Audra, whose new album, Go Back Home, is released today on Nonesuch Records, was featured on NPR’s Weekend Edition Saturday. Audra spoke with NPR’s Jeff Lunden about her personal connection to the songs on the album.

“Like many of her previous albums, McDonald has found a mixture of songs from Broadway legends—’Go Back Home’ was written by Kander and Ebb,” Lunden explains, “to a younger generation of songwriters, including Adam Guettel, Tony winner for The Light in the Piazza, whose ‘Migratory V’ is featured on the album.” Lunden talks with Adam Gwon, who is also among the younger generation of composers featured on the album, and says McDonald’s “first album, Way Back to Paradise, was kind of the thing that made me want to be a composer.”

Audra is also the subject of a feature article from the Associated Press. Noting the personal nature of the new album and this Friday’s broadcast of “Audra McDonald In Concert: Go Back Home” on PBS’s Live From Lincoln Center, the AP‘s Mark Kennedy says: “Both pull back the curtain on one of the most decorated women on Broadway … The CD’s title taken from the stunning Kander and Ebb song from The Scottsboro Boys musical is a hint that this is McDonald’s most personal album to date.” You can also read a story on the album from the New York Daily News here.

New York magazine lists the album and the TV performance as two of the must-do events this week. “It’s entirely possible that Audra McDonald is the greatest singer alive,” exclaims New York. “Her new album, Go Back Home, shows off her core strengths.”

Click here to purchase Go Back Home.

This week, the Sarah Siddons Society of Chicago named Audra as the recipient of their 2013 Artist-of-the-Year Award. The award ceremony will be held at Chicago’s Ritz Carlton Hotel on June 17. “There are few artists with greater accomplishments than Audra McDonald,” said Siddons artistic director Dominic Missimi. “She is, without a doubt, one of our great American actor-singers. To have accomplished so much at such a young age is astonishing!” Chicago Sun-Times columnist Bill Zwecker will serve as Master of Ceremonies at the celebratory lunch, with Doug Peck as music director and Dominic Missimi as director of a program that will feature musical performances by some of Chicago’s top actors and singers. Proceeds will benefit the organization’s promising young actors’ scholarship fund. Along with the awards ceremony and performances, the event will include a reception and luncheon.

The Sarah Siddons Society is a non-profit organization promoting excellence in the theatre. The Society was founded in 1952 by prominent Chicagoans who loved the theatre. For over 50 years, the Society has presented the annual Sarah Siddons Award to an actor for an outstanding performance in a Chicago theatrical production.

Nonesuch releases Audra’s first solo album in seven years, Go Back Home, on May 21. After four seasons spent in Los Angeles playing Dr. Naomi Bennett on ABC’s hit medical drama Private Practice, Audra returned to New York and Broadway last year, winning her record-tying fifth Tony Award for her role in The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess. With Go Back Home, the Grammy Award-winning soprano, whose voice Stephen Sondheim has hailed as “one of the glories of the American theater,” makes her highly anticipated return to recording, presenting her most personal album to date.  Many of the selections on Go Back Home are by composers with whom McDonald has long been associated (Guettel, LaChiusa, Rodgers & Hammerstein, and Sondheim, among others), while some songs, including the Kander and Ebb title track, are by names that are relatively new to her repertoire. In addition, McDonald continues her tradition of championing works by an emerging generation of composers, represented on this recording by Adam Gwon, Heisler and Goldrich, and Will Reynolds. The album was produced by Doug Petty, who also produced McDonald’s 2006 release Build a Bridge; musical director Andy Einhorn conducted the ensemble. Go Back Home is available to pre-order at nonesuch.com and includes an instant download of the title track plus a limited-edition autographed print as well as a download of the complete album available starting release day.

On Friday, May 24, three days after the album’s release, McDonald headlines and hosts “Audra McDonald In Concert: Go Back Home,” a national PBS telecast presented by the Emmy Award-winning series Live From Lincoln Center (check local listings). The program is being recorded live to tape on Thursday, May 9, when McDonald performs songs from the album as well as other personal favorites in concert at Avery Fisher Hall. Last fall, McDonald was named the official host of the acclaimed television series, adding a new chapter to her long history with the Lincoln Center campus, where she attended The Juilliard School and won her first Tony for her performance in Carousel at Lincoln Center Theater.

On Sunday, March 10 at 9pm EST / 8pm CST, Audra joins the cast of CBS’s Emmy-nominated series “The Good Wife” for an episode titled “Runnin’ with the Devil.” Audra plays Liz, Alicia’s (Julianna Margulies) former Georgetown classmate and current foe. The episode also introduces two other new faces: Wallace Shawn is Lemond Bishop’s other attorney while Jess Weixler plays Kalinda. Visit TVguide.com to see photos from the episode.

This Monday, Audra will be the honoree at The Drama League’s 29th Musical Celebration of Broadway at Manhattan’s famed Pierre Hotel. The black-tie gala supports The Drama League’s educational initiatives for promising young artists. This past May Audra received the Drama League’s 2012 Distinguished Performance Award for her role in The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess. “Audra McDonald, in my view, is the once-in-a-generation performer of our time,” Drama League executive director Gabriel Shanks said in a statement. “We are thrilled to have the opportunity to honor her achievements in film, television, recording, and in the theater.”