Audra McDonald will bring her Tony Award-winning portrayal of Billie Holiday in Lanie Robertson's musical play Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill to London, making her West End Debut with a nine-week run at Wyndham's Theatre starting June 25, 2016. "London is my second favourite city in the world, and I've always wanted to perform in the West End," McDonald tells the Daily Mail. "I'm just so tickled that it’s finally coming together; and I'm especially thrilled that it’s this particular project." HBO's own presentation of Audra McDonald in Lady Day will premiere on March 12. She performs two concerts in London this Sunday and returns to Broadway this spring in Shuffle Along.

The first recording of composer Henryk Górecki's final work, Symphony No. 4, Tansman Episodes, is out next Friday, January 22, on Nonesuch Records. But you don't need to wait till then to hear it: the album is streaming in full here as an NPR First Listen. "It's an intriguing summation of the sounds of a singular career," says NPR.

Composer Louis Andriessen's six decades of music-making will be celebrated at the Barbican Centre in London with Andriessen: M is for Man, Music & Mystery, a series of concerts, held in Barbican Hall and at Milton Court Concert Hall, February 9–13, 2016. The series features performances of works by Andriessen, including La Commedia, De Stijl, and Rosa's Horses, as well as a conversation with the composer about his life and music.

Shye Ben Tzur, Jonny Greenwood, and the Rajasthan Express, who came together in Jodhpur, India, last year to record the album Junun, will reunite to perform the album in its entirety in the UK for the first time, at Barbican Hall in London on March 11, 2016. Tickets go on sale to Barbican members on Thursday, January 14, and to the general public on Friday, January 15.

Natalie Merchant recently stopped by the NPR studios in Washington, DC, to perform a Tiny Desk Concert for Bob Boilen and the staff at NPR and NPR Music. The intimate set included "Cowboy Romance," from her recent album Paradise Is There: The New Tigerlily Recordings; "Texas," from her 2014 self-titled record; the title song to her album Motherland; and "Weeping Pilgrim," a Protestant hymn covered on The House Carpenter’s Daughter. For that last song, Merchant led the NPR staff in a sing-along for which Boilen suggests viewers "have a tissue handy." See why in the Tiny Desk Concert here. Merchant will join Rolling Stone's Anthony DeCurtis in conversation at NYC's 92nd Street Y on February 10 and tours the US and Europe in March.

The New Orleans City Council has passed a resolution officially declaring Allen Toussaint's birthday, January 14, as Allen Toussaint Day in the City of New Orleans. The resolution was signed by all councilmembers and presented before Toussaint's family and friends. "Our artists and musicians are our ambassadors, as their talents, hard work, and genius creates the culture for which we are internationally known," said New Orleans Councilmember Susan G. Guidry. "Allen served our city as one of our finest ambassadors."

Rhiannon Giddens was the subject of a feature profile on CBS Sunday Morning, looking at her life in music, as a founding member of the Carolina Chocolate Drops; following her show-stopping performance at the Another Day, Another Time concert; and since the release of her Grammy-nominated solo debut album, Tomorrow Is My Turn. "How often can you witness a moment that changes a career?" says Sunday Morning's Martha Teichner of the concert. "Giddens was like a musical explosion onstage. What happened next was like an explosion in her life." Watch it here.

Robert Plant and The Sensational Space Shifters have announced a tour of the American South for this March. The tour kicks off at the Okeechobee Music & Arts Festival on March 4 and includes additional stops in Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Texas, culminating in a show at ACL Live at Moody Theater in Austin. "I'm always eager to return to the hospitality of the Southern states," Plant said. "Towns and cities that hold fond memories for me personally, places that gave birth to so much of the music I love." Tickets go on sale this Friday, January 15.

Laurie Anderson's Heart of a Dog will receive its HBO premiere on April 25. The film is still playing at theaters across the US, having landed on a number of year's best lists, including those of the New York Times and New York magazine. A unique three-minute version of the film is showing on Times Square's electronic billboards each night this month starting at 11:57 PM as part of Midnight Moments. Hear Laurie Anderson's recent interview with BBC Radio 6 Music's Mary Anne Hobbs here.

A Celebration of American Creativity: In Performance at the White House, with President Barack Obama, First Lady Michelle Obama, and performances from Audra McDonald and a host of fellow artists, premieres on PBS stations across the US tonight at 9 PM ET. The performances commemorate the 50th anniversary of the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act. McDonald's portrayal of Billie Holiday in Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill will premiere on HBO on March 12. She will take part in an all-star tribute to Lena Horne at Symphony Space in NYC this Tuesday and lead two shows at the Leicester Square Theatre in London on January 17. Audra McDonald returns to Broadway in Shuffle Along this spring; previews begin March 15.

The Arcs have written, recorded, and released a new track, "Lake Superior," inspired by the case of Steven Avery examined in the new Netflix documentary Making a Murderer. You can hear it here. "It's like Billy Childish says, 'We live in troubled times,'" writes the band. "Last week, we got a sneak peek at what goes on behind the curtains of our criminal justice system. A few sleepless nights later we gathered in the studio and wrote this song. Written, recorded, mixed and mastered in 2 days." The band has made the track available to download, with proceeds going to the Innocence Project.

Rhiannon Giddens helped ring in the New Year with a performance on Jools Holland's annual Hootenanny. She gives her always show-stopping performance of "Waterboy" and of the Sister Rosetta Tharpe tune "Up Above My Head," from her solo debut album, Tomorrow Is My Turn. The show aired in the UK on BBC Two on New Year's Eve. You can now watch Giddens's two performance here for a limited time. Giddens was a guest on BBC Radio Scotland's Another Country with Ricky Ross in advance of her European tour, which begins later this month.