Kronos Quartet has been named the sole Perspectives artist in Carnegie Hall 2009/10 concert season. Perspectives: Kronos Quartet will feature five concerts over the course of the season, and the Quartet will lead a Professional Training Workshop through The Weill Music Institute at Carnegie Hall. Kronos has also been made the ensemble-in-residency for next season's West Coast: Left Coast festival at Disney Hall, curated by John Adams as the LA Philharmonic's first creative director. This season, Kronos has been added to the roster for the MusicNOW festival, premiering a piece by Arcade Fire's Richard Reed Parry.

Joshua Redman brought the complete Compass Double Trio out last week for shows from New York City to Boston to Albany. The Boston Globe says Redman "put on the show of his life" at Boston's Berklee Performance Center. "Redman has always been an entertaining musician, but Thursday he played more confidently and powerfully than ever." The Boston Herald says that with "four of the best rhythm section players in the business ... Redman navigated a constantly changing rhythmscape with the serene intensity that has marked his career." The Schenectady Daily Gazette describes the Friday night set in Albany as "50 minutes that encapsulated the history of
post-Sonny Rollins jazz" and reached "heights only the best jazz bands
can reach."

Tonight marks the opening of The Juilliard School's annual FOCUS! festival, with a concert by the New Juilliard Ensemble featuring John Adams's Son of Chamber Symphony. Adams's inclusion in this concert and throughout the festival proceedings reflects its theme this year of California: A Century of New Music. Two major highlights of FOCUS! 2009 are the world premiere of Adams’s String Quartet, performed by the St. Lawrence String Quartet, and the festival's culminating event: a semi-staged production of Adams's opera The Death of Klinghoffer, with the Juilliard Opera Center led by the composer.

Youssou N'Dour and the Super Étoile band join the festivities at Glasgow's annual Celtic Connections when they headline a concert at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall Auditorium tonight. Scotland's Sunday Herald recently profiled Youssou, calling him "one of the world's most soulful singers," possessing "a fluttering, virtuoso voice of extraordinary power," and standing out as "one of world music's few genuine superstars." Scotland's STV asserts that, of all the scores of artists performing at the two-week festival, "Youssou N'Dour will without doubt prove to be one of the main draws."

After performing the second of two consecutive nights at New York's Highline last night, Joshua Redman and his Double Trio head up to Boston to play the Berklee Performance Center tonight, then out to Albany for their last show with all five musicians featured on Redman's new album, Compass. Previewing Friday's show at Albany's The Egg, the Schenectady Daily Gazette writes of Redman's successful venture with the double-trio format: "The idea worked so well on record that now Redman is experimenting with the double-trio format live." Metro Canada gives Compass three-and-a-half stars.

Joshua Redman and his Double Trio—bassists Larry Grenadier and Reuben Rogers and drummers Brian Blade and Gregory Hutchinson—all of whom play together on the recently released Compass, play their second consecutive night at New York's Highline Ballroom tonight. The New York Times calls the new album "superb" and finds Redman "making some of the best music of his career." In last night's set, "Mr. Redman worked fast and fluid, never exhausting his options," says the Times. "At almost every turn he seemed intensely focused but unpressured and completely in command."

Laurie Anderson will lead a special concert tonight at the Brooklyn Academy of Music's Howard Gilman Opera House in Brooklyn, New York, to launch BAM's Next Stage Campaign. Curated by Laurie and titled Laurie & Friends, the show features a diverse group of artists—from the experimental rock of Dirty Projectors to the Latin sounds of jazz master Arturo O'Farrill—who share the common goal of making new and original art. BAM is looking to break ground this fall on an intimate black-box performance space behind the main Opera House.

John Adams led the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, of which he is the Composer of the Year, in two concerts this past weekend at Pittsburgh's Heinz Hall. Featured on the programs were Doctor Atomic Symphony, On the Transmigration of Souls, and selections from Nixon in China. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette says the composer "has penned some of the best music of the last quarter century" and "gave us a reason to be proud again of the splendor that can emerge from 100 orchestral musicians. He is a composer of our time." The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review calls Transmigration "awesome and haunting to experience" and Doctor Atomic Symphony "a masterly new piece."

Joshua Redman marks the release of his latest album, Compass, in his first live performances with the double trio featured on the record, bassists Reuben Rogers and Larry Grenadier and drummers Greg Hutchinson and Brian Blade, tonight and tomorrow at New York City's Highline Ballroom and in Boston and Albany later in the week. The New York Times recommends the concerts, saying that the album's double-trio format leads to "a result that feels rewardingly loose ... the sort of jazz interaction that can only be further clarified by live performance." The Boston Globe calls the ensemble "a fascinating sonic experiment" that both displays its "supple touch" and creates "churning crescendos."

Joshua Redman celebrates the release of Compass with a conversation at CUNY and two concerts ... John Adams conducts the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra in two concerts ... David Byrne begins his winter tour in Hong Kong ... Philip Glass plays and discusses his film music at MASS MoCA ... Mandy Patinkin brings his London residency to a close ... Stephen Sondheim talks with Frank Rich at Lincoln Center ... Allen Toussaint continues his 71st birthday celebration at Celtic Connections in Glasgow ... and more ...

John Adams continues as the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra's Composer of the Year with two concerts this weekend, tonight and tomorrow night, in which he will conduct the orchestra at Heinz Hall. "The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra has scored a coup by presenting John Adams, arguably America's leading composer, as conductor," exclaims the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. Featured on the programs are The Nixon Tapes, version 3, containing selections from Nixon in China; Doctor Atomic Symphony; and On the Transmigration of Souls.

Kronos Quartet is in Paris to help launch the International Year of Astronomy, organized by UNESCO. The year marks the 400th anniversary of Galileo's first astronomical observations with a telescope. Opening ceremonies were held this morning, and conference events continue through Friday. In the closing ceremony, Kronos will give the French premiere of Terry Riley's Sun Rings, which features celestial sounds captured by plasma wave receivers and images from NASA's archives.