In a ceremony held at Manhattan's Hudson Theater last Tuesday, Laurie Anderson was awarded the esteemed Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize. Named in memory of the early-film era stars, each year, the prize honors “a man or woman who has made an outstanding contribution to the beauty of the world and to mankind’s enjoyment and understanding of life.” Here is a transcript of Laurie Anderson's acceptance speech from the event.

On October 25 and 26, Glenn Kotche and Kronos Quartet premiered Glenn's new piece for quartet and percussion, Anomaly, at the San Francisco Jazz Festival. Last month, we brought you the notes Glenn wrote for the program, in which he describes the very personal inspiration for the new work. Here, in a note he's written exclusively for the Nonesuch Journal, Glenn shares some insights into the process of composing, rehearsing, and performing a brand new piece during what was already a year of non-stop touring for Wilco, and for Kronos as well.

Mandolinist and member of Punch Brothers Chris Thile, Nonesuch President Bob Hurwitz, and Senior Vice President David Bither talk baseball.

Caetano Veloso has written an article about Brazilian artist Hélio Oiticica for the current issue of TATE ETC., the magazine of the Tate Gallery in London.

Sufjan Stevens offers his take on the classic Joni Mitchell tune "Free Man in Paris" on the recent Nonesuch release A Tribute to Joni Mitchell. "No other songwriter of her generation captured voice, tone, and point-of-view quite as precisely," says Stevens in an essay on his Asthmatic Kitty blog. "Some of her best songs embark on the persona of conversation, capturing the voice of the people she observed around her."

John Adams has written an essay for The Guardian about his new opera, A Flowering Tree. The composer reflects on working with director and co-librettist Peter Sellars and discusses the influence of Mozart on the piece.

David Byrne has been listening to an advance copy of Caetano’s new CD, Cê. "It’s another radical shift of direction for him," he reports. "This time I guess you could say it’s an immersion in the land of experimental indie rock. And it’s probably the best indie rock record to come out this year. He may disagree with that categorization, but though not completely accurate it gives some idea what the record sounds like."

By David Byrne
David Byrne reports from the Ruhr Triennale, A Century of Song, in Duisburg, Germany.

By Glenn Kotche
Glenn Kotche offers a first-person account of his 12 hours at the 2006 Bang on a Can Marathon in New York City.

By David Byrne
"There are those who mourn the vanishing of the nice big cardboard packages that vinyl came in," writes David Byrne. "The usual assumption is that much of this imagery, like music videos, is a reflection of, and extension of, the music creator’s sensibility. As if the packaging and the videos were usually under the direct control of the author. This is absurd."