St. Louis Symphony performs John Adams’s new Saxophone Concerto ... Shawn Colvin, Mary Chapin Carpenter resume duo tour in Midwest ... Jeremy Denk gives solo recitals in upstates New York ... Richard Goode is in Copenhagen ... Emmylou Harris returns to Hardly Strictly Bluegrass with Rodney Crowell and in Kate McGarrigle tribute ... Gidon Kremer, Kremerata Baltica perform in Germany ... k.d. lang sings at LA's Hammer Museum gala ... Audra McDonald sings in Queens ... Brad Mehldau, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra give US premiere of new Mehldau piece ... Natalie Merchant joins New Jersey Symphony Chamber Orchestra ... Orquesta Buena Vista Social Club is in Atlanta ... Joshua Redman tours Europe ... Chris Thile performs solo out West ... Rokia Traoré brings Beautiful Africa to Réunion ... Sara Watkins plays in Southern California ... and more ...

Brad Mehldau joins the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra for the US premiere of his Variations on a Melancholy Theme, which he says sounds “as if Brahms woke up one day and had the blues." Also on the program are works by Brahms and Beethoven. The three-city tour includes stops in Massachusetts and Pennsylvania, and the New York premiere at Carnegie Hall. Mehldau then kicks off a ten-day US tour of Mehliana, a new electric duo with drummer Mark Guiliana, and heads to Europe for a week of solo shows before a two-week Mehliana tour of Europe and the UK.

Mandolin virtuoso Chris Thile—who, with his fellow Punch Brothers, performed at the unforgettable benefit concert Another Day, Another Time: Celebrating the Music of “Inside Llewyn Davis,” inspired by music from the upcoming Coen Brothers’ film, Inside Llewyn Davis, in New York City on Sunday—kicks off a solo tour performing music from his new album, Bach: Sonatas and Partitas, Vol. 1, at Meany Hall for the Performing Arts in Seattle tonight. The tour makes its way across the US West, down South, and into the Midwest before heading to the Northeast for stops including a sold-out New York City show in Carnegie Hall's Zankel Hall. Thile heads to Europe in November. 

The one-night only benefit concert inspired by music from the upcoming Coen Brothers’ film, Inside Llewyn Davis, takes place at The Town Hall in New York City Sunday; Showtime will air the concert December 13 ... Sam Amidon tours Northeast with Josh Ritter ... Laurie Anderson exhibition opens in Austin ... Orquesta Buena Vista Social Club tour Midwest ... Jeremy Denk joins Colorado University Symphony in Boulder ... Emmylou Harris, Rodney Crowell kick off California leg of US tour ... Iron and Wine hits Chicago and Toronto ... Gidon Kremer, Kremerata Baltica join Slava's Snow Show in Russia ... Audra McDonald opens Koerner Hall season in Toronto ... Punch Brothers play Wide Open Bluegrass in Raleigh ... Joshua Redman is in Iowa ... Rokia Traoré plays the Düsseldorf fest ... and more ...

Chris Thile joins Garrison Keillor for a live broadcast of A Prairie Home Companion from Minnesota, then hits Brooklyn's Bluegrass Bash with guitarist Michael Daves ... John Adams's Saxophone Concerto receives US premiere in Baltimore ... Sam Amidon joins Bill Frisell at Jazz at Lincoln Center ... Laurie Anderson performs in Ithaca ... Jeremy Denk joins Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra ... Dr. John, Allen Toussaint, Orquest Buena Vista Social Club tour California ... Emmylou Harris, Rodney Crowell play Petty Fest in Nashville ... Iron and Wine tours Canada ... Lianne La Havas is in Tokyo ... Audra McDonald plays Midwest universities ... Kate McGarrigle concert film screens in LA ... Joshua Redman inaugurates Wigmore Hall jazz season ... Dawn Upshaw is guest of honor at MATA gala benefit in NYC ... 

