The schedules for the Ojai Music Festival, held in Ojai, June 12–15, and Ojai North, presented by Cal Performances at Berkeley, June 19–21, have now been announced. Both festivals feature a broad-ranging program, reflecting the musical mind of this year's Music Director, Jeremy Denk, and including the premiere of a comic opera with libretto by Denk, and multiple performances from Denk and his fellow pianist and Nonesuch artist Timo Andres. Watch Denk discuss some of the Ojai programming here.

CBC Music has published its list of the Top Albums of the Year, and featured among them are four albums released on Nonesuch Records in 2013: Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell's Old Yellow Moon (Best Singer-Songwriter Album), Jeremy Denk's recording of Bach's Goldberg Variations (Best Classical Album), and Rokia Traoré's Beautiful Africa and Bombino's Nomad (Top 5 World Music Albums).

Jeremy Denk spoke with PBS NewsHour's Art Beat correspondent Jeffrey Brown about his new recording of Bach's Goldberg Variations and its companion DVD with video "liner notes" of Denk demonstrating passages on the piano as he explains certain details of the iconic piece. In their conversation, Denk describes the Variations as "one of the most beautiful music lessons in history." Watch the NewsHour segment here. Jeremy Denk joins the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra for two concerts this weekend.

Jeremy Denk was featured on NPR's All Things Considered this weekend. He spoke with host Arun Rath about J.S. Bach's Goldberg Variations and his new recording of it. "The piece is kind of about invention and imagination," says Denk. "In another way, it's like the biggest jazz riff ever written. It's endlessly funny in some ways and endlessly moving in other ways."

Congratulations to Audra McDonald, whom Musical America has named Musician of the Year, and to Instrumentalist of the Year Jeremy Denk. The Musical America Awards recognize artistic excellence and achievement in the arts and will be presented in a ceremony at Lincoln Center in New York City on December 17.

Pianist Jeremy Denk was a guest on WNYC's The Leonard Lopate Show yesterday. He talks about his latest Nonesuch release, a recording of J.S. Bach's Goldberg Variations, and performs from the piece. "I think of Bach as this really generous spirit," Denk says, "encompassing all of humanity's possibilities in a more perfect way than most humans are able to. For me, this piece has an incredible geniality and charm and invention, and then these moments of tremendous pathos." Listen to the interview and performance here.

Jeremy Denk's new recording of J.S. Bach's Goldberg Variations, has earned the top spot on the Billboard Traditional Classical Albums chart. The album, released late last month in the US and is now available internationally, includes a companion DVD with video “liner notes,” in which Denk demonstrates passages on the piano as he explains certain details of the iconic piece. The Wall Street Journal recently praised Denk's performance on the album as "gorgeously and insightfully played" and the DVD as "the kind of fresh thinking of which we can never have too much." 

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."

Jeremy Denk has written a brief personal history for this week's issue of The New Yorker, the Money Issue. In the piece, his third for the magazine, Denk shares a story from early in his career. He is also featured on the latest edition of The New Yorker's Out Loud podcast, discussing his new recording of Bach's Goldberg Variations. The album includes video "liner notes," about which Tom Moon writes in Medium: "After hearing him speak with such precision about the details of the work, it’s an absolute delight to hear him use so much of his personality—his poise and exacting sense of order, his restraint leavened by a childlike peering-around-corners curiosity—to bring Bach to life."

Today marks the North American release of pianist—and newly minted MacArthur Fellow—Jeremy Denk’s recording of J.S. Bach’s Goldberg Variations, with the international release to follow on October 21. A companion DVD accompanies the album and contains video “liner notes,” with Denk demonstrating passages on the piano as he explains certain details of the iconic piece. Denk is currently touring the US and will perform the piece in Washington, DC, and Chicago later this month.

Congratulations to pianist and writer Jeremy Denk, who has been named a MacArthur Fellow. Denk was among the 24 new MacArthur Fellows for 2013, selected by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. The annual fellowship, often referred to as the "Genius" grant, offers an unrestricted award of $625,000, paid out over five years, to individuals working in diverse fields and often across multiple disciplines. Watch Denk discuss his work and the fellowship in a MacArthur Foundation video here.

Pianist Jeremy Denk's recording of J.S. Bach's Goldberg Variations, is due out in the US September 30 (October 21 internationally). But no need to wait till then to hear it. The album is streaming in full all this week as an NPR First Listen. "Whether this is your first encounter with this epic work or the 30th (40th? 50th?) version you've heard," says NPR Music's Anastasia Tsioulcas, "once you've entered the Denkian dimension, you won't want to leave."