Were there a Grammy® for least likely musical pairings, an April 2025 performance by Renée Fleming would be a strong contender.
Fleming, a soprano who is one of the best-known names in opera, sang with Dead and Company one evening during the band’s residency at Las Vegas’ The Sphere.
Dead and Company features Grateful Dead members Bob Weir and Mickey Hart performing the Dead’s music along with younger musicians such as John Mayer and Oteil Burbridge.
Fleming vocalized wordlessly during “Drums/Space,” a segment of free-form jamming established in the band’s psychedelic heyday and a staple of its shows ever since.
Fleming and Hart became friends because of their shared interest in the healing properties of music. Fleming is a very public advocate for the use of music in therapy, editing a book of essays, “Music and Mind,” with contributions from writers from the fields of medicine and music.
Fleming’s concern for health extends to the planet as well.
Fleming will perform her most recent concert program, Voice of Nature – The Anthropocene, in Ferguson Hall on Jan. 14. The recital features contemporary and classical music as well as a National Geographic-produced film exploring the beauty of the natural world.
The theme of the presentation, Fleming said, is “nature as both our inspiration and our victim.” For tickets or more information, click here.
While at Straz, Fleming also will lead a “Music and Mind” panel discussion featuring Fred Johnson, Straz Center’s community engagement specialist and artist in residence; art therapist Heather Spooner; and Karen Alexander of the International Arts + Mind Lab Center for Applied Neurasthenics (IAM Lab) at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. The event is free, but tickets are required. For details or to reserve seats, click here.
One of opera’s brightest stars, Fleming has performed in the world’s most hallowed opera houses and won international acclaim. As an artist and advocate, though, she’s ventured well beyond the opera stage.
She sang the national anthem at Super Bowl XLVIII. She performed at Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee. She appeared on Broadway in a revival of Carousel, earning a Tony® nomination. She released a rock album, “Dark Hope,” in 2010, on which she performed songs by Muse, Arcade Fire, Band of Horses and The Mars Volta. She performed at the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony and the Beijing Olympics.
Having sung operatic roles in Italian, German, French, Czech, English and Russian, she added Sindarin (Elvish), the language invented by J.R.R. Tolkien, when she sang on Howard Shore’s soundtrack to 2003’s “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.”
Go to strazcenter.org to reserve your spot for the free Music & Mind Panel discussion on Jan. 13 at 6 p.m. in TECO Theater and to purchase tickets to Fleming’s performance Voice of Nature – The Anthropocene on Jan. 14 at 7:30 p.m. in Ferguson Hall.