Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) has announced two one-night-only April concert events featuring Nonesuch artists Carolina Chocolate Drops with Twyla Tharp (April 10) and Emmylou Harris on her Wrecking Ball Tour with Daniel Lanois, Steven Nistor, and Jim Wilson (April 12). These two shows serve as precursors to BAM’s larger celebration of Nonesuch’s 50th anniversary this fall (the full slate of fall shows will be announced shortly). BAM has fostered a longtime artistic connection with Nonesuch and its dedication to cultivating outstanding talent in a wide variety of musical genres.

Composer Steve Reich is the winner of the 2013 BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in the Contemporary Music category. The jury citation describes how the American composer has developed "a new concept of music, based on the use of realist elements from the realm of daily life and others drawn from the traditional music of Africa and Asia." The jury notes: "Steve Reich has carved out new paths, fostering a dialogue between popular and high culture and between western modernity and non-European traditions, and achieving a rich combination of complexity and transparency.” 

Musician-activist Natalie Merchant has directed a short documentary film titled SHELTER: A Concert Film to Benefit Victims of Domestic Violence that shines light on a group of women living in the Mid-Hudson region of New York State responding to the crisis of domestic violence in their community with compassion and creativity. Musicians, advocates, criminal prosecutors, victims and survivors all take to the stage, illuminating the darkness surrounding this public health epidemic. Shelter was inspired by One Billion Rising, a global campaign calling for an end to violence against women. Watch the film here.

Nonesuch Records releases Caetano Veloso’s album Abraçaço in North America on March 25, 2014. The album, which was released in 2012 in South America and Europe, won a Latin Grammy for Best Singer-Songwriter Album. Abraçaço is the final installment of a trilogy with the youthful trio of 2007’s Cê and 2009’s zii e zie known as the Banda Cê. A fusion of the traditional Tropicália style and the indie pop of contemporary Rio, Abraçaço includes 11 original songs written by Veloso. Nonesuch Store pre-orders include instant downloads of the album tracks "A Bossa Nova É Foda," which you can hear here, and "Um Abraçaço." A US tour, which includes a September 21 Hollywood Bowl show with Andrew Bird and Devendra Banhart, will be announced at a later date.

k.d. lang makes her Broadway debut in the new musical After Midnight as Special Guest Star vocalist beginning this Tuesday, February 11, and continuing through Sunday, March 9, 2014. After Midnight, which celebrates Duke Ellington’s years at the Cotton Club using his original arrangements and performed by a big band of 17 musicians hand-picked by Wynton Marsalis, began performances last fall with Fantastia in the role, reintroducing the Cotton Club's tradition of welcoming stars in limited engagements throughout the musical's run. The New York Times says the show is "hot, sweet, and altogether glorious." New York magazine calls it "pure joy ... an unmitigated pleasure."

Chris Thile kicks off a month-long US solo tour with two performances in Arizona this weekend, followed by stops in Santa Barbara, San Francisco, Davis, Santa Monica, Nashville, and Dallas. Thile then joins fellow mandolinist Mike Marshall for three Pacific Northwest duo shows before he and his fellow Punch Brothers tour together in March. Tickets for several recently announced Nickel Creek concerts this spring are on sale now.

Kronos Quartet kicks off Kronos: Under 30 / #5 World Premiere, four concerts at Z Space in San Francisco tonight through Sunday, featuring the world premiere of Bombs of Beirut, a new work written for the Quartet by Mary Kouyoumdjian. The young composer was selected from among nearly 400 applicants for this year’s Kronos: Under 30 Project, a commissioning and residency program founded a decade ago to support the creation of new music and develop lasting artistic relationships with the next creative generation. 

Kin (←→), the first album from Pat Metheny Unity Group—Chris Potter, Antonio Sanchez, Ben Williams, and Giulio Carmassi—is out now on Nonesuch Records. The album was released in the UK yesterday to critical acclaim, earning four-star reviews across the board from Jazzwise, Mojo, Evening Standard, Q, BBC Music, Financial Times, Record Collector, and Hi-Fi News. "Like the best of Metheny's oeuvre," says Mojo, "it takes guitar-led improvisation to new aesthetic levels," with his "eloquent guitar etching a kaleidoscope of sonic hues."

Inside Llewyn Davis, the new film written and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen and starring Oscar Isaac, Carey Mulligan, John Goodman, Garrett Hedlund, and Justin Timberlake, will be released on Blu-ray and DVD on March 11, 2014, from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. Both will include "Inside Inside Llewyn Davis," a 40-minute making-of documentary offering insights from the filmmakers, cast, crew, and musicians, and are available to pre-order now in the Nonesuch Store.

Emmylou Harris’s groundbreaking album Wrecking Ball will be reissued April 8 on Nonesuch Records. Produced by Daniel Lanois, Wrecking Ball won the 1996 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album and was highly praised by critics worldwide. The new three-disc set features the remastered original album, a bonus CD of previously unreleased material, and a DVD of the behind-the-scenes documentary Building the Wrecking Ball. The album is available to pre-order in the Nonesuch Store. Harris and Lanois will embark on an international tour this spring, including shows at The Wiltern in Los Angeles, The Vic in Chicago, and the Lincoln Theatre in Washington, DC. 

The Grammy Award–winning, multi-platinum selling trio Nickel Creek—Chris Thile (mandolin/vocals), Sara Watkins (fiddle/vocals), and Sean Watkins (guitar/vocals)—officially reunites for the first time since its 2007 self-described “indefinite hiatus” with a US tour this spring and summer, with shows in Nashville, New York, Boston, Washington, Chicago, and Oakland, as well as at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival. A limited ticket pre-sale will begin Tuesday, February 4, at 10 AM local time at nickelcreek.com. Tickets will go on sale to the general public beginning Friday, February 7. Further information about a forthcoming Nickel Creek album and more on the tour will be announced shortly. You can hear a sneak peak of the album track “Destination” here.

Pat Metheny Unity Group, featuring woodwind player Chris Potter, longtime collaborator Antonio Sanchez on drums, Ben Williams on bass, and multi-instrumentalist Giulio Carmassi, kicks off a world tour at Jackson Academy Performing Arts Center in Jackson, Mississippi, tonight; its debut album, Kin (←→), is out this week. The tour continues in North America for the next two months, followed by a two-month European tour in the spring.