Renee Fleming To Deliver 2018 Northwestern Commencement Address

EVANSTON, IL — World renowned soprano Renée Fleming, "the People's Diva", will deliver the 2018 Northwestern University commencement address, the university announced. The ceremony is set for 9:30 a.m. on Friday, June 22 at Ryan Field , 1501 Central St.

Fleming regularly performs in the world's most prestigious halls and opera houses and has deep ties to Northwestern, according to the university. In 2014, she led a master class with four students in the voice and opera program at Northwestern's music school.

She has also been a longtime advocate for literacy, recently starting a collaboration between he Kennedy Center, the National Institutes of Health and the National Education Association examining the scientific connections between music, health and the brain.

Last June, Fleming joined a Northwestern auditory neuroscientist on stage at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington D.C. in which the scientist called a "beautiful intersection between science and music."

Fleming has been awarded the National Medal of Arts and four Grammy Awards. Since 2010, Fleming has been the first creative consultant for the Lyric Opera of Chicago, where she also serves as a vice president and board member.

Last year, in one of her most acclaimed roles, Fleming sang the Marschallin in a new production of Der Rosenkavalier at New York’s Metropolitan Opera. This spring, she will appear on Broadway in a production of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Carousel.