Tonight at the 92nd Street Y in New York City: The Composer's Voice: John Adams. John Adams will talk with Juilliard dean Ara Guzelimian about his career; his opera Doctor Atomic, which receives its New York premiere at the Met next week; and his new memoir, Hallelujah Junction, just published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux. The program also features "musical illustrations" by mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke, baritone Jordan Shanahan, and pianist Linda Hall.

Audra McDonald and Dawn Upshaw will take the stage at Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles tonight for the Opening Night Gala of the Los Angeles Philarmonic's 2008–09 season, the orchestra's last with conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen at its helm. Audra will sing Sondheim's "There Won't Be Trumpets" and Jule Styne / Sammy Cahn's "10,432 Sheep"; Dawn will perform songs from John Adams's Nixon in China and Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress. The eclectic program also includes selections from Stravinsky's The Firebird.

David Simon, executive producer, writer, and creator of HBO's The Wire, will present a lecture at Hamilton College in Clinton, New York, this afternoon at 4:10 PM in the school's chapel. The lecture, titled "The Audacity of Despair," is free and open to the public. It is sponsored by Hamilton College's Dean of Faculty and hosted by the school's American Studies program. Simon's most recent work for HBO, the mini-series Generation Kill, tells the story of an embedded reporter in Iraq during the initial US invasion of Baghdad in 2003.

With just over four weeks left until election day in the United States, November 4, a number of Nonesuch Records artists will be participating in some very special campaign events. This Monday, k.d. lang will perform at an intimate, in-home fund-raising concert for Obama in New York City with Democratic Vice Presidential nominee, Joseph Biden, and renowned chef Alice Waters. The following evening in New York, composer Ricky Ian Gordon and Tony Award–winning actress Victoria Clark perform at a stellar Obama/Biden fund-raiser at the home of television producer Tom Fontana. On October 10, Brad Mehldau and Chris Thile perform works by Bach as well as their own works at an Obama benefit concert at New York's Poisson Rouge.

The Glass Box, the 10-CD Nonesuch retrospective covering 40 years of the works of Philip Glass, hits stores today, just one day after the New York City Opera announced that it has commissioned the composer to create a new opera on the life of another iconic American figure, Walt Disney. The new work for City Opera will be Glass's 24th opera and will honor his 75th birthday when it premieres in 2012–2013. In the nearer future, City Opera has scheduled Glass's Einstein on the Beach for 2009–2010; it will be the company's first production in its newly refurbished home at Lincoln Center.

Ry Cooder, fresh off his recent performance at the San Jose Mariachi Festival, makes two more rare live appearance this Thursday and Friday when he reconnects with former bandmates Nick Lowe and Jim Keltner for two concerts at San Francisco's Great American Music Hall to benefit the Richard deLone Special Housing Fund. The San Jose Mercury News talks with Ry about this atypically packed performance schedule, part of "an explosion of productivity" that includes the recent release of his I, Flathead and the new Buena Vista Social Club at Carnegie Hall album.

Wilco is encouraging everyone who is eligible to vote in this November's all-important US Presidential election to register now and head out to the polls on Tuesday, November 4. For anyone who pledge to do so, the band is offering a free download of a beautiful, live rendition of Bob Dylan's "I Shall Be Released," recorded in concert with Fleet Foxes this summer. Wilco has also signed on to perform this October at the 22nd annual Bridge School benefit concert organized by Neil Young, with whom Wilco will tour this winter.

The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation has announced this year's recipients of its annual fellowship, often referred to as the "Genius" grant. Dawn Upshaw was named a Fellow last year. Among this year's recipients are violinist Leila Josefowicz, who performs John Adams's Road Movies on the piece's 2004 Nonesuch recording; Walter Kitundu, Kronos Quartet's instrument builder in residence; writer Alex Ross, who will interview Upshaw at the upcoming New Yorker Festival; and SFJAZZ Collective saxophonist Miguel Zenón, who appears on the group's two Nonesuch albums.

Chris Thile, Edgar Meyer, and T Bone Burnett are among the participants at the ninth-annual Americana Music Festival & Conference, getting under way today in Nashville. A highlight of the four-day affair is tomorrow night's Americana Honors & Awards ceremony at Ryman Auditorium, at which Thile, nominated for Instrumentalist of the Year, is scheduled to appear with Edgar Meyer, his partner on a debut duo album and DVD due out on Nonesuch next week. Burnett will participate in the keynote event of the festival's closing day, Saturday.

Congratulations to Sérgio and Odair Assad, whose most recent Nonesuch release, Jardim Abandonado has just been nominated for two Latin Grammy awards: Best Classical Album and Best Classical Contemporary Composition for Sérgio's "Tahhiyya li ossoulina." The ninth annual Latin Grammy Award ceremony will be broadcast live from Houston's Toyota Center, November 13, on the Univision network.

Congratulations to k.d. lang, who was inducted into the Canadian Walk of Fame this past Saturday night in a gala ceremony held at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts in Toronto. Among the other honorees were actor Michael J. Fox, director James Cameron, and the comedy group The Kids in the Hall. Fellow Canadian singer/songwriter Ron Sexsmith introduced k.d., who received a standing ovation.