a campaign to raise $25,000 or more for the organization in its 2015 Broadway Sleep Out fundraising campaign to serve homeless young people in need. She is offering an array of one-of-a-kind prizes in exchange for donations made between now and Wednesday, August 5, including personalized Tweets, signed CDs, singing telegrams, video messages, and a chance to join her for hot chocolate at Sardi's.

Audra McDonald and Björk have been named to the TIME 100 List, the magazine's annual list of the world's Most Influential People, as was Richard Linklater, the director of the film Boyhood. They join a list of honorees that includes Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Malala Yousafzai, Pope Francis, and Kanye West, among others.

Carnegie Hall has announced its 2015–16 concert season, and featured among the performers taking the esteemed hall's stages are a number of artists familiar to readers of the Nonesuch Journal, including Brad Mehldau, Ry Cooder, Kronos Quartet, Timo Andres, Jeremy Denk, and Audra McDonald, as well as the New York premiere of a new work by John Adams.

Audra McDonald will bring her acclaimed portrayal of Billie Holiday from Lanie Robertson’s musical play Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill to HBO. Filming before a live audience at Café Brasil in New Orleans this month, the special will feature McDonald in her history-making performance as the jazz icon. Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill tells Billie Holiday’s life story through the songs that made her famous. Audra McDonald became Broadway’s most decorated performer when she won her sixth Tony Award for Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill earlier this year. 

Audra McDonald launches her extensive 2014–15 concert season with a performance at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in LA tonight. The season includes shows in more than 30 cities in 18 different states across the US, among them five cities in California and five in Florida; three each in New Jersey and upstate New York; dates in Indianapolis, Charlotte, Boston, Chapel Hill, and Tucson; and a return to Carnegie Hall. McDonald won a record-breaking sixth Tony Award for her portrayal of Billie Holiday in Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill earlier this year and released her latest solo album, Go Back Home, in 2013.

Congratulations to Audra McDonald, winner of the 2014 Tony Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Play for her performance as Billie Holiday in Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill. This marks a historic sixth Tony Award win for McDonald, the most ever for a performer. Watch her acceptance speech here. She recently won the Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle awards for her portrayal of the legendary jazz singer. 

Audra McDonald was a special guest on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on NBC last night. The five-time Tony Award winner stopped by the studio to help Fallon out on a Suggestion Box request to give voice to some sage Yahoo! Answers in her own inimitable way. Watch the segment here. McDonald returns to Broadway this spring to take on the role of legendary jazz singer Billie Holiday in Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill. Tickets are on sale now.

Five-time Tony Award-winner Audra McDonald returns to Broadway this spring to take on the role of legendary jazz singer Billie Holiday in the Broadway premiere of Lanie Robertson’s Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill, which recounts Holiday’s life story through the songs that made her famous. Directed by Lonny Price (110 in the Shade, A Class Act), the musical begins previews March 25, 2014, at the Circle in the Square Theatre for a limited ten-week engagement with only 70 performances; opening night is set for April 13. Tickets go on sale to the general public March 6.

Carnegie Hall has announced its 2014–15 concert season, and featured among the performers taking the esteemed hall's stages are a number of artists familiar to readers of the Nonesuch Journal, including Jeremy Denk, Richard Goode, Gidon Kremer, Kronos Quartet, and Audra McDonald, as well as an all–Steve Reich program and the New York premiere of a work by Jonny Greenwood.

Audra McDonald wowed an audience of more than 18 million viewers on the live, televised broadcast of The Sound of Music on NBC last Thursday, portraying the Mother Abbess to great critical acclaim. McDonald "has been pretty much unanimously appointed the show-stealer of the night," says TIME. The Christian Science Monitor says "McDonald was a majestic Mother Abbess." The Los Angeles Times says: "The golden pipes of McDonald, playing the Rev. Mother, opened the broadcast, but her memorable scene came later, singing 'Climb Ev'ry Mountain,' one of Rodgers and Hammerstein's most enduring numbers from their 1959 Broadway musical." Watch the performance here. And hear her take on "Edelweiss" on her new album, Go Back Home.

Audra McDonald performs in the televised broadcast of Rockefeller Center’s 81st Christmas Tree lighting celebration, tonight on NBC at 8 PM ET. The holiday special will also include performances from Mary J. Blige, Toni Braxton, Mariah Carey, Kelly Clarkson, The Rockettes, and more. On Thursday, McDonald performs in NBC’s live production of The Sound of Music, portraying Mother Abbess opposite Carrie Underwood as Maria, Stephen Moyer as Captain von Trapp, Laura Benanti as Elsa Schrader, and Christian Borle as Max Dettweiler.

Congratulations to Audra McDonald, whom Musical America has named Musician of the Year, and to Instrumentalist of the Year Jeremy Denk. The Musical America Awards recognize artistic excellence and achievement in the arts and will be presented in a ceremony at Lincoln Center in New York City on December 17.