Renée Fleming | Kennedy Center

2023 Honoree

The 46th Kennedy Center Honors
Educational

Understanding Different Voice Types
Webinars

Music and Mind Live with Renée Fleming
Kennedy Center Series

Renée Fleming VOICES

Renée Fleming is one of the most highly acclaimed singers of our time, performing on the stages of the world’s great opera houses and concert halls. Honored with five Grammy^® Awards and the U.S. National Medal of Arts, she has sung for momentous occasions from the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony to the Diamond Jubilee Concert for Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace. In 2014, she brought her voice to a vast new audience when she became the first classical artist ever to sing the National Anthem at the Super Bowl. In May, Fleming was appointed a Goodwill Ambassador for Arts and Health for the World Health Organization.

Fleming’s current concert calendar includes appearances in Vienna, Amsterdam, Milan, Los Angeles, Chicago, and at Carnegie Hall. In November, she starred in the world premiere staging of The Hours, a new opera based on the Pulitzer Prize–winning novel and award-winning film, at the Metropolitan Opera. In March, she appeared as Pat Nixon in a new production of Nixon in China at the Opéra de Paris.

Fleming’s recording Voice of Nature: The Anthropocene, won the 2023 Grammy Award^® for Best Classical Solo Vocal Album. Known as a genre-spanning musician, and for bringing new audiences to classical music and opera, she has recorded everything from complete operas and song recitals to indie rock and jazz. She has sung not only with Luciano Pavarotti and Andrea Bocelli, but also with Elton John, Paul Simon, Sting, Josh Groban, and Joan Baez. She earned a Tony Award^® nomination for her performance in Carousel on Broadway, and her voice is featured in two Best Picture Oscar^®–winning films.

In recent years, Fleming has become a leading advocate for research at the intersection of arts, health, and neuroscience. She launched the first ongoing collaboration between the Kennedy Center and the National Institutes of Health. She has presented her program Music and the Mind in more than 50 cities around the world.

Fleming’s other awards include the 2023 Crystal Award from the World Economic Forum, the Fulbright Lifetime Achievement Medal, and honorary doctorates from eight leading universities.

Recent Kennedy Center history: Renée Fleming has had a long-standing collaborative relationship with the Kennedy Center, including more than 25 performances in various capacities. Highlights include creating and hosting the 2013 American Voices Festival, curating Renée Fleming VOICES series since 2016, and launching a new Sound Health initiative with the Center and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in 2017. Joined by Vanessa Williams, she launched the Kennedy Center’s “On Stage at the Opera House” series in September 2020 marking one of the first live streamed performances during the COVID-19 shutdown. Additionally, Fleming was appointed Artistic Advisor -At-Large for the Center in 2016. Most recently, she collaborated with award-winning children’s book author and illustrator Mo Willems on a program to introduce young audiences to opera.