Wilco's Glenn Kotche and John Stirratt joined Neil Finn and members of Radiohead for an Oxfam benefit concert at Dingwalls in London last night; the Daily Telegraph gives it a perfect five stars. It stemmed from Finn's new 7 Worlds Collide album, on which Wilco performs. Kotche recently spoke with LiveDaily about the new Wilco album; the Lexington Herald-Leader picks the track "You Never Know" as a song that will forever conjure the summer of 2009.

Steve Reich & Musicians' performance capped off a marathon concert at Lincoln Center's newly renovated Alice Tully Hall Tuesday night for the Hall's Opening Nights Festival. Starting the concert off was Alarm Will Sound, followed by Bang on a Can All-Stars with Glenn Kotche, whose Mobile the New York Times describes as a "bright-edged, vigorously syncopated" piece. The Times says Reich and his ensemble gave "a supple account" of the composer's Music for 18 Musicians, "a pivotal work in Mr. Reich’s canon and a score that helps define the boundary between Minimalism and post-Minimalism."

Steve Reich, Glenn Kotche and Bang on a Can All-Stars, and Alarm Will Sound help celebrate the opening of Lincoln Center's spectacularly revamped Alice Tully Hall Starr Theater with a marathon evening of performances titled New York, New Music, New Hall tonight. Kotche and Bang on a Can give the New York premiere of his piece Mobile, and Steve Reich & Musicians with Synergy Vocals perform Reich's Music for 18 Musicians. It's all part of the Center's two-week Opening Nights Festival to inaugurate the new space.

"Glenn Kotche is not your average rock-and-roll percussionist," says the Chicago Sun-Times in its review of Glenn's joint concert on Tuesday with new-music ensemble eighth blackbird at Chicago's Harris Theater. The paper calls the performers "kindred musical souls," mild in temperament, perhaps, but "as fierce as any garage band or chamber players hurtling through a late Beethoven string quartet." Chicagoist's editors faced a conundrum in deciding how to spend their Tuesday night but "realized just how foolish we would be to pass up" what was "a stellar performance" with "a jaw dropping solo rendition of 'Monkey Chant' by Kotche" and, ultimately, "a truly remarkable evening."

Glenn Kotche joins Kronos Quartet at the Ravinia Festival's Martin Theatre in Highland Park Wednesday night for the Chicago premiere of Anomaly, a piece he wrote for the Quartet. Also included on the program from Kronos are a number of Chicago premieres, including that of John Adams's Fellow Traveler. The Chicago Sun-Times recommends the event, calling the Kotche-Kronos pairing "a collaboration waiting to happen," given the group's ever-adventurous search for new works outside the typical string-quartet mold and the drummer's own diverse musical interests.

Kronos Quartet returns to Tanglewood this Thursday, coincidentally just two days after label mates Wilco. Highlights of the program include works by Sigur Rós, John Zorn, and Steve Reich. The Boston Globe's David Weininger spoke with Kronos's David Harrington about the Quartet's vital role in the creation of new music and asserts: "They essentially created their own avant-garde." Weininger concludes: "Harrington's musical curiosity remains undimmed after 35 years."

Steve Reich and Glenn Kotche will be among the artists celebrating the unveiling of the re-imagined Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center in New York during the two-week Opening Nights Festival, February 22 through March 8, 2009. On March 3, each will take part in New York, New Music, New Hall, a marathon event of new and seminal works. Kotche will join Bang on a Can All-Stars for the NY premiere of one of his compositions, and Steve Reich & Musicians and Synergy Vocals come together for the composer's groundbreaking 1976 work Music for 18 Musicians. Also on the bill is Alarm Will Sound.

Bill Frisell and Glenn Kotche will be on hand in Cincinnati, Ohio, this week as the third annual MusicNOW festival, organized by native son Bryce Dessner of The National, gets under way at Memorial Hall tonight. Kotche performed in the inaugural MusicNOW in 2006 and returns this Friday to perform with Dessner and Bang on a Can on a double bill with Dirty Projectors. Frisell makes his MusicNOW debut tomorrow night.

The schedule for the 2008 Ravinia Festival has been announced, and among the 150 events to be held during its run this summer will be performances by Punch Brothers (July 21), The Gipsy Kings (August 2), and Kronos Quartet featuring Glenn Kotche (September 3). Kronos Quartet perform John Adams's Fellow Traveler, which they recently premiered at Carnegie Hall's Zankel Hall, and will give the Ravinia premiere of Glenn Kotche's Anomaly, with Glenn joining the Quartet for the event.