Following her appearance in NBC’s hit production of The Sound of Music Live! last month, Audra McDonald makes her way to the west coast this January for concerts at Stanford’s Bing Concert Hall (Jan 17) and Sonoma State University’s Green Music Center (Jan 18). The performance in Stanford is part of Bing Concert Hall’s inaugural season, and her debut at Sonoma’s Green Music Center is being celebrated with an LGBT mixer titled “A Night OUT at Weill Hall.”

After a performance at the Hanover Theater in Worcester, MA (Feb 22) and a rescheduled appearance at the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts in West Palm Beach, FL  (Feb 26), the Fresno-native returns to California for a special benefit concert at Visalia’s L. J. Williams Theater (Feb 28) to support Hands in the Community, a local charity that provides crisis and short-term referral services for families, children, and low-income individuals.

In each of these cities, the Grammy Award-winning singer will perform songs from her recent solo recording, Go Back Home, as well as other personal favorites.

Click here for a full list of upcoming tour dates.

Tonight, HBO airs “Six By Sondheim,” a retrospective documentary of Stephen Sondheim’s career.  Directed by Tony winner James Lapine, the documentary includes interviews with and archival footage of Sondheim himself, as well as performances by a star-studded group of artists. Audra joins a cast including Darren Criss, Jeremy Jordan, and America Ferrera. The documentary focuses on six of Sondheim’s most famous songs: “Opening Doors,” “Something’s Coming,” “Send in the Clowns,” “Being Alive,” “I’m Still Here” and “Sunday.”

Audra will be in the holiday spirit this Wednesday night when she performs in the televised broadcast of Rockefeller Center’s 81st Christmas Tree lighting celebration. The star-studded holiday special will be hosted by Today anchors Matt Lauer, Savannah Guthrie, Al Roker, and Natalie Morales, and will feature performances from Mary J. Blige, Toni Braxton, Mariah Carey, Kelly Clarkson, Kenny “Babyface” Edmonds, the Goo Goo Dolls, Ariana Grande, Jewel, Leona Lewis, and The Rockettes.

The 76-foot Norway Spruce tree, estimated to be more than 75 years old, will be decorated with 45,000 energy-efficient multicolored LED lights and topped with a 9½-foot-wide LED-lit Swarovski crystal star.

The following night, audiences can see Audra as Mother Abbess opposite Carrie Underwood as Maria, Stephen Moyer as Captain von Trapp, Laura Benanti as Elsa Schrader, and Christian Borle as Max Dettweiler in NBC’s live production of The Sound of Music at 8/7 CT.

On December 3, Sony Masterworks will release the cast recording of The Sound of Music two days before NBC’s live broadcast of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s beloved musical.  “The Sound of Music (Music from the NBC Television Event)” will include studio recordings of all of the musical numbers performed by the cast members in the December 5 live broadcast.

Audra sings the role of Mother Abbess in a cast that sees Carrie Underwood as Maria von Trapp, Stephen Moyer as Captain Georg Von Trapp, Christian Borle as Max Detweiler, and Laura Benanti as Elsa Schrader. The NBC presentation features music from the original Broadway production, including such classics as “My Favorite Things,” “Do-Re-Mi,” “Sixteen Going on Seventeen,” and “Climb Ev’ry Mountain.”

Today, Musical America, the country’s oldest classical music magazine, named Audra its 2014 Musician of the Year, placing her in the illustrious company of past honorees including Leonard Bernstein, Leotyne Price, Michael Tilson Thomas, Beverly Sills, Itzhak Perlman, Wynton Marsalis, and Yo-Yo Ma. She joins fellow Musical America Award honorees composer George Benjamin, pianist Jeremy Denk, the International Contemporary Ensemble, and conductor Pablo Heras-Casado. The Musical America Awards recognize artistic excellence and achievement.

“Audra McDonald is unparalleled in the breadth and versatility of her artistry as both singer and actress,” writes Musical America in today’s announcement. “She is fearless, vocally and physically. Her immediately recognizable soprano is rich, flexible, and incandescent, with a huge dynamic range, equally persuasive as silk or gravel, belt or whisper. It’s also genre-bending, since she can sing across the spectrum, from opera to blues, pop to gospel. She is what Barbara Cook calls ‘the whole package.'” Ranking among classical music’s highest honors, the awards will be presented by the venerable arts resource at its annual ceremony at Lincoln Center on December 17.

Audra kicks off the second half of her fall tour this Saturday with a concert at Houston’s Wortham Center. This performance marks the Tony award-winner’s first return to Houston since she made her Houston Grand Opera debut in 2006 in a double-bill of monodramas. The following day, Audra brings her “incredible voice, with its unique blend of sunshine and shade” (Toronto Star) to the Long Center in Austin. Audra then makes her way to the west coast for concerts in Las Vegas (Oct 22), San Diego (Oct 25), and LA (Oct 26). Audiences around the country can see Audra on television later this season when she takes on the role of the Mother Abess in NBC’s live production of Rodger and Hammerstein’s The Sound of Music. Click here for a full list of Audra’s concert appearances this fall.