What Is Renée Fleming’s Net Worth?
Renée Fleming is an American soprano, actress, and author who has a net worth of $16 million. Renée Fleming has won several Grammy Awards, and she was recognized at the Kennedy Center Honors in 2023.
She first made a name for herself singing with small opera companies in and around New York, which led to her winning the Metropolitan Opera Auditions in 1988. Renée has since gone on to sing with such companies as Houston Grand Opera, the Seattle Opera, the San Francisco Opera, and the Metropolitan Opera. She has also performed at the Spoleto Festival, Tanglewood, and Carnegie Hall. She is one of the most successful opera singers working today and has released numerous successful albums. On February 2, 2014, Fleming was the first Opera singer to ever perform the National Anthem at the Super Bowl. Renée has performed in Broadway productions of “Living on Love” (2015) and “Carousel” (2018), earning a Tony nomination for Best Featured Actress in a Musical for “Carousel” and a Drama League nomination for Distinguished Performance for “Living on Love.” She has appeared in the films “Bride of the Wind” (2001) and “Margaret” (2011) and the TV movies “Don Giovanni” (2000), “Manon” (2001), and “Rusalka” (2002). Fleming published the book “The Inner Voice: The Making of a Singer” in 2004. In 2005, the French government awarded her the Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur, and in 2023, the World Health Organization appointed her a Goodwill Ambassador for Arts and Health.
Early Life
Renée Fleming was born Renée Lynn Fleming on February 14, 1959, in Indiana, Pennsylvania. Both her parents were music teachers, and she was raised in Churchville, New York. After graduating from Churchville-Chili High School, Renée enrolled at the State University of New York at Potsdam, where she studied at the Crane School of Music. Fleming earned a Bachelor of Music Education in the early ’80s, and during her time at SUNY Potsdam, she performed with a jazz trio at Alger’s, an off-campus bar. Jazz saxophonist Illinois Jacquet asked Renée to tour with him and his big band, but she decided to continue with her graduate studies instead. In 1983, she graduated from the University of Rochester’s Eastman School of Music with a Master of Music. When she was a student, she spent summers at the Aspen Music Festival and School, and in Aspen, she played Anne Sexton in a 1983 production of the Conrad Susa chamber opera “Transformations” and Countess Almaviva in a 1984 production of Mozart’s “The Marriage of Figaro.” In 1985, Fleming won a Fulbright Scholarship, which made it possible for her to work with Elisabeth Schwarzkopf and Arleen Augér in Europe. She also attended the Juilliard School, where she appeared in productions at the Juilliard Opera Center. Renée earned an Artist Diploma from Juilliard in 1986.
Career
While attending Juilliard, Fleming started performing professionally with small opera companies and in smaller concert venues. She performed her first major operatic role in 1986, playing Konstanze in Mozart’s “Die Entführung aus dem Serail” at Austria’s Salzburger Landestheater. In 1988, Renée won the singing competition the Metropolitan Opera Auditions, and the following year, she starred as Mimi in a New York City Opera production of Puccini’s “La bohème” and Dircé in Cherubini’s “Médée.” That year she also won the George London Competition and received a Richard Tucker Career Grant. In 1990, she won the Richard Tucker Award and played the title role in a Seattle Opera production in “Rusalka.” In 1991, she made her TV debut on “Live from Lincoln Center,” performing a duet with Luciano Pavarotti, and starred as Countess Almaviva in San Francisco Opera and Metropolitan Opera productions of “Le nozze di Figaro.” That year Fleming also performed at Carnegie Hall for the first time. In the ’90s, she appeared in operas such as “Così fan tutte,” “Armida,” “Otello,” “Hérodiade,” “Der Rosenkavalier,” “Faust,” and “Don Giovanni,” and she signed a record contract with London/Decca in 1996.
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Next, Renée played the Marschallin in San Francisco Opera, Metropolitan Opera, and Covent Garden productions of “Der Rosenkavalier” and performed at the installation of Archbishop Edward Egan in New York. She appeared in the operas “Manon,” “Requiem,” “La traviata,” “Violetta,” “Capriccio,” and “Thaïs,” and she performed with Elton John at Radio City Music Hall. She provided the vocals for the soundtrack for the 2003 film “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King,” and in September 2008, she became the first woman to solo headline opening night at the Metropolitan Opera in its 125-year history. In 2010, Fleming was named the first-ever Creative Consultant at Lyric Opera of Chicago. In July 2011, she performed at Albert II, Prince of Monaco’s wedding to Charlene Wittstock. Renée co-starred with Jerry O’Connell, Anna Chlumsky, and Douglas Sills in a 2015 Broadway production of “Living on Love,” and she returned to Broadway to play Nettie Fowler in “Carousel” in 2018. In September 2018, she performed “Danny Boy” at Senator John McCain’s funeral service at Washington National Cathedral. In 2019, Fleming appeared in London, Chicago, and Los Angeles productions of “The Light in the Piazza.” In early 2021, she performed at a private mass that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris attended before they were sworn in as U.S. president and vice president, respectively.
Personal Life
Renée married actor Rick Ross on September 23, 1989, and they welcomed daughters Amelia (born 1992) and Sage (born 1995) before divorcing in 2000. Fleming wed tax lawyer Tim Jessell on September 3, 2011, three years after author Ann Patchett set them up on a blind date. Renée has been awarded Honorary Doctorates from The Juilliard School (2003), Eastman School of Music (2011), Carnegie Mellon University (2012), Harvard University (2015), Northwestern University (2018), and Yale University (2020). In 1993, she became an honorary member of the International Music Fraternity for Women, Sigma Alpha Iota. Fleming has served on the board of directors of the charitable organization Sing For Hope since 2006, and she has also been on Carnegie Hall’s board of trustees and the Polyphony Foundation’s Artistic Advisory Board. She is the artistic director of Carnegie Hall’s SongStudio, a program that “brings leading musicians and other performing artists together to mentor emerging vocalists and collaborative pianists.”
Awards and Honors
Fleming has earned 18 Grammy nominations, winning five of them. She won for Best Classical Vocal Performance for “The Beautiful Voice” (1999), “Bel Canto” (2003), and “Verismo” (2009) and Best Classical Vocal Solo for “Poèmes” (2013) and “Voice of Nature: the Anthropocene” (2023). She became an honorary member of the Royal Academy of Music in 2003, and she received a Classic Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music 2004. Renée was honored with the Polar Music Prize in 2008 “in recognition of her sublime unparalleled voice and unique stylistic versatility,” and in 2011, she won the Fulbright Lifetime Achievement Medal. In 2012, she received the Victoire d’Honneur prize and the National Medal of Arts, and the German ECHO Klassik Awards named her Singer of the Year. Fleming received the Federal Republic of Germany’s Order of Merit in 2015, and in 2017, her 1997 album “Signatures” was preserved in the Library of Congress’ National Recording Registry for being “culturally, historically, or artistically significant.” At the 2018 Classic Brit Awards, Renée was named Female Artist of the Year, and that year she also received the Edison Award Oeuvre Prize. In 2021, she won the George Peabody Medal for Outstanding Contributions to Music in America, and in 2023, she received the Crystal Award, which is given to “exceptional artists and cultural leaders whose important contributions to society have made a tangible impact on improving the state of the world.”
Real Estate
In 2007, Fleming paid $4.26 million for two apartments on New York City’s Upper West Side. She made the units into one apartment measuring approximately 3,000 square feet. In 2019, Renée put the four-bedroom home on the market for $6.895 million. In 2014, Fleming and Jessell purchased a three-bedroom, five-bathroom home in Washington, D.C. for $1.9 million.
