Four-Time Grammy Winner, Soprano Icon, And National Medal of Arts Winner, Renée Fleming Readies Major Fall 2013 Events

New Album Guilty Pleasures Available September 17

Host Of First Ever “American Voices” Festival at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC Featuring Vocal Coaching Sessions And A Concert With Superstars From Every Musical Genre

The American soprano, Renee Fleming is consistently ranked among the greatest of operatic voices of all time and she is preparing for a Fall 2013 full of activities.   On September 17, the four-time Grammy winner will release Guilty Pleasures – the eagerly-awaited sequel to her 1999 best-selling, landmark recording The Beautiful Voice – on Decca.  The album features Fleming’s personal selections including arias from operas by Dvorak, Smetana and Tchaikovsky as well as indulgences like “Danny Boy” and John Corigliano’s “The Ghosts of Versailles.” On the “Flower Duet” from Delibes Lakmé, Fleming is joined by the incomparable Susan Graham.

In addition to her anticipated album release, Fleming will host the first-ever American Voices program at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC November 22-24.  The three-day unprecedented festival will bring together great American singers from all musical genres with fledgling artists and music industry leaders to celebrate the past, present, and future of singing in America and ignite an exchange of ideas that will educate and inspire an ongoing dialogue about singing in our country.

At the festival, Fleming will welcome artists such as Dianne Reeves, Sutton Foster, Eric Owens and Kim Burrell who will coach students and performers at the start of their careers in the stars’ respective genres. On November 23, artists like crossover star Josh Groban, Broadway headliner Norm Lewis and bluegrass master Alison Krauss will join Fleming in a concert with the National Symphony Orchestra that brings together virtually every genre on stage to sing songs that they and other American legends have made famous.

On July 10, Fleming was awarded the prestigious National Medal of Arts by President Obama. The Medal is the highest honor for achievement in the arts conferred to an individual artist on behalf of the American people, with Fleming’s White House citation officially declaring: “Known to many as ‘the people's diva,’ Ms Fleming has captivated audiences around the world with an adventurous repertoire spanning opera and the classical tradition to jazz and contemporary pop.”

Since her debut at New York’s Metropolitan Opera in 1991, Renée Fleming has won over audiences with her lustrous sound, insightful musicianship and charismatic stage presence.

Most recently the winner of the 2013 Grammy Award for Best Classical Vocal Solo for her Decca album, Poèmes, she continues to grace the world’s greatest opera stages and concert halls, also extending her reach to include other musical forms and media. Over the past few seasons, Ms. Fleming has hosted a wide variety of television and radio broadcasts, including the Metropolitan Opera’s Live in HD series for movie theaters and television, and Live From Lincoln Center on PBS. Fleming is currently a member of the Board of Trustees of the Carnegie Hall Corporation and the Board of Sing for Hope. In 2010, she was named the first ever Creative Consultant at Lyric Opera of Chicago.