Robert Plant and The Sensational Space Shifters have announced a tour of the American South for this March. The tour kicks off at the Okeechobee Music & Arts Festival on March 4 and includes additional stops in Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Texas, culminating in a show at ACL Live at Moody Theater in Austin. "I'm always eager to return to the hospitality of the Southern states," Plant said. "Towns and cities that hold fond memories for me personally, places that gave birth to so much of the music I love." Tickets go on sale this Friday, January 15.

Laurie Anderson's Heart of a Dog will receive its HBO premiere on April 25. The film is still playing at theaters across the US, having landed on a number of year's best lists, including those of the New York Times and New York magazine. A unique three-minute version of the film is showing on Times Square's electronic billboards each night this month starting at 11:57 PM as part of Midnight Moments. Hear Laurie Anderson's recent interview with BBC Radio 6 Music's Mary Anne Hobbs here.

A Celebration of American Creativity: In Performance at the White House, with President Barack Obama, First Lady Michelle Obama, and performances from Audra McDonald and a host of fellow artists, premieres on PBS stations across the US tonight at 9 PM ET. The performances commemorate the 50th anniversary of the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act. McDonald's portrayal of Billie Holiday in Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill will premiere on HBO on March 12. She will take part in an all-star tribute to Lena Horne at Symphony Space in NYC this Tuesday and lead two shows at the Leicester Square Theatre in London on January 17. Audra McDonald returns to Broadway in Shuffle Along this spring; previews begin March 15.

The Arcs have written, recorded, and released a new track, "Lake Superior," inspired by the case of Steven Avery examined in the new Netflix documentary Making a Murderer. You can hear it here. "It's like Billy Childish says, 'We live in troubled times,'" writes the band. "Last week, we got a sneak peek at what goes on behind the curtains of our criminal justice system. A few sleepless nights later we gathered in the studio and wrote this song. Written, recorded, mixed and mastered in 2 days." The band has made the track available to download, with proceeds going to the Innocence Project.

Rhiannon Giddens helped ring in the New Year with a performance on Jools Holland's annual Hootenanny. She gives her always show-stopping performance of "Waterboy" and of the Sister Rosetta Tharpe tune "Up Above My Head," from her solo debut album, Tomorrow Is My Turn. The show aired in the UK on BBC Two on New Year's Eve. You can now watch Giddens's two performance here for a limited time. Giddens was a guest on BBC Radio Scotland's Another Country with Ricky Ross in advance of her European tour, which begins later this month.

Nonesuch Records releases Henryk Górecki: A Nonesuch Retrospective, a seven-disc box set containing all of the Nonesuch recordings of Górecki works, as well as the first recording of the late composer's final work, Symphony No. 4, Tansman Episodes, on January 22. That day also brings the first vinyl LP of the 1992 Nonesuch recording of Górecki’s Symphony No. 3. In advance of these releases, the Nonesuch Journal presents a series of related videos, starting today with a 1992 interview with the composer about his beloved Symphony No. 3. Watch it here, and check back in the days ahead for interviews with key players in the recording of Fourth and more.

The line-up for the 2016 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival has been announced, and among the artists performing are The Arcs, St Germain, and Mbongwana Star. Coachella is held at the Empire Polo Grounds in Indio, California, and will take place over two weekends, April 15–17 and April 22–24, with The Arcs performing each Saturday, April 16 and 23, and St Germain and Mbongwana Star performing each Friday, April 15 and 22. Passes go on sale Wednesday, January 6, at 11 AM PST.

As 2015 draws to a close, and the Nonesuch Journal takes a bit of a hiatus till the start of 2016, it's time to take a look back and remember all of the great and diverse music made by Nonesuch artists over the past year. Many Nonesuch artists and their recent Nonesuch releases have made music critics' and fans' year-end best lists. Here, in words and music and in chronological order, is a look back at the year in Nonesuch music.

Laurie Anderson is adapting her new feature film, Heart of a Dog, for Times Square. This unique edition of the film will be shown on Times Square's electronic billboards from 11:57 PM to midnight, January 1–31, as part of the monthly Midnight Moment series. On January 4, Anderson will be on site for a special live performance, joining NYPD canine handlers and their dogs starting at 11:30 PM. The event will be free and open to the public, who are encouraged to bring their own dogs. "I love Times Square," says Anderson. "It's a dream. Desire, speed, the explosions of color, patterns and energy. What a great way to start the New Year! Who could have predicted the unraveling dreams of my dog would be magnified up there like this?"

Brad Mehldau received the Wigmore Medal on Friday, becoming the first jazz musician to do so. Wigmore Hall Director John Gilhooly, presenting the medal at Mehldau's concert at the London hall, said: "Brad Mehldau has forged a unique path which embodies the essence of jazz exploration." His Wigmore concert program last week earned five stars from the Financial Times ("remarkable"), and four stars in the Guardian ("a powerful and thought-provoking gig") and The Arts Desk ("a beguilingly beautiful set").

Israeli composer/musician Shye Ben Tzur was a guest on BBC World Service Weekend. He discusses working on the new album Junun with Jonny Greenwood and the Rajasthan Express. The album was recorded in a makeshift studio inside the 15th-century Mehrangarh Fort in Jodhpur, India, and comprises Ben Tzur’s compositions, which feature devotional Sufi qawwal musicians who sing in Urdu as well as in his native Hebrew. Hear the BBC World Service piece here. Junun is on the Times of London's list of the Best Records of the Year and is up for the 2016 Gilles Peterson Worldwide Awards Album of the Year.

Nonesuch Records releases Michael Daves's two-album set, Orchids and Violence, on February 26, 2016. Orchids and Violence comprises two discs with identical track listings of mostly traditional bluegrass tunes, including songs by bluegrass pioneers Bill Monroe and Ralph Stanley. The first disc features straightforward interpretations recorded in a 19th-century church with a band of roots-music innovators: bassist Mike Bub, violinist Brittany Haas, mandolinist Sarah Jarosz, and Punch Brothers banjoist Noam Pikelny. The second disc was recorded in Daves's home studio and includes bass, drums, and electric guitar, mostly played by Daves, and takes a raw, experimental rock approach to the same old-time material. Pre-orders include an instant download of both the bluegrass and electric versions of the song "The Dirt That You Throw."