David Byrne will curate 2015’s Meltdown Festival at Southbank Centre in London, August 17–28. Previous directors include Laurie Anderson, Patti Smith, David Bowie, Yoko Ono, Ray Davies, and Ornette Coleman. "This is going to be exciting," says Byrne. "I plan to invite performers I've seen—and I do get out—and others I've missed or have dreamed of seeing." The line-up will be announced in the coming months. 

Rhiannon Giddens, whose debut solo album, Tomorrow Is My Turn, was released yesterday on Nonesuch Records to critical acclaim, celebrated the record's release with a performance of the song "Waterboy" on CBS's Late Show with David Letterman last night. "Oh my god," Letterman exclaimed following the performance. "Oh my god, that was unbelievable." Watch for you yourself here. "Tomorrow Is My Turn confirms the arrival of a significant talent whose voice and distinctive approach communicate the simmering emotion at the core of the songs," says the Wall Street Journal. "Thus, she may prove indispensable."

Punch Brothers recently stopped by the CMT studios for a Live @ CMT session, performing what CMT Edge calls a "sparkling" set of four songs off their new album, The Phosphorescent Blues: “Julep,” “Magnet,” “I Blew It Off,” and “Boll Weevil.” You can watch the performances here. The band was featured on NPR's World Cafe yesterday. They spoke with host David Dye, who calls them "some of the very best acoustic musicians anywhere," and performed three songs from the new album: "I Blew It Off," "Magnet" and "Boll Weevil."

Today marks the release of Rhiannon Giddens' solo recording debut, Tomorrow Is My Turn. She makes her solo television debut when she performs "Waterboy" from the album on CBS’s Late Show with David Letterman tonight. The album, produced by T Bone Burnett, "is a showcase for Ms. Giddens’s glorious voice," says the New York Times. "For all her technical control, her voice is a perpetually soulful marvel." NPR calls it "a scrupulously selected, richly realized collection of songs." Rolling Stone dubs her "one of the most promising voices in American roots music." The Sunday Times of London says she "manages to tap into the emotional core of everything she touches." The Irish Times exclaims: "This is one seriously impressive debut album."

Punch Brothers were the musical guests on Conan last night on TBS, performing "Magnet" from their new album, The Phosphorescent Blues. They were also the musical guest on a special episode of A Prairie Home Companion on Saturday, guest-hosted by none other than Chris Thile. Watch performances from both shows here. And tune in to NPR's World Cafe today to hear the band perform. 

Congratulations to John Adams, Chris Thile, and Edgar Meyer, all winners at the 57th Grammy Awards, held in Los Angeles last night. Adams's City Noir won the Grammy Award for Best Orchestral Performance for the St. Louis Symphony and conductor David Robertson, featuring saxophonist Timothy McAllister. Thile and Meyer's duo album, Bass & Mandolin, won the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Instrumental Album. 

Tigran Hamasyan has unveiled an animated video of the song "Kars 2 (Wounds of the Centuries)," off his new album, Mockroot. The video, which premiered on Les Inrocks, was created by his sister, Melanya Hamasyan. You can watch it here. The song was written about the town of Kars, the ancestral home of Hamasyan's maternal grandparents, a place that became part of Turkey in the years that followed the Ottoman genocide of Armenians during the First World War.

Carnegie Hall has announced its 2015–16 concert season, and featured among the performers taking the esteemed hall's stages are a number of artists familiar to readers of the Nonesuch Journal, including Brad Mehldau, Ry Cooder, Kronos Quartet, Timo Andres, Jeremy Denk, and Audra McDonald, as well as the New York premiere of a new work by John Adams.

Rhiannon Giddens has announced her first solo tour for the spring. The shows begin March 28 at the Big Ears Festival and continue through June, with stops in cities and at festivals along the way, including NYC, Chicago, LA, and the Bonnaroo Music Festival. Giddens makes her solo television debut performing “Waterboy” from her new album, Tomorrow Is My Turn, on CBS’s Late Show with David Letterman on the album's release day, February 10.

Punch Brothers, the Evening Standard noted in a four-star review of their recent London show, "sounded as sharp as they looked." All the rarer then to find the band dressed casually in a new video that goes behind the scenes of the writing of their new album, The Phosphorescent Blues, which you can watch here. The band previews their forthcoming tour as musical guests on A Prairie Home Companion this weekend, guest-hosted by none other than Chris Thile. Following Rolling Stone's recent exclamation that "Punch Brothers are astoundingly skilled, non-show-offy, and pretty much pushing at the vanguard of really great music you need to listen to right now," PopMatters calls their new album "another triumph for the quintet." No Depression calls it "tremendous," explaining: "These are, after all, five of the most dexterous, creative, imaginative musicians working in any area of music today."

Buena Vista Social Club’s Lost and Found is due March 23 from World Circuit Records. Coming almost two decades after the release of the original Grammy-winning, self-titled LP, the new album is a collection of previously unreleased tracks—some of which were recorded during the original album’s sessions in Havana and others from the years that followed. The studio tracks on Lost and Found were recorded at the 1996 Egrem studio sessions in Havana and during a period of rich and prolific creativity stretching into the early 2000s. Lost and Found also features live recordings from the world tours of Buena Vista’s legendary veterans. The album is available to pre-order with an instant download of the album track "Macusa."

Nonesuch Records releases The Staves' Justin Vernon–produced label debut, If I Was, in the US on March 31, 2015 (vinyl follows April 21). The Staves are three sisters originally from Watford, England: Emily (vocals), Jessica (vocals, guitar), and Camilla (vocals, ukulele) Staveley-Taylor. The album was recorded at Vernon's Eau Claire, Wisconsin, studio where he also recorded his 2012 self-titled Bon Iver album. Watch a short film about the making of the album here. If I Was is available to pre-order on iTunes and in the Nonesuch Store, with an instant download of the album tracks "Blood I Bled" and "Black & White." Plans for a North American tour will be announced shortly.