Audra McDonald to Give Benefit Concert for NYFOS

Four-time Tony Award winner Audra McDonald will perform a special concert Mostly Arlen… All Audra! as a benefit for the New York Festival of Song (NYFOS) on Saturday, December 3 at the Rafael Vinoly Architects Studio (50 Van Dam Street). Steven Blier, the artistic director of NYFOS, will host the event and accompany McDonald on the piano.

NYFOS, which was founded in 1988, has presented over 90 vocal recitals with repertoire ranging from Schubert to Porter, Weiss, Weill, and Lennon-McCartney. In addition his work with NYFOS, Blier is on the faculty of the Juilliard School and appears regularly on the Metropolitan Opera Radio broadcasts.

McDonald has won Tony Awards for Carousel, Ragtime, Master Class, and A Raisin in the Sun, and earned a fifth nomination for Marie Christine. She also received an Emmy Award nomination for her work in the HBO film Wit.
Her upcoming projects include an appearance with Barbara Cook at NJPAC on November 19, a solo show at the Houston Opera in March that will include a new work by composer Michael John LaChiusa and Poulenc’s La Voix Humaine, a Carnegie Hall concert on April 29, and a new production of Weill’s The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahoganny with Patti LuPone for the L.A. Opera in 2007.

Tickets to the benefit are $375, which includes a pre-concert reception at 7pm. Call 646-230-8380 for tickets.