Natalie Merchant will be joined by The School of Life Founder and philosopher Alain de Botton for an evening of conversation and music at Shoreditch Town Hall in London on Thursday, May 15. The two will discuss the inspirations for the songs on her new, self-titled album, due May 5 on Nonesuch Records, and Merchant will offer a selection of live musical illustrations. Merchant will perform two sold-out concerts in London in May and join fellow Nonesuch artists for a sold-out concert there later that month.

Randy Newman will lead a one-night-only performance of his famed 1995 musical Faust in concert at New York City Center on July 1, 2014, as part of the Encores! Off-Center series. The performance, directed by Thomas Kail (In the Heights), will feature Newman starring as the Devil, with additional casting still to be announced. Tickets go on sale to the general public on Monday, March 17.

Pat Metheny Unity Group takes Kin (←→) to his home state of Missouri ... John Adams leads Canadian premiere of his Absolute Jest ... Carolina Chocolate Drops round out Southern leg of US tour ... Richard Goode plays to poetry at Princeton ... Americana Music Honors & Awards show airs with performances by Emmylou Harris, Rodney Crowell, Dr. John ... Gidon Kremer plays hometown of Riga ... Kronos Quartet gives family concert in San Francisco ... Audra McDonald joins Atlanta Symphony Orchestra for benefit gala ... Brad Mehldau Trio tours France ... Natalie Merchant joins Virginia Symphony Orchestra ... Punch Brothers kick off tour at Oberlin ... Joshua Redman Quartet is in Germany ... Rokia Traoré plays the Netherlands ... 

Punch Brothers kick off a three-week US tour at Oberlin College this Sunday, part of the group's three-part residency on the campus this academic year. The tour, with support from singer/songwriter Aoife O'Donovan, continues through the end of the month with shows in Pennsylvania, Virginia, North Carolina, West Virginia, Indiana, Wisconsin, Connecticut, and upstate New York, as well as festival sets at Suwannee Springfest in Florida and Savannah Music Festival in Georgia. Punch Brothers will also perform at the High Sierra and Sasquatch! festivals in the Pacific Northwest in July.

Carolina Chocolate Drops continue the Southern leg of their US tour in Birmingham and Atlanta ... Shawn Colvin joins Mary Chapin Carpenter, New York Philharmonic at Lincoln Center ... Jeremy Denk plays Ravel in Madrid ... Fatoumata Diawara is in Santa Monica ... Dr. John previews Mardi Gras in Florida, where Iron and Wine rounds out six-city tour ... Kronos Quartet performs Terry Riley’s Sun Rings at Notre Dame ... Audra McDonald returns to California’s Central Valley ... Brad Mehldau Trio tours France, Italy ... Pat Metheny Unity Group plays out West ... Chris Thile, Mike Marshall play duo shows in Pacific Northwest ... and more ...

John Adams has teamed up with Toronto Symphony Orchestra Music Director Peter Oundjian for the tenth-annual New Creations Festival, running Saturday, March 1, through Friday, March 7. Following his TSO debut in the 2011 New Creations Festival, Adams returns with his music as a focus in the 2014 Festival, with Oundjian leading the TSO in his Doctor Atomic Symphony and the composer leading the orchestra in the Canadian premieres of his Slonimsky’s Earbox and Absolute Jest.

Jonny Greenwood and the London Contemporary Orchestra perform music from his film scores in London ... John Adams leads Orquesta Nacional de España in Beethoven and Adams ... Bombino concludes Europe tour in Benelux ... Shawn Colvin sings in Connecticut ... Jeremy Denk joins Spokane Symphony Orchestra ... Fatoumata Diawara tours Vermont and Montréal ... Richard Goode gives recital in Gent ... Iron and Wine heads South ... Kronos Quartet celebrates music of Mali in Maryland ... Audra McDonald is in Massachusetts ... Pat Metheny Unity Group plays Texas ... Sara Watkins sets sail on a Caribbean cruise ...

Emmylou Harris and Shawn Colvin will join fellow Grammy Award-winning and/or -nominated women in music for Grammy Festival at Sea: Women Who Rock, a four-day cruise aboard the Norwegian Pearl, departing from Miami and headed to the Bahamas, November 4-8, 2014. Harris and Colvin join Heart, Indigo Girls, Estelle, Skylar Grey, and others for performances, Q&As, and other activities hosted by the performers. There also will be one-of-a-kind opportunities to interact with the artists on board.

To coincide with the release of her new self-titled album, Natalie Merchant will perform two concerts at Milton Court Concert Hall in London on May 10 & 11, showcasing new songs as well as material drawn from her catalogue as a solo artist and with 10,000 Maniacs. These two concerts are part of a wider celebration at the Barbican to mark Nonesuch Records’ 50th anniversary, including a marathon weekend entitled Explorations: The Sound of Nonesuch Records (May 17-18), during which Merchant will join fellow Nonesuch artists Kronos Quartet, Rhiannon Giddens, Sam Amidon, and Olivia Chaney, and others for a unique concert of traditional and contemporary music collaborations. Tickets are on sale now.

Composer John Adams kicks off an extensive residency with the Orquesta y Coro Nacionales de España in Madrid. The residency, titled Carta Blanca a John Adams, features performances of his Absolute Jest, Harmonielehre, American Berserk, China Gates, Phrygian Gates, Shaker Loops, John’s Book of Alleged Dances, String Quartet, Slonimsky’s Earbox, and Doctor Atomic Symphony; talks with the composer; a guest appearance by Jeremy Denk; film screenings of The Death of Klinghoffer and I Am Love; and a collaborative session with area students.

Nickel Creek—Chris Thile (mandolin/vocals), Sara Watkins (fiddle/vocals), and Sean Watkins (guitar/vocals)—officially reunites for the first time since its 2007 self-described “indefinite hiatus” with a new album, A Dotted Line, on April 1, 2014, with vinyl to follow on April 29. Nonesuch Store preorders include an instant download of the album tracks “Destination” and “Love of Mine,” which you can stream here. The band tours the US this spring and summer; for all newly added dates, presales begin Wednesday, February 19, at 10 AM local time.

In celebration of the April reissue of Emmylou Harris’s groundbreaking album Wrecking Ball on Nonesuch Records, Harris and producer Daniel Lanois, along with Jim Wilson on guitar and Steven Nistor on drums, will embark on an international tour this spring, including, in addition to the previously announced North American dates in April, newly announced European shows in the Netherlands, Belgium, and UK in May.