The Barbican's 2014 marathon weekend, May 17 and 18, will celebrate Nonesuch Records in the label's 50th anniversary year. Entitled Explorations: The Sound of Nonesuch Records, this curated weekend of events includes five concerts taking place in LSO St Luke's, Guildhall School's new Milton Court Concert Hall, and the Barbican Hall, with performances from Jonny Greenwood, Kronos Quartet, Brad Mehldau, Timo Andres, Sam Amidon, Natalie Merchant, Rhiannon Giddens, Olivia Chaney, and others performing works by Greenwood, Mehldau, Andres, Steve Reich, John Adams, Philip Glass, Frederic Rzewski, Henryk Górecki, Donnacha Dennehy, and more. Satellite events will include Kronos at 40 (May 13) and Jeremy Denk (May 24) with further events to be announced.

The schedules for the Ojai Music Festival, held in Ojai, June 12–15, and Ojai North, presented by Cal Performances at Berkeley, June 19–21, have now been announced. Both festivals feature a broad-ranging program, reflecting the musical mind of this year's Music Director, Jeremy Denk, and including the premiere of a comic opera with libretto by Denk, and multiple performances from Denk and his fellow pianist and Nonesuch artist Timo Andres. Watch Denk discuss some of the Ojai programming here.

Iron and Wine, whose Nonesuch Records debut album, Ghost on Ghost, was named one of the Best New Releases of 2013 by Uncut, kicks off a US tour with a performance in Austin on Saturday to celebrate the first anniversary of KUTX; also performing are Neko Case and Thao & The Get Down Stay Down. Iron and Wine's tour continues at the Ann Arbor Folk Festival (also with Case) next week, followed by a benefit for the Old Town School of Folk Music in Chicago; stops in Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina; and a six-city tour of Florida. The music continues into the spring with a show in Hawaii and festival sets in Georgia and Delaware.

Kronos Quartet premieres music from the Oscar-nominated film Dirty Wars during a two-night run in Ann Arbor ... Bombino continues his Italian tour ... Shawn Colvin closes out California tour ... Jeremy Denk joins Baltimore Symphony Orchestra for Mozart ... Richard Goode plays Schumann in Berkeley ... Gidon Kremer, Kremerata Baltica perform in the Canary Islands ... Audra McDonald sings at two California universities ... Chris Thile concludes Australia tour in Tasmania and Melbourne ... Sara Watkins welcomes Sam Phillips to the Watkins Family Hour in LA ... and more ...

Bombino closes out a two-week tour of Australia at the Sydney Festival and in Melbourne ... Inside Llewyn Davis opens across US ... Shawn Colvin, who celebrates a birthday today, kicks off a California tour ... Jeremy Denk plays Ligeti and more in Boston ... Donnacha Dennehy resumes Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra residency ... Dr. John celebrates Gregg Allman in Atlanta ... Gidon Kremer kicks off Italian tour ... Audra McDonald hosts PBS's Live from Lincoln Center ... Natalie Merchant plays two symphonic shows in Florida ... Allen Toussaint celebrates New Orleans in NYC ... and more ...

The Carolina Chocolate Drops, who had announced a US tour for early 2014 last month, have now added several new dates to the tour, with confirmed shows from the end of January through the end of April. The group's lineup includes co-founder Rhiannon Giddens, multi-instrumentalist Hubby Jenkins, and two new musicians, cellist Malcolm Parson and multi-instrumentalist Rowan Corbett. The tour kicks off at the Charleston Music Hall on January 30, making stops across the Southeast through March, into the Northeast starting in the spring, then back South for MerleFest and more.

The Black Keys have announced a number of European tour dates for June and July of 2014, starting with the INmusic Festival in Zagreb, Croatia, followed by sets at Open Air St. Gallen in Switzerland, Down the Rabbit Hole Festival in Holland, Open'er Festival in Poland, Mainsquare Festival in France, Rock Werchter in Belgium, Rock in Roma in Italy, Optimus Alive in Portugal, and Bilbao BBK Live in Spain, before closing out at the Festival de Nimes in France. 

The Carolina Chocolate Drops bid farewell to founding member Dom Flemons, who is starting a solo career, with a special US tour earlier this month to commemorate his time with the band. Led by co-founder Rhiannon Giddens, the band will tour throughout 2014 with Hubby Jenkins and two new musicians, cellist Malcolm Parson and multi-instrumentalist Rowan Corbett, who will join the group in the New Year. The band has just announced a number of new US tour dates for early 2014, making stops across the Southeast through March and up into the Northeast in the spring.

Emmylou Harris hosts Miracle on Music Row benefit in Nashville, then performs on Opry at the Ryman with Rodney Crowell ... Another Day, Another Time: Celebrating the Music of "Inside Llewyn Davis," airs on SHOWTIME; John Goodman hosts SNL ... Carolina Chocolate Drops close out tour, bid farewell to Dom Flemons ... London Philharmonic Orchestra performs Adams’s El Niño ... Shawn Colvin joins Heart in Vancouver ... The Thin Blue Line turns 25 ... The Sound of Music with Audra McDonald airs again ... Steve Reich celebrates Sol LeWitt in NYC; City Life is performed at Carnegie Hall ... and more ...

Carolina Chocolate Drops kick off their tour bidding farewell to founding member Dom Flemons ... Inside Llewyn Davis opens in NY & LA ... Adams and Reich are on the program in Miami ... Bombino closes out North American tour at Carnegie Hall ... Shawn Colvin plays the Pacific Northwest ... Jeremy Denk and Richard Goode play Mozart with Cincinnati Symphony and NY Philharmonic, respectively ... Kronos Quartet celebrates its 40th in Berkeley, performing Glass, Riley, and Crumb ... 

Steve Reich has been named the Artist in Residence at the 2014 Big Ears Festival, which will be held in downtown Knoxville, Tennessee, March 28–30, 2014. The composer will be in attendance, as Ensemble Signal will perform his groundbreaking 1976 piece Music for 18 Musicians, along with his new Radio Rewrite, inspired by two songs from Radiohead. Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood will perform Reich’s Electric Counterpoint, and So Percussion will perform his 1971 classic Drumming. Weekend passes go on sale this Friday, December 6, at noon.

Nonesuch Records wishes everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving in the US and a fruitful Black Friday. (Not to mention a Happy Birthday to Randy Newman!) Remember: CDs, LPs, and DVDs in the Nonesuch Store (excluding pre-orders) are 34% off the standard retail price as part of the store's anniversary sale. There are also some noteworthy performances in the coming days: the conclusion of Devendra Banhart's Latin American tour in Bogotá; the continuation of Bombino's North American tour; Jeremy Denk's trio of concerts with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra;  the close of Brad Mehldau and Mark Guiliana's fall Mehliana tour in Europe; and two Canadian concerts to conclude Rokia Traoré's North American tour.