Audra McDonald and Dawn Upshaw will take the stage at Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles tonight for the Opening Night Gala of the Los Angeles Philarmonic's 2008–09 season, the orchestra's last with conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen at its helm. Audra will sing Sondheim's "There Won't Be Trumpets" and Jule Styne / Sammy Cahn's "10,432 Sheep"; Dawn will perform songs from John Adams's Nixon in China and Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress. The eclectic program also includes selections from Stravinsky's The Firebird.

Congratulations to Audra McDonald, who as been nominated for an Emmy Award for her performance in the ABC-TV version of A Raisin in the Sun. Audra received a Tony Award (her fourth) for the 2004 Broadway stage revival of the seminal 1959 play by Lorraine Hansberry.

New York magazine celebrates its 40th year with a special anniversary issue. In it, the magazine's culture critics give their take on the most essential New York works of art since the publication's inception, "The New York Canon: 1968-2008," featuring performances and works by Steve Reich, John Adams, Laurie Anderson, Audra McDonald, Adam Guettel, Stephen Sondheim, David Byrne, Brian Eno, and The Magnetic Fields.

Alex Ross, the New Yorker's classical music critic, has posted on his blog, The Rest Is Noise, his Apex 07 list—some of the best performances and recordings he's heard this year. Among the best on CD: Wilco's "On and On and On," from Sky Blue Sky. And among his favorite performances of 2007 are the Disney Hall performance of John Adams's Naive and Sentimental Music by Esa-Pekka Salonen and the LA Philharmonic, and Audra McDonald in a Valentine's Day performance of Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny at LA Opera.

The Savannah Music Festival has announced its 2008 schedule, and Audra McDonald will be among the performers at this, Georgia's largest musical arts festival. McDonald will perform on March 28 as part of the Divine Divas series. The festival will run from March 20 through April 5, 2008.

Audra McDonald will be among the Broadway luminaries instructing students from theater programs throughout the US at the December 27–29 Moveable Arts Winter Retreat in New York City. Events include workshops and master classes designed to give participants insight into the world of musical theater. Audra will lead a discussion exploring the path from stage to screen.

Next week, PBS offers a very different way to celebrate the holiday season when it airs the Los Angeles Opera's 2007 production of the 1930 Brecht/Weill opera Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny. Starting Monday, December 17, Great Performances will broadcast the opera, starring Audra McDonald and Patti LuPone. John Doyle, who directed LuPone in the recent Broadway revival of Sweeney Todd, helmed this production of the work, which PBS calls a "savage and lyrical satire told in a highly entertaining blend of opera and raucous music hall songs."

The schedule for the 2008 Gilmore Keyboard Festival has been released, and among the artists on the bill for the biannual event are Richard Goode, Audra McDonald, and the Brad Mehldau Trio. The Festival will be held April 24–May 13, in Kalamazoo, Michigan.

Making its world premiere at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival will be the TV adaptation of Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun, starring the leads of the 2004 Broadway revival, Audra McDonald, Sean Combs, and Phylicia Rashad. The New York Post says the film will be "the cultural high point" of the TV season when it airs on ABC February 25.

The line-up for the 2008 Virginia Arts Festival has been announced, and Audra McDonald is among the featured artists. She'll be at the Sandler Center in Virginia Beach on May 11 as part of the multi-venue festival, which runs April 18–May 26 and includes performers from across the arts, from classical music to theater to dance.