Carnegie Hall has just announced its 2011–2012 season, which will feature performances by a number of artists familiar to Nonesuch Journal readers, including Audra McDonald, Kronos Quartet, Richard Goode, Dawn Upshaw, Alarm Will Sound, and, making his Carnegie Hall premiere, Cheikh Lô. The Carnegie Hall season will also see the New York premiere of works by John Adams, Philip Glass, and Louis Andriessen.

The lineup for the 2011 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival (a.k.a. Jazz Fest) has just been announced, and, as always, there's much to look forward to when the festivities get under way this spring. Jazz Fest will be held at the Fair Grounds Race Course in New Orleans the weekends of April 29–May 1 and May 5–8. Among this year's performers are The Low Anthem, Punch Brothers, hometown favorites Allen Toussaint and Nicholas Payton, and Wilco.

Ride, Rise, Roar, the concert film documenting David Byrne's 2008-09 tour, Songs of David Byrne and Brian Eno, receives its UK premiere today in a one-night-only event screening. Byrne will attend the premiere at the Ritzy Picturehouse in Brixton, London, and participate in a live post-screening Q&A that will be simulcast to dozens of cinemas across the UK. Wired calls it "a downright beautifully shot and edited concert film." Watch the trailer here.

As President Obama hosts Chinese President Hu at the White House, composer John Adams prepares for the Metropolitan Opera premiere of his groundbreaking 1987 opera Nixon in China, which explores President Nixon’s meeting with Mao Tse-tung nearly 40 years ago. New York classical music station WQXR is hosting a special preview tonight, featuring a conversation with Adams and director Peter Sellars, plus performances from the cast. Nonesuch will reissue the Grammy-winning original cast recording of Nixon in China on February 1.

After sharing a bill at The Wiltern in Los Angeles next week, The Low Anthem will join Iron and Wine on the road for two weeks in April. Before that, The Low Anthem will embark on a headlining tour in support of its forthcoming Nonesuch release, Smart Flesh, due out February 22, including a performance at New York City's Bowery Ballroom on March 8. The album is available for pre-order in the Nonesuch Store with a limited-edition poster signed by the band.

Kronos Quartet, fresh off their multi-concert run at the Sydney Festival, is slated to be featured in a mini-festival of their own: Kronos in Glasgow. From May 12 through 15, Glasgow’s Concert Halls will welcome Kronos Quartet and some very special guest collaborators, hand-picked by Kronos, for a world exclusive international program of events across Glasgow, including the Scottish premiere of Steve Reich's new work WTC 9/11.

Wanda Jackson will be premiering a brand new retro-style video of the Bob Dylan great “Thunder on the Mountain” on Tuesday, January 18, on AOL Music. Check out a teaser to the hip-shakin, bone-rattlin’ video here. Jackson will also be performing live at Third Man Records in Nashville that same day, with Jack White and The Third Man House Band. Their special record release shows in New York and Los Angeles are fully sold-out, but Nonesuch is giving away a pair of tickets to each. Enter here.

Kronos Quartet, Philip Glass do Dracula at Sydney Festival ... Laurie Anderson performs Delusion in Ann Arbor ... Timothy Andres joins in at the Ecastatic Music Festival Marathon in NYC ... Wanda Jackson, Jack White play Grand Ole Opry ... Magnetic Fields documentary opens in Chicago ... Fernando Otero performs in NYC ... Punch Brothers sell out NYC's Bowery Ballroom for p-Bingo night ... Allen Toussaint turns 73, plays The Bright Mississippi with Don Byron, Nicholas Payton at Chicago's Symphony Center ... Sara Watkins hosts A Prairie Home Companion ... and more ... 

The Low Anthem concluded a week of events in New York City—which included performances on the Late Show with David Letterman and WNYC's Soundcheck—with a sold-out show at the Allen Room as a part of Lincoln Center's American Songbook series. The show featured songs from the band's forthcoming album, Smart Flesh, and a number of lovely surprises. Brooklyn Vegan says "the unique venue and view ... seemingly prompted the band to up their game just a bit more." The band will return to New York City to perform at the Bowery Ballroom on March 8.

The Black Keys are sorry to announce the cancellation of the New Zealand and Australian tour including all appearances at the Big Day Out touring festival as well as a portion of the European tour in March. An arduous year of touring and promotion has drained the band and necessitated time off. The band thanks everyone who has shown such incredible support since the release of Brothers and have helped make the album a success.

Four decades ago, Nonesuch Records released Joshua Rifkin's recordings of Scott Joplin's Piano Rags that went on to ignite a national passion for ragtime jazz and "created, almost alone, the Scott Joplin revival," as New York magazine wrote. On January 30, Rifkin will make his debut at New York's (Le) Poisson Rouge performing the music of Joplin and J.S. Bach in celebration of the 40th anniversary of the album.

Punch Brothers kick off their 2011 tour schedule with a sold-out show at the Somerville Theater outside Boston. The Secret Sisters join tonight and at this weekend's concerts in Burlington, Vermont, and New York City. The Improper Bostonian spoke with Chris Thile about the band's efforts to "cross bluegrass borders in search of transcendence." Time Out New York calls the band "jaw-dropping" and lists Saturday's show as a critics' pick. Chef Mario Batali includes the band's album Antifogmatic among his favorite listens.