The Big Ears Festival returns—for the first time since 2019—to Knoxville, Tennessee, March 24–27, 2022, with music from Caroline Shaw, Sō Percussion, Kronos Quartet, Jeff Parker, Tristan Perich, and Attacca Quartet, among many others.

Ojai Music Festival has announced details for the 75th Festival, September 16–19, 2021, with 2021 Music Director John Adams; the Ojai debuts of Rhiannon Giddens and Attacca Quartet; the return of Timo Andres; and works by Andres, Giddens, Laurie Anderson, Donnacha Dennehy, Philip Glass, Ingram Marshall, Brad Mehldau, Nico Muhly, Caroline Shaw, and others. The festival events will also stream live. 

While most of us can't go out to take in great live music, here are some events taking place online to enjoy while staying home this weekend: On Friday, Mariza sings the music of Amália Rodrigues for NYC's Town Hall from Portugal, Vagabon performs from a decked-out Boulevard Studios in LA, and Jeremy Denk performs Bach for Emory University's Schwartz Center. On Sunday, Chris Thile leads his master class, Caroline Shaw and Attacca Quartet perform for Miami's IlluminArts from NYC, and Rhiannon Giddens and Francesco Turrisi perform for Celtic Connections from Ireland.

John Adams, the 2021 Music Director and conductor for the Ojai Music Festival, has announced featured artists for the 75th festival, June 10–13, 2021, including composer/pianist Timo Andres, who returns to Ojai to give the first live public performance of I Still Play, and Attacca Quartet, which makes its Ojai debut performing works by Caroline Shaw and others. Adams will conduct two concerts with works by Steve Reich, among others; his own work will be on programs by the LA Phil New Music Group and pianist Víkingur Ólafsson.

Pulitzer Prize–winning composer Caroline Shaw’s Orange, which earned Attacca Quartet a Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance, is now available on vinyl for the first time. The two-LP vinyl edition includes the album on double 180-gram orange vinyl, pressed at Record Industry in the Netherlands, along with a printed excerpt from the score. "Completely gorgeous in so many ways," exclaims BBC Radio 3. "It hits you everywhere, all at once." "A love letter to the string quartet," says NPR. "[W]hen you hear all the imaginative sounds on Orange, you know you're listening to the voice of a strong composer."

Attacca Quartet helped celebrate the tenth anniversary of WNYC/WQXR's The Greene Space and mark the release of its recording of Caroline Shaw's Orange with a performance at the venue on April 12, 2019. The event, which also includes a Q&A with New Sounds host John Schaefer, was revisited in a live stream yesterday and can be seen here. Orange, for which Attacca Quartet earned the Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance, will be released on a two-LP vinyl edition later this year.

Caroline Shaw’s album Orange, for which Attacca Quartet earned a Grammy Award, is due on vinyl for the first time on July 24, 2020, via New Amsterdam and Nonesuch Records. The two-LP set is pressed on double 180-gram orange vinyl and includes a printed excerpt from the score and is available to pre-order now. "Completely gorgeous in so many ways," exclaims BBC Radio 3. "It hits you everywhere, all at once." "A love letter to the string quartet," says NPR. "[W]hen you hear all the imaginative sounds on Orange, you know you're listening to the voice of a strong composer."

Congratulations to Brad Mehldau, Attacca Quartet, and Kronos Quartet, who won Grammy Awards on Sunday, and to Yola, who performed at the Premiere Ceremony in Los Angeles at which those awards were presented. Mehldau earned his first Grammy when Finding Gabriel won for Best Jazz Instrumental Album. Attacca Quartet received the Grammy for Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance for Caroline Shaw's Orange. Kronos Quartet's recording of Terry Riley's Sun Rings won the Grammy for Best Engineered Album, Classical; it was engineered by Leslie Ann Jones; mixed by John Kilgore, Judy Sherman, and David Harrington; and mastered by Robert C. Ludwig.

Composer Caroline Shaw’s Orange, performed by Attacca Quartet, has been shortlisted for a BBC Music Magazine Award for Chamber. A jury of experts selected the nominees from the best of the classical recordings reviewed in the magazine in 2019. Winners will be chosen by public vote, which has begun, and announced at a ceremony in London on April 22. "Unlike much contemporary music, Shaw's compositions exemplify what Simon Rattle long ago said about John Adams's essence—that there's always the sense of 'moving in space,'" said the five-star BBC Music Magazine album review. "The sophistication and dynamic refinement of the Attacca Quartet is reflected in a full, truthful recording."

NPR Music has published its year in review of the best music to have been released in 2019, and among the artists featured across its lists are Caroline Shaw, Attacca Quartet, Vagabon, Yola, The Black Keys, Brad Mehldau, Gaby Moreno, Van Dyke Parks, and Daniel Wohl.

Caroline Shaw and Attacca Quartet cellist Andrew Yee are on a special bonus episode of WNYC's Dolly Parton's America podcast hosted by Jad Abumrad. This episode features performances recorded live at Brooklyn's National Sawdust. "I got to thinking about all the songs that we sing about home, and as we leave home, we carry those songs with us. We morph them, transform them," Abumrad says. The performers "played traditional music that they connect to, that reminds them of home, that is from their home, but they all took that music and gave it a new spin." Shaw, accompanied by Yee, offers her take on the 18th-century hymn "On Jordan's Stormy Banks I Stand" and Alfred Brumley's 1929 song "I'll Fly Away." Hear it here.

Congratulations to all of the Nonesuch nominees for the 62nd Grammy Awards: Yola with four nominations, including Best New Artist and her album Walk Through Fire; Dan Auerbach for Producer of the Year; Rhiannon Giddens for "I'm on My Way" from her album with Francesco Turrisi, there is no Other; Brad Mehldau's Finding Gabriel, Joshua Redman Quartet's Come What May, Caroline Shaw and Attacca Quartet's Orange; and Kronos Quartet for Terry Riley's Sun Rings.