Nonesuch Records congratulates Steve Reich, who has been awarded the 2009 Pulitzer Prize in Music for his piece Double Sextet. The piece received its world premiere on March 26, 2008, at the University of Richmond, in Richmond, Virginia, in a performance by the ensemble eighth blackbird, which commissioned it. The Pulitzer citation calls Double Sextet "a major work that displays an ability to channel an initial burst of energy into a large-scale musical event, built with masterful control and consistently intriguing to the ear." Reich has also been nominated for the 2009 Classical BRIT Awards Composer of the Year Award, for Daniel Variations.

Emmylou Harris is among a select group of leaders in the sciences, the humanities and the arts, business, public affairs, and the nonprofit sector to be elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, one of the nation’s most prestigious honorary societies and a center for independent policy research. The scholars, scientists, jurists, writers, artists, civic, corporate and philanthropic leaders includes Nobel laureates and recipients of the Pulitzer and Pritzker prizes, MacArthur Fellowships, Academy, Grammy, and Tony awards, and the National Medal of Arts.

Nonesuch Records has signed North Carolina–based trio the Carolina Chocolate Drops, a young string band in the centuries-old Piedmont banjo and fiddle musical tradition. The group’s members—Dom Flemons, Rhiannon Giddens, and Justin Robinson—all trade duties as singers and swap instruments, too. The band, which has toured continuously since its formation in 2005, has several US concert dates this spring before taking a summer sabbatical, during which Giddens is expecting her first child. They will resume touring in the fall; their label debut is scheduled for early 2010.

Youssou N'Dour and global non-profit IntraHealth International have teamed up with Indaba Music to launch a global remix contest, featuring Youssou's song "Wake Up (It’s Africa Calling)," from his most recent Nonesuch release, Rokku mi Rokka (Give and Take). Artists like Duncan Sheik, Nas, and R.E.M.'s Peter Buck have donated remixes of the song to raise funds for the IntraHealth OPEN initiative, which provides health workers in developing countries with the latest open-source software technologies. Now, the same tracks used by those artists are being made available to the global music community on Indaba, an online music collaboration tool, allowing fans to rework the song themselves.

Audra McDonald returns to the stage in this summer's Shakespeare in the Park production of Twelfth Night. Audra, a four-time Tony winner, is making her Public Theater debut in the role of Olivia, joining a stellar cast that includes Oscar nominee Anne Hathaway, who stars as Viola, and Raúl Esparza, star of the 2007 Broadway revival of Stephen Sondheim's Company. The show, directed by Daniel Sullivan, will run June 10–July 12 at the Delacorte Theater in New York's Central Park.

David Byrne will open the 2009 season of Celebrate Brooklyn!, one of New York City's longest running, free, outdoor concert series, with a free concert ($3 suggested donation) in Brooklyn's Prospect Park Bandshell the night of Monday, June 8, its organizers have announced. The series, which has offered free concerts in the Park since 1979, launches its first-ever Opening Night Green Gala, preceding the concert, to support the festival's programs and its efforts to present more environmentally responsible events, including the first-ever large-scale bike parking area at a cultural event in New York.

To mark the start of National Poetry Month, Steve Reich will join a diverse array of noteworthy public figures, including musicians, actors, and writers, among others, at Lincoln Center's newly remodeled Avery Fisher Hall tonight to read their favorite poems by some of America's best-loved poets. Among those scheduled to read along with Reich are Joan Baez, Mia Farrow, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Chip Kidd, Wynton Marsalis, and Zadie Smith. Proceeds from the event, titled Poetry & The Creative Mind, benefit the Academy of American Poets and will help provide free classroom materials to more than 200,000 schools across the US this month.

Nonesuch Records is pleased to announce the signing of Rhode Island–based trio The Low Anthem. Later this spring, the label will release an updated version of the band’s album Oh My God, Charlie Darwin, which had a limited but critically praised independent release late last year. Rolling Stone says the music on Charlie Darwin feels “homemade” and “solemnly beautiful,” and NPR Music called the song “To Ohio” a “tender stunner” in choosing it as a Song of the Day, saying, “At times languid and haunting, but with detours into Tom Waits-esque stomping and hollering, The Low Anthem’s music seems equally informed by Simon & Garfunkel, Bob Dylan, The Band and a late-night ride home in Joni Mitchell’s car.”

Laurie Anderson presented the award for Outstanding Achievement in Music Composition at the Cinema Eye Honors this past Sunday night. Last fall, while on tour with her new performance piece, Homeland, Laurie participated in the Art, Technology, and Culture Colloquium at the University of California, Berkeley. As part of the event, Laurie joined the series curator, Berkeley professor Ken Goldberg, for an hourlong discussion, the audio portion of which is now available online at the Berkeley Art Museum's site. The Museum says Homeland "includes songs and stories that create a poetic and political portrait of contemporary American culture."

k.d. lang joins fellow Canadians Feist, Diana Krall, and (by marriage) Elvis Costello in presenting at Canada's Juno Awards this Sunday. k.d. has also been nominated as both the Artist of the Year and Producer of the Year for her 2008 Nonesuch release, Watershed. Also this weekend, k.d.'s North American tour takes her to California and Nevada. Her recent Portland, Oregon, performance led The Oregonian to exclaim: "There are a lot of good singers out there. kd lang is a great one." London's National Portrait Gallery might agree, having named k.d. among the Gay Icons in its exhibit of that name, opening this summer, which also includes David Hockney, Harvey Milk, Walt Whitman, Tchaikovsky, and Nelson Mandela.

Rokia Traoré, Toumani Diabaté, and Amadou & Mariam have all been nominated for the inaugural Songlines Music Awards, recognizing outstanding talent in world music. Diabaté and Traoré are each nominated for Best Artist, Amadou & Mariam for Best Group. Winners will be chosen by the Songlines editorial team and announced in May. The WOMAD festival, the Awards' co-presenter, will host a live event with a selection of the nominees at WOMAD Charlton Park in July, where Traoré and label mate Oumou Sangare are scheduled to perform.

Emmylou Harris and Kate and Anna McGarrigle will be among the artists celebrating the legendary singer-songwriter Pete Seeger, in honor of his 90th birthday, at a special Madison Square Garden concert event, Sunday, May 3. All proceeds will go to the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, the organization Seeger co-founded in 1966 to fight pollution on New York's longest river. Also on stage will be the honoree himself, along with a diverse line-up of artists, including Bruce Springsteen, Eddie Vedder, Joan Baez, Ani DiFranco, Steve Earle, Ben Harper, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, and many more.