Devendra Banhart and Rokia Traoré kick off Explorations: The Sound of Nonesuch Records, the Barbican's month-long celebration of Nonesuch Records' 50th anniversary, sharing an "unplugged" evening featuring recent and past material, at the Barbican Hall in London on Friday, May 2, 2014. Tickets are on sale now. Explorations: The Sound of Nonesuch Records includes a marathon weekend of concerts, May 17-18, and additional satellite events throughout the month of May.

There are just two weeks to go before the release of Nickel Creek's new album, A Dotted Line, on April 1. The band previously unveiled two tracks from the album, "Destination" and "Love of Mine," and has now revealed a third, "21st of May," which you can hear here. Sean Watkins wrote the song on May 20, 2011, the day before the supposed rapture as predicted and advertised by Bay Area pastor Harold Camping, whose point of view he sings it from. Download all three tracks now with album pre-orders in the Nonesuch Store, at nickelcreek.com, and on iTunes. All Nonesuch and Nickel Creek pre-orders are also automatically entered to win weekly prize drawings.

Pianist Jeremy Denk has been named the 2014 Avery Fisher Prize recipient for his outstanding contributions to the music world and his artistic excellence. As the recipient of this honor, Denk receives a monetary award of $75,000. On a marble plaque in Avery Fisher Hall, his name will join the 21 previous Prize recipients, including Richard Goode and Kronos Quartet. Denk has also been named the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra's newest Artistic Partner, marking Denk's first appointed position with an orchestra; his tenure will begin in the 2014–15 season.

Mehliana: Taming the Dragon, the debut album from the electric duo of Brad Mehldau and Mark Guiliana, released late last month on CD and digitally, is now available on vinyl. Mehldau and Guiliana have been performing for several years, with Mehldau playing Fender Rhodes and synthesizers and Guiliana on drums and effects, as they are on the record. Mehliana comprises 12 original tunes—six written by the duo and six written by Mehldau—and was engineered and mixed by Greg Koller (Jon Brion, Kanye West). The vinyl edition includes two 140-gram LPs pressed at Pallas MFG in Diepholz, Germany, and a CD of the album. 

Nonesuch Records releases Caetano Veloso’s album Abraçaço in North America next Tuesday, March 25. But you don't need to wait till then to hear it: the album is streaming in full via WNYC's Soundcheck. "Abraçaço, (which means “big hug”) is not some subdued, late-career exercise in nostalgia or retrospection," asserts Soundcheck host John Schaefer. KCRW, also streaming the album, calls it Veloso "at his best." You can download two album tracks, "A Bossa Nova É Foda" and "Um Abraçaço," when you pre-order the album in the Nonesuch Store.

Timo Andres is the subject of the latest episode of Q2 Music's Q2 Spaces, which looks inside the homes and studios of composers and performers in the new-music world. Andres welcomes viewers into his Brooklyn home for a conversation about Beethoven, Ingram Marhsall, Edward Gorey, and much more. Watch it here. He gives the world premiere of a new piece, Work Songs, in New York City this Wednesday as part of the Ecstatic Music Festival. Andres wrote the piece especially for fellow composers and multi-instrumentalists Gabriel Kahane, Ted Hearne, Becca Stevens, and Nathan Koci, who will perform it in the concert. The concert will be hosted by WNYC’s John Schaefer and webcast live on Q2 Music.

Nonesuch releases composer Clint Mansell’s score to visionary filmmaker Darren Aronofsky’s film Noah on March 25, 2014. Directed by Aronofsky, the film will be released on March 28. Russell Crowe stars as Noah in the film inspired by the epic story of courage, sacrifice, and hope. The cast stars Jennifer Connelly, Ray Winstone, Emma Watson, Logan Lerman, and Anthony Hopkins. The score is performed by Kronos Quartet, joined by Patti Smith for her song "Mercy Is." An orchestra and choir are led by Matt Dunkley, who was also the principal orchestrator and arranger. The album was produced by Clint Mansell and Geoff Foster and is available to pre-order in the Nonesuch Store.

Natalie Merchant will be joined by The School of Life Founder and philosopher Alain de Botton for an evening of conversation and music at Shoreditch Town Hall in London on Thursday, May 15. The two will discuss the inspirations for the songs on her new, self-titled album, due May 5 on Nonesuch Records, and Merchant will offer a selection of live musical illustrations. Merchant will perform two sold-out concerts in London in May and join fellow Nonesuch artists for a sold-out concert there later that month.

Audra McDonald was a special guest on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on NBC last night. The five-time Tony Award winner stopped by the studio to help Fallon out on a Suggestion Box request to give voice to some sage Yahoo! Answers in her own inimitable way. Watch the segment here. McDonald returns to Broadway this spring to take on the role of legendary jazz singer Billie Holiday in Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill. Tickets are on sale now.

Nonesuch celebrates Kronos Quartet, long known as interpreters of music from around the world, in its 40th anniversary year with two releases: Kronos Explorer Series, a box set of five classic albums from five different parts of the world, and A Thousand Thoughts, a new album that looks at Kronos’s geographically wide-ranging sources, featuring music from 14 different countries. Both will be available on April 8, 2014 (international release April 21), and are available to pre-order in the Nonesuch Store; pre-orders of A Thousand Thoughts include an instant download of Sim Shalom, which you can hear here. Kronos continues its anniversary celebration with UCLA concerts on March 14 and 15, and a Carnegie Hall concert on March 28.

Nonesuch releases composer Jacob Cooper’s label debut, Silver Threads, on April 29, 2014. The album comprises a six-song cycle performed by soprano Mellissa Hughes. Cooper wrote the title track for Hughes in 2011, setting a haiku attributed to Japanese poet Matsuo Bashō for voice and electronic track. To expand it into a full cycle (for voice and track), he enlisted five other poets to write text inspired by the haiku. Nonesuch Store preorders include an instant download of the title track. Hughes performs selections from Silver Threads in NYC as part of her March 20 Lincoln Center American Songbook concert. 

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, is out now on Blu-ray and DVD from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. Both formats include "Inside Inside Llewyn Davis," a 40-minute making-of documentary offering insights from the filmmakers, cast, crew, and musicians, and are available now in the Nonesuch Store.