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 at the annual awards ceremony on December 17 at Lincoln Center in New York City, where McDonald and Denk will be joined by Composer of the Year George Benjamin, Conductor of the Year Pablo Heras-Casado, and Ensemble of the Year International Contemporary Ensemble (which composer John Adams led in a performance of his Son of Chamber Symphony for a 2011 Nonesuch album).

Naming singer/actress Audra McDonald as Musician of the Year, Musical America observes:

Audra McDonald is unparalleled in the breadth and versatility of her artistry as both singer and actress. She is fearless, vocally and physically. Her immediately recognizable soprano is rich, flexible, and incandescent, with a huge dynamic range, equally persuasive as silk or gravel, belt or whisper. It’s also genre-bending, since she can sing across the spectrum, from opera to blues, pop to gospel. She is what Barbara Cook calls "the whole package."

With a record-tying five Tony Awards and two Grammys among her abundance of accolades, McDonald is one of today’s most highly regarded performers. Earlier this year, she released her most personal solo album to date, Go Back Home, on Nonesuch. Marking her first solo recording in seven years, many of its songs feature in her current 22-city North American concert tour, which she launched at a season-opening gala with Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony. McDonald also continues in her second season as official host of PBS’s Live From Lincoln Center, and will appear as the Mother Abbess in a live NBC television broadcast of The Sound of Music on December 5.

As Musical America explains, it was pianist Jeremy Denk’s unique combination of achievements that led to his selection as Instrumentalist of the Year:

His flourishing concert schedule, the second release in his Nonesuch recording contract (Bach’s Goldberg Variations), his widely read blog called ‘Think Denk,’ and articles for The New Yorker, which led to a Random House book commission, attest to his multi-faceted artistry.

The announcement crowns a sensational fall season for the pianist, who won a 2013 MacArthur “genius grant” Fellowship in September, and whose recording of Bach’s Goldberg Variations topped the Billboard Traditional Classical Albums chart last week. Next Wednesday, November 13, Denk returns to Carnegie Hall to play Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 25 with Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony, in a concert that will be broadcast and streamed live as part of WQXR and the venue’s national Carnegie Hall Live series.

The announcement precedes the December publication of the 2014 Musical America International Directory of the Performing Arts, which, in addition to its comprehensive industry listings, pays homage to each of these artists in its editorial pages.