Caroline Shaw and Sō Percussion have released a video of "To the Sky," a track from their new album, Let the Soil Play Its Simple Part, performed live. You can watch the video, directed by Maureen Towey and filmed at Bok in Philadelphia, here. "'To the Sky' quietly awakens with gentle humming and a softly rumbling marimba," writes NPR Music's Tom Huizenga. "Gradually the song blooms, and near the end Caroline Shaw's voice bursts open in pure radiant sunshine. It's another stunning moment in the career of the composer." The new album "showcases Shaw's flexible voice—clear as a mountain stream, flowing with expression in many directions."

Rhiannon Giddens spoke with WNYC's Radiolab for its miniseries The Vanishing of Harry Pace and with NPR's Radio Diaries for its feature "The Rise and Fall of Black Swan Records," both about the groundbreaking life of Pace, who, a century ago, founded Black Swan Records, the first major Black-owned record company, and launched the careers of Ethel Waters and Louis Armstrong, and what happened next. "This period—basically between emancipation and the Harlem Renaissance—it is the key to our American character," Giddens says.

Emmylou Harris and the Nash Ramblers' Ramble in Music City: The Lost Concert, due September 3 on Nonesuch, features the 1990 Nashville debut of the acoustic all-star group—Sam Bush, Roy Huskey Jr., Larry Atamanuik, Al Perkins, Jon Randall Stewart—at the Tennessee Performing Arts Center (TPAC). The concert was recorded and shelved until now, when it has been unearthed and will be released for the first time. The set features entirely different songs from the band's acclaimed live album At the Ryman, with music by A.P. Carter, Rodney Crowell, Ruth Franks, the Louvin Brothers, Doc Pomus, Paul Simon, Townes Van Zandt, and Harris herself. Nonesuch Store pre-orders include an exclusive print autographed by Harris, while they last. You can watch the band's 1993 Austin City Limits performance of the track “Roses in the Snow” here.

Composer Sarah Kirkland Snider has shared a video for "Gloria" from her album Mass for the Endangered. The video by CandyStations, aka Deborah Johnson—the fifth video in the series for the album from Johnson—can be seen here; a special interactive version, made with Louise Lessél, is also available.

Composer and pianist Frederic Rzewski, whom music critic Mark Swed once called "the greatest pianist-composer of our time," has died at the age of 83. Emerging in the 1960s with the improv collective Music Elettronica Viva, the expatriate American composer spent his entire career apart from what he described as the “elitist contemporary music establishment,” and established his own unique compositional style in which improvisation and composition are inextricably linked. In 2002, Nonesuch Records released Rzewski Plays Rzewski: Piano Works 1975-1999, a seven-disc, 25-year retrospective of his piano-based work with new recordings performed by the composer.

Let the Soil Play Its Simple Part, an album of songs written and performed by Caroline Shaw and Sō Percussion, is out now.With Shaw on vocals and Sō filling out this new band, they developed songs in the studio, with lyrics inspired by their own wide-ranging interests: James Joyce, the Sacred Harp hymnal, a poem by Anne Carson, the Bible's Book of Ruth, the American roots tune "I'll Fly Away," ABBA's "Lay All Your Love on Me," and more. To coincide with the album's release, the artists have released a video of them performing their take on the ABBA tune; you can watch it here.

k.d. lang and country artist/songwriter Orville Peck release "Miss Chatelaine (Iron Hoof Remix)" on Nonesuch Records today, for Pride Month. After working on makeover, her new collection of classic dance remixes from 1992 to 2000, k.d. lang reached out to country artist/songwriter Orville Peck to remix her 1992 hit "Miss Chatelaine." The result "marries his music with my own beautifully," she says. "I wanted to give him total creative freedom to do whatever he wanted with it and now I’m thrilled with the end result." "I've always been such a huge fan of k.d.'s," Peck says. "Not only is she a queer icon but an incredible musician who blazed a lot of trails. I was so honored when she asked me to remix the song and couldn't wait to put my own spin on it."

Jeremy Denk’s Mozart Piano Concertos will be released September 17 on Nonesuch Records. Denk is joined by The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra for two Mozart concertos—No. 25 in C Major, K. 503 and No. 20 in D minor, K. 466—bookending the composer’s solo Rondo in A minor, K. 511. The second movement from K. 466, the Romance, is available now.

Rhiannon Giddens has announced the first two of four planned picture books she will publish with Candlewick Press and the Walker Books Group. Representing her publishing debut and showcasing the illustrative talents of emerging Black artists Monica Mikai and Briana Mukodiri Uchendu, the new picture books—Build a House (2022) and We Could Fly (2023)—will extend her artistic project to young readers and their families. "I'm so excited to get to explore a different way to tell the stories I’ve been trying to highlight with my songs and my music," Giddens says. 

Congratulations to David Byrne’s American Utopia, which will receive a Special Tony Award for the 2019–2020 Broadway season. Special Tony Awards are presented to outstanding productions, artists, and organizations that do not fall into any of the competitive categories. This year's two other recipients are the anti-racism advocacy organization Broadway Advocacy Coalition and the show Freestyle Love Supreme. The 74th Tony Awards will be presented on Sunday, September 26, on Paramount+.

Chris Thile has released a new video of him performing "Dionysus," a song from his new solo album, Laysongs, filmed live in Brooklyn. You can watch the video, made by Benjamin Miller, here. Thile has two solo concerts in upstate New York this weekend, with more shows ahead this summer and a fall tour to come.

The Black Keys have released a new video of the band performing "Going Down South," from their new album, Delta Kream, live from Dan Auerbach's Easy Eye Sound Studio in Nashville this past spring. Auerbach and drummer Patrick Carney are joined by Kenny Brown on guitar and Eric Deaton on bass, both long-time members of the bands of blues legends including R.L. Burnside and Junior Kimbrough. You can watch it here.