PRESS TOUR: CMU grad Patina Miller on 'Live from Lincoln Center'

January 20, 2014 — Live From Lincoln Center—the award-winning performing arts series showcasing events from the iconic stages of the world’s largest performing arts center—will broadcast three wide-ranging popular song broadcasts as part of its 39th season in spring 2014 on PBS, starting in March. Each of the three spring broadcasts feature concerts from LincolnCenter’s acclaimed American Songbook series which celebrates the best in American singing and songwriting, spanning popular music genres such as pop, country and folk music. Five time Tony Award-winning actress and singer Audra McDonald is the series host. The announcement of the spring programs was made today at the Television Critics Association Winter 2014 conference by Andrew C. Wilk, executive producer of Live From Lincoln Center.

Live From Lincoln Center’s spring broadcasts:
Patina Miller
Friday, March 28, 2014, 9:00 p.m. (check local listings)
Winner of the 2013 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical for Pippinand soon to be featured in the upcoming Hunger Games: Mockingjayfilms, Patina Miller is both a fresh new face and a performer at the very top of her game. Her first Broadway show, Sister Act, earned her nominations for both Tony and Olivier awards, and Variety called her “a nonstop dynamo discovery.” Her voice is a powerhouse of sound, equal parts dazzle and warmth, and her first televised concert will feature a wide range of music from classic R&B to Broadway’s best. This episode will be directed by Annette Jolles.

James Naughton: The Songs of Randy Newman
Friday, April 4, 2014, 9:00 p.m. (check local listings)
James Naughton, the director and two-time Tony Award-winning actor and singer, who has appeared in numerous film and television programs including CBS’s Hostages and on stage in City of Angelsand Kander & Ebb’s Chicago, takes the stage to honor the great American songwriter Randy Newman. Though Naughton has sung Newman’s charming songs before in cabaret shows, he has never offered a full evening devoted to this music until now. Naughton’s “bass baritone voice is a phenomenon, both in its caressing resonance and in the ease with which he slides from traditional crooning to jazz-inflected swing” (The New York Times). Newman’s work as a Hollywood soundtrack composer of the past thirty years was preceded by years as a prolific, highly successful songwriter of such hits as “I Think It’s Going to Rain Today,” “Sail Away,” and “I Love L.A.” This episode will be directed by Alan Skog.

Jason Isbell
Friday, April 11, 2014, 9:00 p.m. (check local listings)
Born into a family of musicians in a town just a few miles from Muscle Shoals, Alabama—home to the best guitarists in the music business—Jason Isbell’s career choice could seem pre-destined. He started writing songs at an early age, and at 21 joined the rock group, Drive-By Truckers. Isbell wrote and recorded with the Truckers through three albums and six years, leaving in 2007 to come out with a solo album. He then formed a band, The 400 Unit (the colloquial name for the former psychiatric ward of an Alabama hospital), which recorded a couple of CDs full of melancholy country ballads and rousing roots rock. Isbell’s most recent work is the critically-acclaimed Southeastern, with personal and exquisite songs about atonement and redemption, Southern-style. This episode will be directed by Dana Calderwood.