Audra McDonald is unparalleled in the breadth and versatility of her artistry as both a singer and an actress. With five Tony Awards, two Grammy Awards, and a long list of other accolades to her name, she is among today’s most highly regarded performers. In 2011, after four seasons playing Dr. Naomi Bennett on ABC’s Private Practice, she returned to the stage as Bess in The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess at the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge. The production transfered to Broadway, where she was awarded the Tony for "Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical," placing her in the company of Broadway legends Julie Harris and Angela Lansbury as the only performers in Tony history to win five acting awards. One year after graduating from Juilliard, she won her first Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical for Carousel at Lincoln Center Theater. She received two additional Tony Awards in the Featured Actress category for her performances in the play Master Class (1996) and the musical Ragtime (1998), earning her an unprecedented three Tony Awards before turning 30.  In 2004 she won her fourth Tony for A Raisin in the Sun. She made her opera debut in 2006 at Houston Grand Opera in a double-bill of Poulenc’s La Voix Humaine and the world premiere of Send by Michael John LaChiusa. She made her LA Opera debut in 2007 as Jenny in Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny. The resulting recording won her two Grammy Awards, for Best Opera Recording and Best Classical Album. On the concert stage, she has sung with virtually every major American orchestra – including the Boston Symphony, Chicago Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, National Symphony, New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, and San Francisco Symphony. She made her Carnegie Hall debut in 1998 with the San Francisco Symphony under the baton of Michael Tilson Thomas in a season-opening concert that was broadcast live on PBS. Internationally, she is a returning guest at the BBC Proms in London and at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, as well as with the London Symphony Orchestra and Berlin Philharmonic.