Audra McDonald was recently honored with the 2009 NAACP Theatre Award's Trailblazer Award. Next month, Audra will participate in The Actors Fund's fall 2009 benefit concert titled Chance and Chemistry: A Centennial Celebration of Frank Loesser, to be held on Monday, October 26, at the Minskoff Theater in New York.

Wilco wrapped up its summer tour in Dublin last week, with the US tour picking up again at the University of Iowa October 1. Just three days later, the band will perform at the annual Farm Aid benefit concert, which, DIRECTV has just announced, will be broadcast live and in HD exclusively on its The 101 Network. DIRECTV will also match donations from its customers up to $50,000 to support Farm Aid in its efforts to support family farms.

Bill Frisell's Disfarmer features music inspired by the work of the late photographer Michael Disfarmer. Chuck Helm, the Director of the Performing Arts at the Wexner Center in Columbus, Ohio, first introduced the guitarist to Disfarmer’s work hoping for such a result. Frisell tells the Columbus Dispatch, in an article about the local connection, "Your imagination can really go far with any of them ... There are so many stories."

Wilco is on the road in Europe, but US fans are getting some close-up time as well: a feature profile of the group is slated to air on CBS Sunday Morning this weekend. With the Europe tour closing next week in Dublin, Jeff Tweedy spoke with the Irish Times about the joys of making music, concluding: "Music is part of your life, and it enriches your perspective and appreciation for being alive."

After taking Europe by storm earlier this summer, Ry Cooder and Nick Lowe have announced a month-long tour through Japan, Australia, and New Zealand for late this year, beginning November 4 in Nagoya, Japan, and winding up in Perth, Western Australia, December 1. As he did on the European tour, Ry's son Joachim Cooder will join the tour on drums, and singer Juliette Commagere will return as special guest vocalist.

The Low Anthem, after having spent the greater part of the year touring with acts like Elvis Perkins in Dearland, Joe Pug, Ray Lamontagne, Josh Ritter, and Langhorne Slim in support of its Nonesuch debut, Oh My God, Charlie Darwin, is gearing up for yet another stretch on the road, this time with the Portland group Blind Pilot. This run of 21 club and theater dates runs from October 15 through November 12 and includes the band's West coast debut.

John Adams's latest opera, A Flowering Tree, described by The New Yorker as "one of the most lush and beautiful of his works," receives its New York premiere as part of Lincoln Center's Mostly Mozart festival tonight. The composer, the festival's artist-in-residence, conducts. He'll lead the International Contemporary Ensemble in an all-Adams program there next week.

Philip Glass is one of five recipients of the Opera News Awards, announced last week. He is the only composer to be recognized this year; fellow honoree Gerald Finley originated the role of Robert Oppenheimer in John Adams's Doctor Atomic. Original music by Glass will be featured in the Shakespeare in the Park production of The Bacchae, which opens in previews tonight in New York's Central Park. The composer will receive his first-ever BBC Prom at London's Royal Albert Hall tomorrow night, with Gidon Kremer performing his Violin Concerto.

David Byrne is the subject of a recent profile in the The Times in anticipation of this weekend’s UK performances at the Edinburgh Playhouse and the Big Chill Festival, the last on his year-long world tour. The article also discusses Byrne’s new book, Bicycle Diaries, describing it as “a disconnected travelogue recording his cycle journeys around various cities," and his Playing the Building installation at London’s Roundhouse.

"You Never Know," off Wilco's latest release, Wilco (the album), has made its way to No. 1 on the Triple-A radio chart, a career first for the band. Wilco first appeared on the chart with "Outtasite (Outta Mind)" off 1996's Being There. That album, along with the band's two other '90s releases, Summerteeth and A.M., are now being reissued on vinyl, for the first time, by Nonesuch.

To mark the release of Shawn Colvin's new Live album earlier this summer, Nonesuch Records teamed up with Martin Guitar to give away a brand-new X-Series guitar, signed by Shawn. The winner: Ms. Megan Crotty, who says of her connection with Shawn's music, "It was love at first listen. I love her unique voice. That, combined with the music and lyrics makes her one of my favorites." Three runners-up were awarded a signed copy of the new Live CD.

Youssou N'Dour spoke with Al Jazeera about the many facet of his life and career, as musician, actor, activist, and UNICEF ambassador. The interview looks at his latest efforts, to combat malaria in Africa through the distribution of mosquito nets, and using the power of his music to spread that message and the one in Egypt, his 2004 album dedicated to Sufi Islam. I Bring What I Love, the film that documents the making of that album, opens in six more cities today.