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.”

Tune in tonight at 9pm EDT to watch “Audra McDonald in Concert: Go Back Home” on PBS’s Emmy-winning series Live From Lincoln Center (check local listings). The concert was recorded live earlier this month at New York’s Avery Fisher Hall and features the five-time Tony Award-winner performing songs from her new solo recording for Nonesuch, Go Back Home, as well as some of her other personal favorites. In his review of the concert, Stephen Holden of the New York Times wrote: “Absolutely thrilling. That describes Audra McDonald’s Avery Fisher Hall performance at Lincoln Center’s spring gala on Thursday evening… One of Ms. McDonald’s greatest gifts is to find the story inside the song and deliver it with immediacy and clarity, in a voice that finds a flexible, intuitive balance between storytelling and singing – a defying voice of our time.” This telecast caps off her first season as host for Live From Lincoln Center.  Click here to watch a trailer for “Audra McDonald in Concert: Go Back Home.”

Audra, whose new album, Go Back Home, is released today on Nonesuch Records, was featured on NPR’s Weekend Edition Saturday. Audra spoke with NPR’s Jeff Lunden about her personal connection to the songs on the album.

“Like many of her previous albums, McDonald has found a mixture of songs from Broadway legends—’Go Back Home’ was written by Kander and Ebb,” Lunden explains, “to a younger generation of songwriters, including Adam Guettel, Tony winner for The Light in the Piazza, whose ‘Migratory V’ is featured on the album.” Lunden talks with Adam Gwon, who is also among the younger generation of composers featured on the album, and says McDonald’s “first album, Way Back to Paradise, was kind of the thing that made me want to be a composer.”

Audra is also the subject of a feature article from the Associated Press. Noting the personal nature of the new album and this Friday’s broadcast of “Audra McDonald In Concert: Go Back Home” on PBS’s Live From Lincoln Center, the AP‘s Mark Kennedy says: “Both pull back the curtain on one of the most decorated women on Broadway … The CD’s title taken from the stunning Kander and Ebb song from The Scottsboro Boys musical is a hint that this is McDonald’s most personal album to date.” You can also read a story on the album from the New York Daily News here.

New York magazine lists the album and the TV performance as two of the must-do events this week. “It’s entirely possible that Audra McDonald is the greatest singer alive,” exclaims New York. “Her new album, Go Back Home, shows off her core strengths.”

Click here to purchase Go Back Home.