Renee Fleming
Renée Lynn Fleming (born February 14, 1959) is a well-known American soprano who has appeared in opera, concerts, records, theater, cinema, and large public events. Fleming, who received the National Medal of Arts, has been nominated for 17 Grammy Awards and has won four of them. Other prominent honors include the French government's Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur, Germany's Cross of the Order of Merit, Sweden's Polar Music Prize, and honorary membership in England's Royal Academy of Music. Fleming has earned name recognition outside of the classical music world, which is unusual among performers whose careers began in opera.
Fleming's voice is a rich lyric soprano. Aside from her native English, she has played coloratura, lyric, and lighter spinto soprano operatic parts in Italian, German, French, Czech, and Russian. She has spent most of her career performing new music, including world premieres of operas, concert pieces, and songs written for her by André Previn, Caroline Shaw, Kevin Puts, Anders Hillborg, Nico Muhly, Henri Dutilleux, Brad Mehldau, and Wayne Shorter. Fleming became the first woman in the Metropolitan Opera's 125-year history to solo headline a season-opening night gala in 2008. "In my long life, I have encountered maybe two sopranos with this level of singing," conductor Sir Georg Solti remarked of Fleming. "The other was Renata Tebaldi."
Awards:
- Grammy AwardsWins: 5 (Nominations: 12)
- Classic Brit Awards (Wins: 1)
- Tony Award (Nominations: 1)
