In the "excellent" Nonesuch release of Nico Muhly’s opera Two Boys, recorded live at the Metropolitan Opera, the piece “emerges quite wonderfully, confirming the arrival on the operatic scene of a mature and striking new compositional voice,” raves Opera magazine. “The opera is a work of great insight and compassion, with principal themes that loom large in the modern world,” says the magazine. “The eclectic score is deeply affecting … [Muhly’s] lyrical gifts glow brightly … The choral writing is marvelous; most memorably, the chorale that closes the opera leads the music onto an exquisitely rarefied plain.” The review concludes: “the CD is very strongly recommended.”

Congratulations to Boyhood, winner of four Critics Choice Movie Awards: Best Picture, Best Director for Richard Linklater, Best Supporting Actress for Patricia Arquette, and Best Young Actor for Ellar Coltrane, who, as Mason, the titular boy, literally grows up on screen over the 12 years the film was shot. The Critics’ Choice Movie Awards are bestowed annually by the Broadcast Film Critics Association (BFCA) to honor the finest in cinematic achievement. The winners were announced last night, live from the Hollywood Palladium, in a show broadcast live on A&E.

Congratulations to Boyhood, which has been nominated for six Academy Awards: Best Picture; Best Director and Best Original Screenplay, Richard Linklater; Best Supporting Actor, Ethan Hawke; Best Supporting Actress, Patricia Arquette; and Best Editing, Sandra Adair. Congratulations as well to Inherent Vice, which received Oscar nominations for Best Adapted Screenplay for Paul Thomas Anderson, after the Thomas Pynchon novel, and Best Costume Design, Mark Bridges. The soundtracks for both films are out now on Nonesuch Records.

The Black Keys have been nominated for a BRIT Award for International Group. The BRIT Awards 2015 ceremony will take place at London's O2 Arena on Wednesday, February 25, broadcast live in the UK on ITV. The band is up for three Grammy Awards this year, including Best Rock Album for Turn Blue. 

Singer-songwriter Olivia Chaney has unveiled the first new music, the song "Imperfections," from her forthcoming Nonesuch Records debut album. You can hear it here. Details on the album and pre-order information are coming soon. Chaney will visit select cities in the US and Canada starting February 4.

The line-up for the 2015 Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival has been announced, and included are three artists familiar to readers of the Nonesuch Journal: Robert Plant, Punch Brothers, and Rhiannon Giddens. The four-day festival takes place in Manchester, Tennessee, and runs June 11–14. Tickets go on sale this Saturday, January 17, at noon ET.

Another Day, Another Time: Celebrating the Music of "Inside Llewyn Davis" is out now on Nonesuch Records. The two-disc collection captures a one-night-only concert held at New York City’s Town Hall in 2013 to celebrate the music of the Coen brothers film Inside Llewyn Davis, featuring live performances by icons and rising stars of folk and Americana. They sang "in pitch perfect tone that left an oft-awestruck audience silently stunned," says the Los Angeles Times, "then vocally thrilled." The Independent on Sunday says it's "as excellent as you would expect with surprising collaborations and stately performances breathing new life into old songs and old fire into new ones."

Punch Brothers have released a new song, "My Oh My," from their forthcoming, T Bone Burnett–produced album, The Phosphorescent Blues. The song is available as an instant download with pre-orders of the new album, which is due out January 27, with the vinyl to follow on February 24. Listen to the song, as well as the two other instant-download tracks, "I Blew It Off" and Julep," here. Punch Brothers kicks off a brief tour of Ireland and the United Kingdom next week.

Nonesuch Records, which released the soundtrack to Richard Linklater's film Boyhood last year, has now digitally released two additional songs written specifically for the movie by Ethan Hawke: “Split the Difference (Daddy’s Lullaby),” performed by Hawke and Charlie Sexton, and “Ryan’s Song,” performed by Hawke with Ellar Coltrane, Lorelei Linklater, and Jennifer Tooley. “When Rick [Linklater] and I decided to make my character a songwriter," Hawke told the Hollywood Reporter, "he gave me the challenge to write some songs for the movie. We didn’t know at that time whether they would be in the movie or not, but it allowed me to take some time and get into character … If it had been a normal movie I never would have been able to come up with two songs, but I had 12 years!” 

Rhiannon Giddens's take on "Black Is the Color," from her forthcoming solo debut album, Tomorrow Is My Turn, is featured on NPR Music's Songs We Love. On the new album, "Giddens takes songs strongly linked to iconic female performers ... and somehow comes out owning them," says World Cafe host David Dye. On "Black Is the Color," often linked to Nina Simone, "Giddens celebrates and soars. She's confident in her instincts and her abundant talent, and she should be."

London-based singer-songwriter Olivia Chaney, who is currently touring Australia, will soon take the tour to North America. Chaney will visit select cities in the US and Canada in advance of the release of her Nonesuch Records debut album, starting at the World Café Live in Philadelphia on February 4, followed by stops in New York City, Brooklyn, Cambridge, Toronto, Chicago, Minneapolis, Seattle, and Los Angeles. Stay tuned for details of Olivia Chaney’s forthcoming Nonesuch Records debut album and pre-order information coming soon.

Pianist Tigran Hamasyan, whose new album, Mockroot, is due soon, is among the "Musicians You'll Tell Your Friends About in 2015," according to NPR Music's Ann Powers. Hamasyan's "startling combinations of jazz, minimalist, electronic, folk and songwriterly elements ... beckon listeners with a magical kind of openness," she says. "On Mockroot, his Nonesuch debut, Hamasyan and his collaborators travel musical expanses marked with heavy grooves, ethereal voices, pristine piano playing and ancient melodies." Powers concludes: "You'll hear nothing else like this album in 2015."