Audra concludes her summer tour with two festival appearances in New England this weekend. On August 24, she takes to Tanglewood for John Williams’s Film Night with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. As part of the salute to Hollywood’s rich musical history, she performs selections from such notable films as A Star is Born, State Fair, and The West Point Story. In addition to Maestro Williams, conductor David Newman (son of Alfred and a film composer in his own right) also takes the podium Saturday night. The following afternoon finds Audra in Manchester, Vermont, for the city’s eponymous music festival, singing with the Manchester Pops Orchestra and her music director Andrew Einhorn. For more information on Audra’s summer performances, click here.

Audra was a surprise special guest on NBC’s Emmy-nominated series Late Night with Jimmy Fallon last night. The five-time Tony Award winner stopped by the studio to help Fallon out with a Suggestion Box request to give voice to some Yahoo! Answers in her own special way. Click below to watch.

On July 21 and 22, Audra joins frequent collaborator and Sirius/XM Radio host Seth Rudetsky for two performances at 5pm and 7pm at The Art House in Provincetown, MA. The concerts are part of the 2013 Broadway @ The Art House series and mark Audra’s debut in the famed Cape Cod resort town. Shortly after these performance, Audra returns to New York on August 3 for a one-night-only concert at the Caramoor Music Festival in Katonah, NY. Visit Audra’s schedule for a full list of performances.

Last week Audra McDonald was featured on PBS Newshour, speaking with the show’s Art Beat correspondent Jeffrey Brown about her new album, Go Back Home. Audra, whom Brown describes as “a leading lady of musical theater and much more,” discussed her connection to the songs on the album, her most personal yet, and the sense of home she found in the theater at an early age. You can watch the complete Newshour piece below.

Audra McDonald—whose first solo album in seven years, Go Back Home, was released last week on Nonesuch Records, and who was recently featured on NPR’s Tell Me More —has announced a number of new tour dates across the United States for this summer and fall, starting with a performance at the Midland Center for the Arts in Midland, Michigan, on June 8. The tour, with currently announced dates running through December, includes performances with the Boston Symphony Orchestra led by John Williams at Tanglewood, San Francisco Symphony’s Opening Night led by Michael Tilson Thomas, shows in Austin, Chicago, Los Angeles, St. Louis, Kansas City, and much more. Get schedule and ticket details here.

Go Back Home features songs by composers with whom Audra has long been associated (Adam Guettel, LaChiusa, Rodgers & Hammerstein, Stephen Sondheim) and some, like the Kander & Ebb title track, relatively new to her repertoire; in addition, Audra continues to champion works by an emerging generation of composers. Audra McDonald discusses this most personal of her albums, her connection to the songs, and more in a new video piece, produced by Matthew Beighley and featuring excerpts from her recent Live From Lincoln Center concert on PBS, in this video below.

“If there were a Broadway show that were written about my life, especially the last seven years,” she says of the album, “this would be the soundtrack.”