Natalie Merchant performs a benefit concert for the Bard College Conservatory of Music Saturday night. She will be joined by the conservatory orchestra in performing songs from her latest album, Leave Your Sleep, and throughout her career. Merchant will preview the event with an intimate, live "Parlour Session," broadcast on WKZE today at noon. She recently spoke about the Bard event with WAMC, which calls Leave Your Sleep "just plain beautiful."

Jessica Lea Mayfield is in the UK this week, bringing the music of her new album, Tell Me, to the British airwaves—on BBC 6 Music's Marc Riley and Nemone earlier this week, XFM's X-Posure tonight, and BBC Radio 4's Loose Ends on Saturday—and a live in-store performance today in London. Mayfield then returns to the States to launch her extensive US tour, which includes several events at SXSW and has now been extended into May with some 18 new dates added.

Wanda Jackson will be the guest on NPR's World Cafe today, performing songs from her new album, The Party Ain't Over, and talking with host David Dye about recording the album with producer Jack White. Jackson resumes her US tour later this month and will be featured in a new exhibit at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame titled Women Who Rock: Vision, Passion, Power, opening in May.

The work Laurie Anderson created while living in downtown New York City in the 1970s is inextricably linked to the place and time in which it was made. These are the focus of a new exhibit opening today at the Barbican Art Gallery in London titled Laurie Anderson, Trisha Brown, Gordon Matta-Clark: Pioneers of the Downtown Scene, New York 1970s. Anderson will be speaking about her work with Robert Storr, dean of the Yale University School of Art, at the 92nd Street Y in New York City next Thursday.

Nonesuch releases Sleep with One Eye Open, the debut album from mandolin-virtuoso Chris Thile and guitar maven Michael Daves, on May 10. Recorded live to tape over four days at Jack White’s Third Man studio in Nashville, the album is a collection of 16 traditional tunes by bluegrass legends like The Monroe Brothers, The Louvin Brothers, Jimmy Martin, and Flatt & Scruggs. The duo will take their show on the road with a series of dates around the country this spring, including a three-night stand at Rockwood in New York City.

John Adams's music will be front and center at the Toronto Symphony Orchestra's New Creations Festival, which kicks off tonight with a performance of his Harmonielehre and Short Ride in a Fast Machine. The composer makes his TSO debut when he conducts the orchestra in the Canadian premiere of his City Noir on Saturday. Today at noon, Adams hosts a free concert featuring selections from his operas. On Thursday, he gives a free lecture at the University of Toronto.

k.d. lang and the Siss Boom Bang will celebrate the release of Sing it Loud by playing the complete album live at two intimate shows the week the album is released: at the Troubadour in Los Angeles on Monday, April 11, and at (Le) Poisson Rouge in New York City on Thursday, April 14. They will be performing material from Sing it Loud and songs from throughout lang’s career on their North American run, which will keep them on the road into the fall.

As The Low Anthem takes their tour to Canada for shows in Toronto and Montreal, the band's Daytrotter session has been published, with live takes on five songs from their album Smart Flesh. "Without question, Smart Flesh will be a contender for album of the year when it comes to that," says Daytrotter. The band heads next to Boston, where the Boston Globe calls the album "splendid" with "hints of forebears from Bob Dylan to Vic Chesnutt to the Band."

Kronos Quartet and k.d. lang and the Siss Boom Bang will be among the artists performing at this summer's Luminato, the Toronto Festival of Arts and Creativity, this June. The Kronos Quartet Residency at Luminato will feature four concerts, including a free outdoor concert in Toronto's Metro Square, and initiatives with Luminato’s Education and Outreach programs. k.d. lang and the Siss Boom Bang will also perform a free concert in Metro Square.

Steve Reich is at Baylor University in Waco, Texas, today for Reich at 75: The Music and Jewish Faith of Steve Reich, a two-day event presented by the Baylor School of Music and Center for Jewish Studies that will include lectures, a Q&A, and a concert with the composer and the Baylor Percussion Group, all of which are free and open to the public. The celebrations of the composer's 75th birthday continue throughout the year, including the world premiere performance of Reich's WTC 9/11 by Kronos Quartet later this month.

Congratulations to Randy Newman, who won the Academy Award for Best Original Song for "We Belong Together" from the film Toy Story 3. It's second Oscar win. Newman received a Grammy Award for the film's score earlier this month. Nonesuch will release The Randy Newman Songbook Vol. 2 on May 10. On the album, Newman takes a fresh look at both classic and more recent work in new solo recordings of his celebrated songs. He resumes his tour tomorrow night at Strathmore in Maryland and heads to New York City later this week. Watch his Oscar acceptance speech here.

Brad Mehldau's follows the release of his new solo album, Live in Marciac, with a free solo show at the Library of Congress in DC and NYC shows with Chris Thile, Gabe Kahane, Joshua Redman, and Timothy Andres. Mehldau includes Andres's Nonesuch debut album, Shy and Mighty, in his New York Times Playlist, saying it's "not like anything I’ve heard." Mehldau's takes on Radiohead songs, on Live in Marciac and with his trio, are the subject of an NPR Music blog piece, which calls him "the most influential" jazz interpreter of the band's music.