Desdemona, Rokia Traoré's theatrical collaboration with director Peter Sellars and novelist Toni Morrison, receives its NY premiere at Lincoln Center's Rose Theater tonight and tomorrow as part of the White Light Festival. The New York Times describes it as "an interactive narrative of words, music and song about Shakespeare’s doomed heroine, who speaks to the audience from the grave about the traumas of race, class, gender, war—and the transformative power of love." The Los Angeles Times calls it "astonishing ... a great, challenging, haunting and lasting work."

Stephen Sondheim is due to receive the Handel Medallion, New York City's highest award for achievement in the arts, from Mayor Michael Bloomberg in a ceremony for the Mayor's Awards for Arts & Culture held this evening at Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall. Sondheim is due to receive the 2011 Chicago Tribune Literary Prize for lifetime achievement in an event at the Chicago Humanities Festival this weekend. His second book of collected lyrics, Look, I Made a Hat, is due out later this month.

The results of the 76th annual DownBeat Readers Poll have been announced, and topping the list for Jazz Album of the Year is Brad Mehldau's solo CD/DVD Live in Marciac. Mehldau was also named the year's Best Pianist. Joining him among DownBeat readers' favorites are two Nonesuch artists with whom Mehldau has collaborated: Pat Metheny, named Best Guitarist, and Joshua Redman, named Best Tenor Saxophone. “There is no recording more befitting the title of Jazz Album of the Year than Brad Mehldau’s Live in Marciac," says DownBeat. "He is setting a new standard.”

The line-up for the 2012 American Songbook series from Lincoln Center has been announced, and among the artists performing are mandolinist Chris Thile and guitarist Michael Daves. The duo will perform songs from their debut album, Sleep with One Eye Open, at The Allen Room in Frederick P. Rose Hall, overlooking New York's Central Park, on Thursday, January 12. Tickets are go on sale to the general public on November 14. Friends of Lincoln Center will be given early access on November 3. 

Perhaps you've heard The Black Keys' new single, "Lonely Boy," off their forthcoming album, El Camino? Perhaps you'd like to hear it again? Why not? Listen again here. Rolling Stone, which gives the song four stars, calls it "a swift, sturdy hunk of all-American cool.” Stereogum says it's “a fired-up rager with a surf-inflected central riff and a jumpy, restless organ … It’s a seriously catchy, energetic song.” VH1 says it's "as raw and infectious as anything the Black Keys have ever produced, possessing that rare, uncanny quality that crawls under your skin, breathing life into otherwise inert parts of your body, making you move in ways that are both spectacular and completely organic."

Nonesuch Records releases jazz pianist Brad Mehldau’s Art of the Trio Recordings: 1996–2001 on December 6, 2011. The set includes the five original Art of the Trio albums (the fifth volume includes two CDs), released over a prolific four year period from 1997 to 2001; a seventh disc of previously unreleased material from shows at the Village Vanguard completes the box. These recordings feature Mehldau’s longtime trio with bassist Larry Grenadier and drummer Jorge Rossy. New liner notes by Bad Plus pianist Ethan Iverson include interviews with all three trio members.

As Björk's fully sold-out Biophilia residency in Reykjavik continues, we are happy to announce that one lucky fan has won a trip for two to the closing-night performance on November 7. Congratulations to Justin Allan from Seattle! The Wall Street Journal's Speakeasy blog, reviewing the show, says Björk "gave a commanding performance ... sharing the joy of a magical evening." The Onion's A.V. Club says that "the mix of concert and performance art was easily summarized: stunning." The New York Times calls the larger Biophilia project "among the most creative, innovative and important new projects in popular culture."

As you may have heard, The Black Keys’ new album El Camino will be released December 6 on Nonesuch Records. But no need to wait till then to hear some brand new music off the album. You can listen to “Lonely Boy,” the first single off of El Camino, today! Get a first listen of "Lonely Boy" in the video here. And be sure to pre-order the album from the Nonesuch Store now to get an instant download of the song.

Randy Newman will play three UK concerts as part of a European tour in February and March 2012 to coincide with the release of the CD/DVD album package Randy Newman: Live in London in November. The tour includes dates in Gateshead, Glasgow, and London, as well as cities in Belgium, Ireland, Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark and Switzerland.

Malian duo Amadou & Mariam are featured in the first installment of a video interview series from difrent.org, a new website dedicated to promoting music and culture as a means for social change. They talk with the site's founder, musician/activist Stephan Said, about the roots of social change in Malian music and how the universal language of music can break down barriers all over the world. "We have always sung for social change," says Amadou. Watch the interview here.

Laurie Anderson's new exhibition, Forty-Nine Days in the Bardo, made its debut at the Fabric Workshop and Museum in Philadelphia last month. The exhibition, which runs through November 19, uses the structure of a diary and The Tibetan Book of the Dead to explore the themes of love and death, the many levels of dreaming, and illusion. Anderson gave a talk at the museum titled "Animal Stories," an excerpt of which you can watch here, along with a video in which she walks viewers through the exhibition.

Alarm Will Sound will be the Artists-in-Residence at the third annual Mizzou New Music Summer Music Festival, held in July at the University of Missouri. Eight composers from around the world will be selected through a portfolio application process to compose a work to be performed by Alarm Will Sound. The application deadline is November 1. Donnacha Dennehy will be a guest composer, participating in discussions and master classes.