Youssou N'Dour: I Bring What I Love, the documentary film that follows N'Dour as he records and tours with his Grammy-winning 2004 album, Egypt, begins its European theatrical release today in six cities across the Netherlands. After the film's world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival last summer, the Toronto Star described it as "a stirring documentary" that "pulses with life and energy." The film is slated for US release on June 12.

Toumani Diabaté’s The Mandé Variations has been nominated for an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding World Music Album. Audra McDonald was nominated for two acting awards, for her work on the TV series Private Practice and on the TV movie A Raisin in the Sun. President-elect Barack Obama, the subject of many of the works in the Image Awards' literature categories, chose Kulanjan, Diabaté's 1999 collaboration with Taj Mahal, as the only CD on his Borders Shortlist recommending five things to read, watch, and listen to.

"If it's difficult to describe the music that Chris Thile has been making since before he reached puberty, that's just the way he likes it." So says Frank Oteri in his introduction to an interview with Thile for New Music Box. "But even by his standards," Oteri continues, "the projects he's gotten involved with in the past couple of years completely confound expectations." Among those projects are Punch Brothers and its Nonesuch debut, Punch, and his self-titled debut duo record with bassist Edgar Meyer. "Now," Oteri suggests, "everything and anything is possible."

The Recording Academy, the organization behind the Grammy Awards, will honor Elliott Carter and Allen Toussaint with the special Trustees Award during Grammy week in February. The award recognizes outstanding contributions to the industry in a non-performing capacity, as determined by a vote of The Recording Academy's National Board of Trustees. Says Neil Portnow, the Academy's President/CEO, says of this year's recipients: "Their outstanding accomplishments, legendary passion and artistry have positively affected our culture and will continue to influence and inspire generations to come."

Emmylou Harris, a longtime animal lover and advocate, has teamed up with the animal-rights group PETA to record two new and timely public service announcements. Emmylou urges listeners not to keep their dogs chained outdoors, particularly during the bitter cold of winter, and to bring them indoors, as part of the family, for the benefit of both dog and family alike. She also encourages pet owners to spay or neuter their cats and dogs to help ensure that all dogs and cats find the loving homes they deserve.

Leonard Cohen's classic "Hallelujah" has lately become resurgent in the UK pop world as the featured song on the finale of British TV singing contest X Factor. The song has been interpreted, famously, by countless performers, from Bob Dylan to Jeff Buckley to k.d. lang. k.d. recorded the tune for her 2004 Nonesuch debut, Hymns of the 49th Parallel, and it has become a highlight of her live performances, called “downright transcendent” by the Boston Herald and “mesmerizing” by The Guardian. The BBC has put together a multimedia quiz "Do You Know Your Hallelujahs?" testing readers' knowledge of the song's various incarnations.

Nonesuch Records wishes Elliott Carter a very happy 100th birthday today. Birthday concerts are being held across the globe tonight, in New York, London, Amsterdam, Berlin, Helsinki, Vienna, Montreal, and Washington, DC. Among the highlights are the Ensemble Intercontemporain's concert at London's Queen Elizabeth Hall at the Southbank Centre, featuring Pierre-Laurent Aimard, with Pierre Boulez conducting. In New York, the celebration is at Carnegie Hall, with pianist Daniel Barenboim and the Boston Symphony Orchestra, led by James Levine, in a program the Boston Globe called, after its recent Boston premiere, "easily the best Boston Symphony Orchestra concert of the season." An editorial in The Guardian concludes: "As we salute Carter this week, we are hailing a composer who has always been his own man, and whose music is some of the most remarkable and enduring of our time."

Mandy Patinkin begins a two-week residency at Manhattan's Public Theater tonight in honor of the 20th anniversary of his first concert at the esteemed New York City venue. Accompanied by pianist Paul Ford, Mandy will alternate among three different programs, beginning tonight with Dress Casual, featuring music by Rodgers and Hammerstein, Stephen Sondheim, Harry Chapin, and others; Celebrating Sondheim, a journey through the music and lyrics of the legendary composer; and Mamaloshen, an exploration of traditional, classic, and contemporary songs sung entirely in Yiddish.

k.d. lang returns to The Tonight Show with Jay Leno this evening to perform a song from her latest Nonesuch release, Watershed. Also scheduled to appear on tonight's episode are actor Will Smith and Food Network celebrity chef Paula Deen. Coincidentally, Smith recently made Barbara Walters's list of the year's "most fascinating people," a distinction inaugurated in 1993 by, among others, k.d. lang.

Congratulations to Brad Mehldau, who received the prestigious Edison Jazz Music Award (the Dutch Grammy) in the Jazz International category for his latest Nonesuch release, his Trio's Live recording from New York's Village Vanguard. At the ceremony, held at the Frits Philipshall in Eindhoven, Netherlands, on November 28, Brad performed Lennon/McCartney's "Martha My Dear," which the Trio recording on their 2005 Nonesuch album, Day Is Done.

The Glass Box, the new 10-CD Nonesuch retrospective of works by Philip Glass, is recommended in The Republican, out of Western Massachusetts,  among "the more notable box sets" of the year, describing it as "one of the most innovative of this year and certainly one of the most musically fascinating." Glass has also announced the initial line-up for his annual Tibet House Benefit Concert at Carnegie Hall in February. Slated to perform are Vampire Weekend, Patti Smith, and The National.

The Grammy nominations are in, and a big congratulations goes out to the many Nonesuch artists whose work has been recognized by the Recording Academy, the organization behind the awards. Pat Metheny, Bill Frisell, Brad Mehldau, Ry Cooder, Emmylou Harris, Toumani Diabaté, Youssou N'Dour, Stephen Sondheim, Jonny Greenwood, and Isabel Bayrakdarian were all recognized for their recent Nonesuch releases, as were producers Danger Mouse and Judith Sherman for their work on Nonesuch albums this year.