On December 3, Sony Masterworks will release the cast recording of The Sound of Music two days before NBC’s live broadcast of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s beloved musical.  “The Sound of Music (Music from the NBC Television Event)” will include studio recordings of all of the musical numbers performed by the cast members in the December 5 live broadcast.

Audra sings the role of Mother Abbess in a cast that sees Carrie Underwood as Maria von Trapp, Stephen Moyer as Captain Georg Von Trapp, Christian Borle as Max Detweiler, and Laura Benanti as Elsa Schrader. The NBC presentation features music from the original Broadway production, including such classics as “My Favorite Things,” “Do-Re-Mi,” “Sixteen Going on Seventeen,” and “Climb Ev’ry Mountain.”

Today, Musical America, the country’s oldest classical music magazine, named Audra its 2014 Musician of the Year, placing her in the illustrious company of past honorees including Leonard Bernstein, Leotyne Price, Michael Tilson Thomas, Beverly Sills, Itzhak Perlman, Wynton Marsalis, and Yo-Yo Ma. She joins fellow Musical America Award honorees composer George Benjamin, pianist Jeremy Denk, the International Contemporary Ensemble, and conductor Pablo Heras-Casado. The Musical America Awards recognize artistic excellence and achievement.

“Audra McDonald is unparalleled in the breadth and versatility of her artistry as both singer and actress,” writes Musical America in today’s announcement. “She is fearless, vocally and physically. Her immediately recognizable soprano is rich, flexible, and incandescent, with a huge dynamic range, equally persuasive as silk or gravel, belt or whisper. It’s also genre-bending, since she can sing across the spectrum, from opera to blues, pop to gospel. She is what Barbara Cook calls ‘the whole package.'” Ranking among classical music’s highest honors, the awards will be presented by the venerable arts resource at its annual ceremony at Lincoln Center on December 17.