Congratulations to violinist Gidon Kremer, who has been named the 2016 Praemium Imperiale Laureate in Music. The award is presented by the Japan Art Association in Tokyo to honor artists who have contributed significantly to the development of international arts and culture. The 2016 laureates in other fields are Cindy Sherman, Annette Messager, Paulo Mendes da Rocha, and Martin Scorsese. Past music laureates include Philip Glass, Steve Reich, and Leonard Bernstein. Each laureate receives 15 million yen ($146,000); a medal will be presented by Prince Hitachi in a ceremony held in Tokyo on October 18, 2016.

The Royal Conservatory's Koerner Hall in Toronto has announced its 2014–15 concert season, the organization's sixth anniversary season, which will feature performances from several artists familiar to readers of the Nonesuch Journal: Jeremy Denk, Richard Goode, and Natalie Merchant, making their Koerner Hall debuts, and a return visit from Gidon Kremer. Tickets are on sale now.

Gidon Kremer and his Kremerata Baltica chamber orchestra begin a rare, six-city US tour at the 92nd Street Y's Kaufmann Concert Hall in NYC tonight, followed by performances at Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco, Stude Concert Hall in Houston, Hill Auditorium in Ann Arbor, Harris Theater in Chicago, and Ordway Center in St. Paul. The tour program features works by Weinberg, Pärt, Britten, and Shostakovich, including his satiric comic opera Antiformal Rayok, with bass Alexei Mochalov.

Carnegie Hall has announced its 2014–15 concert season, and featured among the performers taking the esteemed hall's stages are a number of artists familiar to readers of the Nonesuch Journal, including Jeremy Denk, Richard Goode, Gidon Kremer, Kronos Quartet, and Audra McDonald, as well as an all–Steve Reich program and the New York premiere of a work by Jonny Greenwood.

Gidon Kremer organized a concert at Berlin's Philharmonic Hall on Monday, titled To Russia with Love, to honor slain Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya and support human rights in Russia. Performers included Kremer and Kremerata Baltica, Martha Argerich, Daniel Barenboim, Emanuel Pahud, and others, in a program of works Shostakovich, Prokofiev, Tchaikovsky; the premiere of a new piece by Giya Kancheli; and more. You can watch the complete concert here, via Arte Live Web.

Gidon Kremer’s Hommage à Piazzolla: The Complete Astor Piazzolla Recordings is out now. The eight-disc box set brings Kremer’s six previously released recordings of the Argentine composer’s music together for the first time, including four Nonesuch releases and two that were released by Teldec. The set’s seventh album, which is being released for the first time, features a 14-song live recording from the CBC’s Glenn Gould Studio from 1997.

Gidon Kremer and his Kremerata Baltica chamber orchestra's new album, The Art of Instrumentation: Homage to Glenn Gould, is "lovely and alluring," says NPR Music, with "fresh and intriguing makeovers of several Bach keyboard classics ... There are many moments in this album to make you smile, wonder and simply bask in the beauty of the music." Kremer and the Kremerata Baltica continue their tour of Asia with performances at Tokyo's Suntory Hall.

Gidon Kremer and his Kremerata Baltica chamber orchestra kicked off their tour of Asia with a performance at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre Monday night, followed by concerts in Korea (Seoul, Goyang, and Daejeon), China (Guangzhou and Shenzhen), and Japan (Nagoya, Kobe, Tokyo, and Kurume). Additionally, Kremer will perofrm with smaller chamber ensembles in Japan. The CBC calls the group's latest album, The Art of Instrumentation: Homage to Glenn Gould, "a haunting, highly personal homage from one great musician to another and a deeply affecting tribute to Gould's enduring genius."

The Art of Instrumentation: Homage to Glenn Gould, by violinist Gidon Kremer and his Kremerata Baltica chamber orchestra, is out today, September 25, 2012, which would have been Gould’s 80th birthday. The album comprises 11 pieces and arrangements by contemporary composers that quote from or are inspired by works, mostly by Bach, that Gould famously recorded during his career; two Arnold Schoenberg pieces also are drawn upon in one piece. Says the CBC: "The result is a haunting, highly personal homage from one great musician to another and a deeply affecting tribute to Gould's enduring genius."

Nonesuch Records releases The Art of Instrumentation: Homage to Glenn Gould, by violinist Gidon Kremer and his Kremerata Baltica chamber orchestra, on September 25, 2012, which would have been Gould’s 80th birthday. The album comprises 11 pieces and arrangements by contemporary composers that quote from or are inspired by works, mostly by Bach, that Gould famously recorded during his career; two Arnold Schoenberg pieces also are drawn upon in one piece. The album is available to pre-order now in the Nonesuch Store.

Gidon Kremer recently performed in Lincoln Center's White Light Festival in a program titled Homage to J.S. Bach. "Kremer's performance of the Bach Chaconne was the wonder of the night," writes The New Yorker's Alex Ross. "Herbert von Karajan once declared that Kremer was the greatest violinist alive; this still seems to be the case. His legendary reading of the Chaconne ... has grown ever deeper with age." Kremer joins the Kremerata Baltica chamber orchestra for a brief European tour starting next weekend.