McDonald is Lovin’ It

Soprano Audra McDonald, who has a record-breaking six Tony Awards, two Grammys, and an Emmy, was in top form when she appeared in the last Granada performance of the UCSB Arts & Lectures current season.

New York-based McDonald, who received a National Medal of Arts in 2015, the highest honor for achievement in the arts, was doing her third concert of a nine-city California tour with her tony trio – Andrew Einhorn on piano, Gene Lewin on drums, and Mark Vanderpoel on bass.

Singing an eclectic selection from George Gershwin, Irving Berlin, and Lerner and Loewe, she wrapped the highly entertaining two-hour show with “Climb Every Mountain” from Rodgers and Hammerstein’s classic The Sound of Music.