The line-up for the 2008 Virginia Arts Festival has been announced, and Audra McDonald is among the featured artists. She'll be at the Sandler Center in Virginia Beach on May 11 as part of the multi-venue festival, which runs April 18–May 26 and includes performers from across the arts, from classical music to theater to dance.

Tomorrow night, Friday, November 9, Laurie Anderson, ever the consummate storyteller, will present a lecture/reading called "Stories About Stories" at the Hudson Valley Community College in Troy, NY. The Albany Times Union recently spoke with her about the reading and her new project, Homeland, which she's been touring across the globe and is now in the studio recording for release on Nonesuch next year. In "Stories About Stories," she tells the Times Union, "I'll be giving away all of my trade secrets. No more mystique. That's it."

Seattle radio station KEXP has added to this week's list of featured new releases David Byrne's "In the Future" from the reissue of Knee Plays. The album—on CD for the first time—hit stores yesterday, complete with the original 13 tracks plus seven previously unavailable instrumental tracks. You can hear a clip of "In the Future" on KEXP.org or visit kneeplays.com to hear more from the album and check out site-exclusive bonus materials.

The 2007 Dance Chicago festival kicked off its monthlong series of events last Friday at the city's Athenaeum Theatre, and according to Chicago Sun-Times dance critic Hedy Weiss, the opening weekend's festivities did not disappoint. Among the program's special events was the world premiere of choreographer Eddy Ocampo's Thwack, in which dancers from the Black Box Dance company performed to the rhythms of music by Steve Reich.

Today, NPR has launched a new multimedia music site at npr.org/music, incorporating content from its national programs and several partner stations' programming. Among the site's features are artist interviews, concerts, and live broadcast streams from the member stations. One special feature is Project Song, which challenges songwriters to write and record a new song in two days. Participants are asked to choose from a stack of images and words and write a song based on one of each. Kicking off the series is The Magnetic Fields' Stephin Merritt, who used the project to create "A Man of a Million Faces."

In this week's Onion, the A.V. Club asks actor Jason Schwartzman to set his iPod to shuffle and comment on what comes up. When he hits Randy Newman's "Living Without You," Schwartzman says: "This might be one of the most beautiful songs ever written."

Richard Goode will be Petroc Trelawny's guest on BBC Radio 3's Music Matters, the station's flagship classical music program, on Saturday, November 3. The two discuss Goode's 45-year career and the joy he finds in collaborating with Dawn Upshaw, with whom he'll perform next week at London's Southbank Centre. Music Matters begins at 12:15 GMT on Radio 3. 

InisdeBayArea.com examines the many ways in which Kronos Quartet has gone well beyond the confines of the traditional string quartet. "We haven't called ourselves a string quartet, I think, in the last 34 years," Kronos violinist David Harrington says. "I remember as a kid looking at the map—and at that point I had only played Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven—and thinking, 'God, what does the rest of the world sound like? I'm going to find out.'"

The Washington Post's Going Out Gurus recommend the best spots in DC for taking in some art after the Smithsonian museums close for the night. The best bet for tomorrow night, November 3, is the opening of Furnishing the Self: Upholstering the Soul, featuring works by David Byrne in homage to the common chair. The multimedia exhibit includes "Macaroni," an embroidered piece on upholstery fabric, pictured at right, and runs through December 22 at the Hemphill Fine Arts gallery, 1515 14th Street NW, Washington, DC. The opening reception will be held Saturday, November 3, from 6:30 PM to 8:30 PM.

All Songs Considered has announced the next show in NPR's Live Concert Series: bluegrass masters Nickel Creek—Sean Watkins, Sara Watkins, and Chris Thile—live from their farewell tour, November 2, at the 9:30 Club in Washington. Boilen calls Thile, whose band Punch Brothers recently signed to Nonesuch, "one of the most amazing mandolin players I've ever heard."

While reports continue to pour in about the show-stealing set by Kronos Quartet and Tom Waits at last weekend's Bridge School Benefit, the group sent in a special backstage photo from the event. Here they are with Tyler, the Bridge School student whose artwork lined the walls of their dressing room to provide some inspiration before the show.

Richard Goode begins his artist residency as Associate Artist at London's Southbank Centre for the 2007-08 season in a November 7 concert with Dawn Upshaw. On the program is Schoenberg's Book of the Hanging Gardens; Berg's Piano Sonata, Op. 1; and songs by Debussy and Wolf. Goode describes working with Dawn as "one of the purest pleasures of my musical life." The two collaborated, notably, on a Nonesuch recording of Goethe Lieder in 1994.