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. A 2023 Kennedy Center Honoree, winner of five Grammy® awards and the US National Medal of Arts, she has sung for momentous occasions from the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony to the Diamond Jubilee for Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace. In 2008 she became the first woman in the 125-year history of the Metropolitan Opera to solo headline an opening night gala, and in 2014, she became the first classical artist ever to sing “The Star Spangled Banner” for the Super Bowl. In 2023, the World Health Organization appointed her as a Goodwill Ambassador for Arts and Health, and this year at Davos, she became an inaugural member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Arts and Culture Council.

Renée’s latest recital and concert program, Voice of Nature: the Anthropocene, inspired by her 2023 Grammy -winning album, includes an original film created by the National Geographic Society to reflect the musical selections. In 2024 at the Metropolitan Opera, she reprised her role in The Hours, an opera based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel and award-winning film. In 2023, she portrayed Pat Nixon in a new production of Nixon in China at the Opéra de Paris.

Renée’s anthology, Music and Mind: Harnessing the Arts for Health and Wellness, was published in 2024. A prominent advocate for research at the intersection of arts, health, and neuroscience, Renée launched the first ongoing collaboration between the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and America’s largest health research institute, the National Institutes of Health. She created her own program called Music and the Mind, which she has presented in more than 70 cities around the world. She is now an advisor for major initiatives in this field, including the Sound Health Network at the University of California San Francisco and the NeuroArts Blueprint at Johns Hopkins University.

Renée has recorded everything from complete operas and song recitals to indie rock and jazz. In 2023, Decca released a special double-length album of live recordings from Renée’s greatest performances at the Metropolitan Opera. Known for bringing new audiences to classical music and opera, Renée has sung not only with Luciano Pavarotti and Andrea Bocelli, but also with Elton John, Paul Simon, Sting, Josh Groban, Dead and Company, and Joan Baez. Renée’s voice is featured on the soundtracks of Best Picture Oscar winners The Shape of Water and The Lord of the Rings.

Co-Artistic Director of the Aspen Opera Center and VocalArts at the Aspen Music Festival, Renée is also Advisor for Special Projects at LA Opera, and Artist Development Advisor at Wolf Trap Opera. Renée’s other awards include the 2023 Crystal Award from the World Economic Forum in Davos, the Fulbright Lifetime Achievement Medal, Germany’s Cross of the Order of Merit, Sweden’s Polar Music Prize, and honorary doctorates from 10 major universities. www.reneefleming.com

HOWARD WATKINS
PIANIST
American pianist Howard Watkins is a frequent associate of some of the world’s leading musicians on the concert stage and as an assistant conductor at the Metropolitan Opera. His appearances throughout the Americas, Europe, Asia, Russia, and Israel have included collaborations with Joyce DiDonato, Diana Damrau, Thomas Hampson, Kathleen Battle, Grace Bumbry, Mariusz Kwiecien, Anna Netrebko, and Matthew Polenzani at such venues as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Kennedy Center, the United States Supreme Court, Alice Tully Hall, Carnegie Hall, the Elbphilharmonie, and the Bolshoi Theater. His current and former faculty affiliations include The Juilliard School, the Bard College Conservatory of Music, the Merola Opera Program, the Santa Fe Opera Apprentice Program, the Yale School of Music as a Visiting Presidential Fellow, the Tanglewood Music Center, the Aspen Music Festival, the Mannes School of Music, the North Carolina School of the Arts, the International Vocal Arts Institute (Israel, Japan, and China), IIVA in Italy, the Brancaleoni Music Festival in Italy, the Tokyo International Vocal Arts Academy (TIVAA), and VOICExperience in Orlando, Tampa, and Savannah. A native of Dayton, Ohio, Mr. Watkins completed the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Accompanying and Chamber Music at the University of Michigan. Honored as the 2004 recipient of the Paul C. Boylan award from the University of Michigan for his outstanding contributions to the field of music, he is also the 2019 recipient of the Lift Every Voice Legacy Award from the National Opera Association.