The Grammy Award–winning, multi-platinum selling trio Nickel Creek—Chris Thile (mandolin/vocals), Sara Watkins (fiddle/vocals), and Sean Watkins (guitar/vocals)—officially reunites for the first time since its 2007 self-described “indefinite hiatus” with a US tour this spring and summer, with shows in Nashville, New York, Boston, Washington, Chicago, and Oakland, as well as at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival. A limited ticket pre-sale will begin Tuesday, February 4, at 10 AM local time at nickelcreek.com. Tickets will go on sale to the general public beginning Friday, February 7. Further information about a forthcoming Nickel Creek album and more on the tour will be announced shortly. You can hear a sneak peak of the album track “Destination” here.

Although Punch Brothers' three-night New Year's Eve run at NYC's Bowery Ballroom is sold out, the band has now added several tour dates in March, including stops along the East Coast, a few in the Midwest, and a pair of festivals: Savannah Music Festival and Suwannee Springfest. Pre-sale begins tomorrow, November 20; general on-sale begins Friday. Chris Thile will be keeping himself warm before then with solo shows in Australia, the Southwest US, and more, plus duo shows with Mike Marshall and Brad Mehldau.

The Savannah Music Festival has announced the line-up for its 25th anniversary season, to be held March 20–April 5, 2014, and among the artists scheduled to perform are several familiar to readers of the Nonesuch Journal: Punch Brothers; Chris Thile, in a duo concert with fellow mandolinist Mike Marshall; and Fatoumata Diawara and Bombino sharing a double bill for two shows.

Sam Amidon, Carolina Chocolate Drops, and Chris Thile & Michael Daves have all contributed songs to Divided & United: The Songs of the Civil War, a new collection of Civil War–era tunes recorded by contemporary artists, to be released on ATO Records on November 5. The album, which is streaming in full via Garden and Gun in advance of the release, features Amidon on "Wildwood Flower," the Chocolate Drops on "Day of Liberty," and Thile and Daves on "Richmond Is a Hard Road to Travel," as well as performances from Loretta Lynn, Ricky Skaggs, Ralph Stanley, Dolly Parton, Steve Earle, T Bone Burnett, and Thile's Punch Brothers band mate Noam Pikelny. Nonesuch Records released the soundtrack to Ken Burns' acclaimed documentary The Civil War in 1990.

Pianist Jeremy Denk and mandolinist Chris Thile have each recently released recordings of music by Bach on Nonesuch Records: Denk's recording of the Goldberg Variations with a companion DVD of video "liner notes," and Thile's Bach: Sonatas and Partitas, Vol. 1. The Wall Street Journal's Terry Teachout says both "stand out from the pack," finding Denk's "gorgeously and insightfully played ... enthrallingly involving" and that Thile's offers "a thrillingly new palette of instrumental colors." He concludes: "If I had to guess what the future of recorded classical music will sound like, I'd bet on Mr. Thile's Bach—as well as on Mr. Denk's video liner notes. That's the kind of fresh thinking of which we can never have too much."

Chris Thile's solo tour brought him to Carnegie Hall's Zankel Hall on Tuesday for an eclectic, sold-out set that featured music from his new album, Bach: Sonatas and Partitas, Vol. 1, and much more. "The most impressive musicians are often versatile, but few match the breadth of the brilliant mandolinist Chris Thile," raves the New York Times's Vivien Schweitzer. Of his performing Bach violin works on the mandolin, Schweitzer writes, "in Mr. Thile’s virtuosic hands, the results are breathtaking ... a revelatory reading, poignant and exuberant by turns."

Chris Thile brings his solo tour, featuring music from his new album, Bach: Sonatas and Partitas, Vol. 1, back home to New York City for a sold-out performance in Carnegie Hall's Zankel Hall. The tour continues with stops in Philadelphia, Princeton, Toronto, and Albany before heading back down South, then on to Europe in November. Thile spoke with the New York Times about the tour and the music of Bach: "You can get me moving, and be playing some of the most profoundly well-organized music that humans could possibly imagine. It’s visceral, but everything’s in its right place."

Chris Thile's new solo album, Bach: Sonatas and Partitas, Vol. 1, was released to critical acclaim earlier this year. The album comprises three works written for solo violin, including Sonata No. 1 in G minor, BWV 1001, which Thile performs in its entirety for a new video, available here. He is in the midst of a solo tour of North America, performing music from the new album and more.

Mandolin virtuoso Chris Thile—who, with his fellow Punch Brothers, performed at the unforgettable benefit concert Another Day, Another Time: Celebrating the Music of “Inside Llewyn Davis,” inspired by music from the upcoming Coen Brothers’ film, Inside Llewyn Davis, in New York City on Sunday—kicks off a solo tour performing music from his new album, Bach: Sonatas and Partitas, Vol. 1, at Meany Hall for the Performing Arts in Seattle tonight. The tour makes its way across the US West, down South, and into the Midwest before heading to the Northeast for stops including a sold-out New York City show in Carnegie Hall's Zankel Hall. Thile heads to Europe in November. 

Mandolinist Chris Thile is the subject of a Wall Street Journal feature profile examining his new solo album, Bach: Sonatas and Partitas, Vol. 1, and exploring his interest in transcending the boundaries of musical genres and his ability to do so. "My thesis statement would be—Bach didn't write Baroque music," Thile says. "He wrote great music." In two companion videos to the article, which you can watch here, Thile further makes that case and demonstrates why it is true.

Nonesuch Records released Bach: Sonatas and Partitas, Vol. 1, an album of Bach works recorded by mandolin virtuoso Chris Thile, to critical acclaim earlier this month. On September 24, 2013,  the vinyl edition will be released, comprising two works written for solo violin: Sonata No. 1 in G minor, BWV 1001, and Partita No. 1 in B minor, BWV 1002. The LP, produced by Edgar Meyer, was pressed on a single disc in 140-gram vinyl at Pallas in Diepholz, Germany, and is available to pre-order now in the Nonesuch Store. Thile is currently touring with his fellow musicians of The Goat Rodeo Sessions and will perform works by Bach in solo recitals this fall.

Chris Thile was featured on NPR's Weekend Edition Sunday yesterday. The mandolin virtuoso spoke with host Rachel Martin about his new album, Bach: Sonatas and Partitas, Vol. 1, on which he performs three Bach works written for solo violin. "There's the mandolin and then there's the mandolin when Chris Thile puts it to work," says Martin. "Chris Thile is stretching the limits of his instrument yet again, this time taking on Bach." Thile kicks off a US tour with his fellow Goat Rodeo Sessions musicians this week.