Pat Metheny, who won his 20th Grammy Award earlier this year for his 2012 album Unity Band, has announced the expansion of that band, featuring Chris Potter, Antonio Sanchez, and Ben Williams, to include multi-instrumentalist Giulio Carmassi in the Pat Metheny Unity Group. The Unity Group will release a new album on Nonesuch Records in 2014 (details to come) and will launch a world tour in February in North America, followed by Europe in the spring. Fan ticket pre-sales begins today. "The Unity Band project was life-changing for me," writes Metheny. "With Giulio added to the core-four of us ... this is one of the strongest bands I have ever had. Just about anything will be possible."

Iron and Wine, whose Nonesuch debut album, Ghost on Ghost, was released this past spring to critical acclaim, kicks off the first leg of its North American fall tour with a sold-out show at First Avenue in Minneapolis tonight. Singer-songwriter Sam Beam and his 12-piece band head next to Canada for five shows in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta, before returning to the States to play Fargo, Des Moines, Madison, and Chicago, and back up to Toronto. The tour picks up again on the West Coast at the end of October.

Lucky Friday the 13th: Orquesta Buena Vista Social Club kicks off US tour on The Tonight Show tonight, then two stops in Arizona ... Bombino tours Europe ... Carolina Chocolate Drops play late-summer US festivals ... Jeremy Denk launches US fall tour performing Bach in Boston ... Donnacha Dennehy has Fort Worth residency ... Emmylou Harris, Rodney Crowell play in Texas too ... Kronos Quartet makes Bogotá debut  ... k.d. lang joins Sarah McLachlan for Edmonton benefit ... Lianne La Havas plays Welsh fest ... Audra McDonald is in Ann Arbor ... Allen Toussaint is in Niagara Falls ... and more ...

Devendra Banhart and his band will tour Latin America in November. The tour kicks off with two previously announced nights at El Plaza Condesa in Mexico City November 8 (sold out) and 9, followed by four nights in Brazil, shows in Argentina, Uruguay, Colombia, and Peru, and a set at the Primavera Fauna festival in Chile. Banhart has also unveiled a remix of "Golden Girls," the opening track off of his Nonesuch Records debut album, Mala, by German pianist/composer Hauschka. The track premiered on Pitchfork earlier today. You can hear it and download it for free here.

Emmylou Harris & Rodney Crowell, Sam Amidon, Carolina Chocolate Drops all perform at the Ottawa Folk Festival ... John Adams's The Gospel According to the Other Mary receives its Midwest premiere at Ravinia ... Laurie Anderson performs Dirtday! in Poland ... Björk headlines Berlin Festival ... Bombino tours Europe ... Dr. John plays three sets in the South ... Audra McDonald is in Utah ... Punch Brothers perform at Virginia's Interlocken Music Festival ... Dawn Upshaw celebrates Joan Tower's 75th birthday at Bard ... Sara Watkins is in San Diego ... and more ...

Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell, who released their collaborative album, Old Yellow Moon, on Nonesuch Records earlier this year, kick off the next leg of their North American tour with a headlining set at the Ottawa Folk Festival this evening. The tour makes stops throughout Canada and the US, including several shows in Texas and along the West Coast. Starting in November, Harris and Crowell welcome Richard Thompson to the bill, as they did for an earlier leg of the tour. 

Sam Amidon kicks off a five-week tour of North America featuring music from his Nonesuch debut album, Bright Sunny South, at Hugh's Room in Toronto tonight and the Ottawa Folk Festival this weekend before heading to the States and his home state of Vermont for a show at Higher Ground in South Burlington. The tour continues through mid-October, making stops throughout the Northeast—including headline shows in Philadelphia and Washington, DC, two nights at Jazz at Lincoln Center with Bill Frisell, four shows supporting Josh Ritter—into the Midwest in Minneapolis and Chicago, and drawing to a close in Santa Monica on October 11. Bright Sunny South will be released on vinyl with a bonus 7” disc featuring two previously unreleased recordings September 24.