In honor of groundbreaking American composer Terry Riley’s 80th birthday, Nonesuch Records releases One Earth, One People, One Love: Kronos Plays Terry Riley—a five-disc box set of four albums of his work composed for, and performed by, his longtime friends and champions Kronos Quartet—as well as the individual record Sunrise of the Planetary Dream Collector: Music of Terry Riley, today (July 10 outside of North America). You can take a quick look inside the box in a new video here. "All of the pieces," says the Independent, "are, typically, timeless." Kronos continues the celebration with its Terry Riley Festival this weekend at the SFJAZZ Center in San Francisco.

In honor of groundbreaking American composer Terry Riley’s 80th birthday, Nonesuch Records releases One Earth, One People, One Love: Kronos Plays Terry Riley—a five-disc box set of four albums of his work composed for, and performed by, his longtime friends and champions Kronos Quartet—as well as the individual record Sunrise of the Planetary Dream Collector: Music of Terry Riley, on June 23, 2015 (July 10 outside of North America). Riley and Kronos met more than 35 years ago, and since then, the quartet has commissioned 27 works from him, more than from any other composer in the group’s history. Pre-orders include an instant download of the piece G Song, which you can hear here. Kronos Quartet continues its celebration of its friend with the KRONOS PRESENTS: Terry Riley Festival, June 26–28 at the SFJAZZ Center in San Francisco.

The winners of the Songlines Music Awards 2015 have been announced, and among them are Kronos Quartet, which has won for Cross-Cultural Collaboration of the Year for its 40th anniversary release A Thousand Thoughts, and Toumani and Sidiki Diabaté, who were named Best Group of the Year for their father-son duo kora album, Toumani & Sidiki, released on World Circuit Records.

Cal Performances at the University of California, Berkeley, has announced its 2015–16 concert season, the organization's 110th, which will feature performances from artists and works by composers familiar to readers of the Nonesuch Journal: Kronos Quartet, Orquesta Buena Vista Social Club, Youssou N'Dour, John Adams, Timo Andres, and Jacob Cooper.

The Big Ears Festival 2015, which took place in Knoxville, Tennessee, late last month, was the subject of a feature profile on PBS NewsHour on Friday. The piece looks at how the festival "breaks barriers for open-minded music lovers," not least from performers like this year's artists in residence, Kronos Quartet, and their fellow Nonesuch artists to perform at Big Ears, Rhiannon Giddens, Laurie Anderson, Sam Amidon, and Tyondai Braxton. Kronos's David Harrington and Giddens talk with NewsHour about this idea and how it manifest itself in their own music. You can watch the piece here.

The 2015 Big Ears Festival takes place in Knoxville, Tennessee, this weekend including performances from artists-in-residence Kronos Quartet, Laurie Anderson, Rhiannon Giddens, Sam Amidon, and Tyondai Braxton. Big Ears is held in venues throughout downtown Knoxville. Click here for a schedule of the Nonesuch artists' events at this weekend's festival. 

Robert Plant, Kronos Quartet, and Toumani & Sidiki Diabaté have been nominated for Songlines Music Awards. Plant’s label debut, lullaby and… The Ceaseless Roar, and Kronos Quartet's 40th-anniversary release A Thousand Thoughts are nominated for Cross-Cultural Collaboration of the Year. Kora master Toumani Diabaté and his son Sidiki are up for Best Group of the Year for their album Toumani & Sidiki. All of these albums were included among Songlines' Best Albums of 2014. Songlines will release a compilation album featuring all nominated artists. Winners will be announced on May 1.

Carnegie Hall has announced its 2015–16 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 Brad Mehldau, Ry Cooder, Kronos Quartet, Timo Andres, Jeremy Denk, and Audra McDonald, as well as the New York premiere of a new work by John Adams.

The Kronos Quartet/Kronos Performing Arts Association has announced a new commissioning initiative—Fifty for the Future: The Kronos Learning Repertoire. Beginning in the 2015/16 season, it will commission a collection of 50 new works—ten per year for five years—devoted to the most recent approaches to the string quartet, designed expressly for the training of students and emerging professionals. The works will be commissioned from an eclectic group of composers—25 men and 25 women, including label mate Rhiannon Giddens. Carnegie Hall, lead partner in the project, has named Kronos Quartet holder of the Richard and Barbara Debs Creative Chair for the 2015/16 season; Kronos will perform at Zankel Hall and lead a week-long workshop with three young quartets in April 2016.

The initial line-up for the 2015 Big Ears Festival has been announced, and featured among the performers are several Nonesuch Records artists: Laurie Anderson, Rhiannon Giddens, Sam Amidon, and Kronos Quartet, the festival's artists-in-residence for 2015. Big Ears will be held in downtown Knoxville, Tennessee, March 27–29, 2015, at the historic Tennessee and Bijou Theatres, the intimate Square Room, the Knoxville Museum of Art and more. Weekend passes go on sale Friday, November 14, at 12pm ET.

Songlines has announced its list of the Best Albums of 2014, and featured in that top ten are three albums familiar to readers of the Nonesuch Journal: Robert Plant's label debut album, lullaby and... The Ceaseless Roar; Kronos Quartet's A Thousand Thoughts, which led Songlines to call the group "one of the musical marvels of our ages"; and Toumani and Sidiki Diabaté's Toumani & Sidiki, about which the magazine says: "Every note in this rich tapestry of strings is exquisitely calibrated in the pursuit of perfection." 

Kronos Quartet has been named Artists-in-Residence at the 2015 Big Ears Festival, which will be held in downtown Knoxville, Tennessee, March 27–29, 2015. Throughout the festival weekend, Kronos will weave an array of performances, presenting classic contemporary works and a multi-faceted array of musical collaborations with other festival artists. A limited number of specially priced Big Ears weekend passes go on sale tomorrow, October 8. The initial Big Ears Festival 2015 lineup will be unveiled on Tuesday, November 4, with passes going on sale November 7.