Audra McDonald and ABT to Join the LA Phil at The Hollywood Bowl Next Month

Los Angeles is in for a treat next month! Tony and Grammy-winner Audra McDonald comes to the Hollywood Bowl to sing classics from Broadway and the American Songbook with the Los Angeles Philharmonic under the direction of Bramwell Tovey, Tuesday and Thursday, September 1 and 3, at 8 pm. Audiences on both nights will be entertained by McDonald singing famous tunes by Rodgers and Hammerstein, Mancini and Mercer, and others. The evenings also feature gifted American Ballet Theatre dancers on stage to bring Bernstein's Fancy Free to life performing Jerome Robbins' 1944 choreography.

Grammy and Juno award-winning conductor/composer Bramwell Tovey was appointed Music Director of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra in 2000. Under his leadership the VSO have toured to China, Korea, across Canada and the United States. Tovey is also the Artistic Adviser of the VSO School of Music, a state-of-the-art facility and recital hall which opened in downtown Vancouver in 2011, next to the Orpheum, the VSO's historic home. His tenure has included complete symphony cycles of Beethoven, Mahler, Brahms as well as the establishment of an annual festival dedicated to contemporary music. In 2018, the VSO's centenary year, he will become the orchestra's Music Director Emeritus. In the 2014/15 season Tovey made guest appearances with several U.S. orchestras including the Philadelphia Orchestra, New York Philharmonic and Kansas City Symphony. In Europe he performed with the BBC Philharmonic and the Helsingborgs Symfoniorkester and he traveled to Australia on two separate occasions for engagements with the symphonies of Melbourne and Sydney. A talented pianist as well as conductor and composer, Tovey has appeared as soloist with many major orchestras including the New York, Sydney, Melbourne, Los Angeles, Pittsburgh, St Louis, Toronto, and Royal Scottish orchestras. In the summer of 2014 he played and conducted Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue at the Hollywood Bowl with the LA Phil and in Saratoga with the Philadelphia Orchestra. He has also performed his own Pictures in the Smoke with the Melbourne and Helsingborg Symphonies and the Royal Philharmonic.

Audra McDonald is unparalleled in the breadth and versatility of her artistry as both a singer and an actress. A record-breaking six-time Tony Award-winner (Carousel,Master Class, Ragtime, A Raisin in the Sun, The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess, Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill) and one of Time magazine's 100 most influential people of 2015, she has also appeared on Broadway in The Secret Garden, Marie Christine (Tony nomination), Henry IV, and 110 in the Shade (Tony nomination). She returns to the stage in the 2015-16 season asLottie Gee in Shuffle Along, Or, The Making of the Musical Sensation of 1921 and All That Followed. The Juilliard-trained soprano's opera credits include La voix humaine and Send at Houston Grand Opera, and Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny at Los Angeles Opera. On television, she was seen by millions as the Mother Abbess in NBC's The Sound of Music Live! and played Dr. Naomi Bennett on ABC's Private Practice. She has received Emmy nominations for Wit, A Raisin in the Sun, and her role as official host of PBS's Live From Lincoln Center. Other TV credits include The Good Wife,Homicide: Life on the Street, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters' First 100 Years, The Bedford Diaries, Kidnapped, and the 1999 remake of Annie. On film, she has appeared in Seven Servants, The Object of My Affection, Cradle Will Rock, It Runs in the Family, The Best Thief in the World, She Got Problems, Rampart, and most recently Ricki and the Flash. A two-time Grammy Award-winner and exclusive recording artist for Nonesuch Records, she released her fifth solo album for the label, Go Back Home, in 2013. McDonald also maintains a major career as a concert artist, regularly appearing on the great stages of the world and with leading international orchestras. An ardent proponent of marriage equality and an advocate for at-risk and underprivileged youth, she sits on the boards of Broadway Impact and Covenant House. Of her many roles, her favorites are the ones performed offstage: wife to her husband, actor Will Swenson, and mother to her daughter, Zoe Madeline.

Recognized as one of the premier dance companies in the world, American Ballet Theatre brings the highest quality dance and dancers to audiences across the globe. Celebrating its role as America's National Ballet Company® ABT tours nationally and internationally, performing for over 400,000 people annually. Since its founding in 1940, ABT developed a repertoire, under the direction of Lucia Chase and Oliver Smith, which honored the past while encouraging the development of the art form through the creation of new works. Classics from the 19th century like Swan Lake,Giselle and The Sleeping Beauty live side-by-side with seminal works of the early 20thcentury such as Apollo, Les Sylphides, Jardin aux Lilas and Rodeo, as well as such contemporary masterpieces as Push Comes to Shove and Airs. In acquiring such an extraordinary repertoire, ABT has commissioned works by the great choreographic geniuses of the 20th century: George Balanchine, Antony Tudor, Jerome Robbins, Agnes de Mille and Twyla Tharp, among others. Today, under the artistic direction of former ABT Principal Dancer Kevin McKenzie, the Company remains steadfast in its vision as "American" and continues to bring the art of dance theater to the great stages of the world.

COMPLETE PROGRAM:

BERNSTEIN Overture to West Side Story

BOCK/HARNICK "When Did I Fall in Love?" from Fiorello

Medley:

RODGERS/HAMMERSTEIN "It Might as Well Be Spring" from State Fair and

LANE/LERNER "Hurry, It's Lovely Up Here" from On a Clear Day You Can See Forever

LOEWE/LERNER "I Could Have Danced All Night" from My Fair Lady

MANCINI/MERCER "Moon River" from Breakfast at Tiffany's

LOESSER "I Can't Stop Talking About Him" from Let's Dance

STYNE/COMDEN/GREEN "Make Someone Happy" from Do Re Mi

RODGERS/HAMMERSTEIN "Climb Ev'ry Mountain" from The Sound of Music

BERNSTEIN Fancy Free (Original choreography by Jerome Robbins)

Featuring:

LOS ANGELES PHILHARMONIC

BRAMWELL TOVEY, conductor

AUDRA McDONALD, soprano

AMERICAN BALLET THEATRE

STELLA ABRERA

ISABELLA BOYLSTON

MARCELO GOMES

GILLIAN MURPHY

CORY STEARNS

JAMES WHITESIDE

LUCIANA PARIS

CRAIG SALSTEIN

ARRON SCOTT

STERLING BACA

DUNCAN LYLE

LEANN UNDERWOOD

The Hollywood Bowl is located at 2301 N Highland Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90068. Tickets for performances during the Hollywood Bowl 2015 summer season are available now at HollywoodBowl.com, or via credit card phone order at 323.850.2000, and in person at theHollywood Bowl Box Office.