New York's Azart Gallery presents its inaugural show, "The Many Faces of Kin (←→)," an exhibition that celebrates the release of Pat Metheny’s newest recording on Nonesuch Records, due out next week, and offers a glimpse into the evolution and execution of the album cover art by its designers at Doyle Partners. The exhibition opens with a reception for the artists tonight and continues through February 15. 

Carolina Chocolate Drops kick off a months-long US tour at the Charleston Music Hall tonight, with a new lineup: co-founder Rhiannon Giddens, multi-instrumentalist Hubby Jenkins, and two new members, cellist Malcolm Parson and multi-instrumentalist Rowan Corbett. The tour makes stops across the Southeast through March, up into the Northeast starting in the spring, then back South for MerleFest and more. Giddens recently gave a show-stopping performance at a star-studded Everly Brothers tribute in LA, where she "mesmerized the crowd" (LA Times) and "delivered a knockout punch" (Hollywood Reporter).

Gidon Kremer and his Kremerata Baltica chamber orchestra begin a rare, six-city US tour at the 92nd Street Y's Kaufmann Concert Hall in NYC tonight, followed by performances at Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco, Stude Concert Hall in Houston, Hill Auditorium in Ann Arbor, Harris Theater in Chicago, and Ordway Center in St. Paul. The tour program features works by Weinberg, Pärt, Britten, and Shostakovich, including his satiric comic opera Antiformal Rayok, with bass Alexei Mochalov.

Carnegie Hall has announced its 2014–15 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 Jeremy Denk, Richard Goode, Gidon Kremer, Kronos Quartet, and Audra McDonald, as well as an all–Steve Reich program and the New York premiere of a work by Jonny Greenwood.

Congratulations to Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell, winners of the Grammy Award for Best Americana Album of the Year for their duets album Old Yellow Moon. Crowell accepted the award on behalf of the artists in yesterday's pre-telecast ceremony at the Nokia Theatre L.A. Live. Watch his backstage thank-you message here. The duo resumes their US tour in South Carolina on Friday. Congratulations also to David Frost, who received the Grammy Award for Classical Producer of the Year for work including composer/pianist Timo Andres's album Home Stretch.

Inside Llewyn Davis, the new film by Joel and Ethan Coen, is now playing in theaters across the UK, earning five-star reviews from the Times of London, Telegraph, Guardian, and Time Out. "From the moment Llewyn Davis sings the folk ballad 'Hang Me, Oh Hang Me' in a spotlit halo of smoke in the Gaslight Café in downtown New York in 1961, you know you are going to love this movie," exclaims the Times. "Llewyn finds succour in the music and so do we, because it’s glorious." Says the Telegraph: "The film is wildly accomplished; moving and rich and funny and exhilarating in a way that leaves you prickling from toes to scalp. It’s an instant fixture on the Coens’ A-list, which is no small compliment." 

Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriters Shawn Colvin and Steve Earle announce a special run of tour dates together this March: “Songs and Stories, Together Onstage,” in which they share the stage for a night of song swapping, duets, storytelling, and guitar playing. These two longtime friends and mutual admirers will share music from their extensive catalogues as well as some of their favorite songs by other classic songwriters. The tour kicks off outside Pittsburgh on March 18, followed by stops in Bethlehem, Indianapolis, Atlanta, Troy, Boston, Philadelphia, Durham, Nashville, and Richmond.

The Barbican's 2014 marathon weekend, May 17 and 18, will celebrate Nonesuch Records in the label's 50th anniversary year. Entitled Explorations: The Sound of Nonesuch Records, this curated weekend of events includes five concerts taking place in LSO St Luke's, Guildhall School's new Milton Court Concert Hall, and the Barbican Hall, with performances from Jonny Greenwood, Kronos Quartet, Brad Mehldau, Timo Andres, Sam Amidon, Natalie Merchant, Rhiannon Giddens, Olivia Chaney, and others performing works by Greenwood, Mehldau, Andres, Steve Reich, John Adams, Philip Glass, Frederic Rzewski, Henryk Górecki, Donnacha Dennehy, and more. Satellite events will include Kronos at 40 (May 13) and Jeremy Denk (May 24) with further events to be announced.

The schedules for the Ojai Music Festival, held in Ojai, June 12–15, and Ojai North, presented by Cal Performances at Berkeley, June 19–21, have now been announced. Both festivals feature a broad-ranging program, reflecting the musical mind of this year's Music Director, Jeremy Denk, and including the premiere of a comic opera with libretto by Denk, and multiple performances from Denk and his fellow pianist and Nonesuch artist Timo Andres. Watch Denk discuss some of the Ojai programming here.

Iron and Wine, whose Nonesuch Records debut album, Ghost on Ghost, was named one of the Best New Releases of 2013 by Uncut, kicks off a US tour with a performance in Austin on Saturday to celebrate the first anniversary of KUTX; also performing are Neko Case and Thao & The Get Down Stay Down. Iron and Wine's tour continues at the Ann Arbor Folk Festival (also with Case) next week, followed by a benefit for the Old Town School of Folk Music in Chicago; stops in Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina; and a six-city tour of Florida. The music continues into the spring with a show in Hawaii and festival sets in Georgia and Delaware.

Mehliana: Taming the Dragon, the debut album from the electric duo of Brad Mehldau and Mark Guiliana, is due out from Nonesuch Records on February 25, 2014. During a Mehliana show at Largo in LA last fall, the duo performed songs from the album, including "Just Call Me Nige," a video of which you can now watch here. The duo performs at the Highline Ballroom next Wednesday, January 22. Mehliana: Taming the Dragon is available to preorder on CD and vinyl (due March 18) in the Nonesuch Store with an instant download of the album track “Hungry Ghost.” 

Tools for Peace, a national educational non-profit of which singer-songwriter k.d. lang is a board member, has created "Stop, Breathe & Think," a free app for iPad and iPhone, to guide people of all ages and backgrounds through meditations for mindfulness and compassion. "I would like to believe that through this free app," says lang, “meditation can become a natural part of our everyday lives. It’s simple to use and has the ability to reach far and wide, from children riding buses to school to teenagers just hanging out to business leaders in countries around the world."