Audra McDonald will join fellow Tony Award winner and famed Sondheim interpreter Barbara Cook for a very special concert event titled Audra McDonald & Barbara Cook: Broadway Voices for Change, on Sunday, October 19, at 8 PM, at New York's Al Hirschfeld Theatre. Proceeds from the event will benefit America Votes, the largest grassroots voter mobilization effort in the US, supporting a broad economic and social justice agenda.

Tonight at the 92nd Street Y in New York City: The Composer's Voice: John Adams. John Adams will talk with Juilliard dean Ara Guzelimian about his career; his opera Doctor Atomic, which receives its New York premiere at the Met next week; and his new memoir, Hallelujah Junction, just published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux. The program also features "musical illustrations" by mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke, baritone Jordan Shanahan, and pianist Linda Hall.

T Bone Burnett, Emmylou Harris, Shawn Colvin, and Jimmie Dale Gilmore all convene in San Francisco for the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Fest ... The Black Keys head south to North Carolina and South Carolina ... Isabel Bayrakdarian begins her American tour in San Francisco ... David Byrne's Songs of David Byrne and Brian Eno tour continues in California ... Ry Cooder makes his second of two rare live performances in San Francisco ... Randy Newman performs live on Late Late Show ... Chris Thile and Edgar Meyer perform music from their new album in Oregon ... Dawn Upshaw talks with Alex Ross at this weekend's New Yorker Festival ... and more ...

Audra McDonald and Dawn Upshaw will take the stage at Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles tonight for the Opening Night Gala of the Los Angeles Philarmonic's 2008–09 season, the orchestra's last with conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen at its helm. Audra will sing Sondheim's "There Won't Be Trumpets" and Jule Styne / Sammy Cahn's "10,432 Sheep"; Dawn will perform songs from John Adams's Nixon in China and Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress. The eclectic program also includes selections from Stravinsky's The Firebird.

Ry Cooder, fresh off his recent performance at the San Jose Mariachi Festival, makes two more rare live appearance this Thursday and Friday when he reconnects with former bandmates Nick Lowe and Jim Keltner for two concerts at San Francisco's Great American Music Hall to benefit the Richard deLone Special Housing Fund. The San Jose Mercury News talks with Ry about this atypically packed performance schedule, part of "an explosion of productivity" that includes the recent release of his I, Flathead and the new Buena Vista Social Club at Carnegie Hall album.

Soprano Isabel Bayrakdarian's Nonesuch debut, Gomidas Songs, was released last week; she launches her North American tour of songs from the album at the end of the week in San Francisco. The San Francisco Chronicle finds Bayrakdarian's "gorgeous, dark-hued tone and communicative power" and the "tender clarity and ripe urgency" of her singing to be well suited to these songs. The Ottawa Citizen gives the album four-and-a-half stars, exclaiming: "Bayrakdarian's voice is a marvel. Songs for children, songs of nature, of love, of humour, of yearning, she finds exactly the right mode of expression for each one. You have to wonder if there's another singer anywhere in the world who could do them equal justice."

Randy Newman's Harps and Angels tour stop at the Keswick Theatre in Glenside, Pennsylvania, outside Philadelphia, on Friday night. The Philadelphia Inquirer previewed the set with a look at the man he places "among the most perversely funny of songwriter-observers who ever hit the charts." Randy had stopped in Bethesda, Maryland, earlier in the week for what the Washington Post calls "jaw-dropping concert" and "a rollicking ride through Randy Newman's psyche." Glide magazine calls Harps and Angels "34 minutes of sharp-witted commentary by one of America’s most original lyricists."

Kronos Quartet joined legendary Azerbaijani singer Alim Qasimov and his ensemble at London's Barbican this past Friday for the center's annual Ramadan Nights celebration of Sufi music. The Guardian says the pairing produced an "outstanding" concert from the "intriguing collaboration" between Qasimov, "certainly one of the most thrilling, unashamedly emotional performers on the planet," and the Quartet, which showed "daring" and "range with a virtuoso set."

Chris Thile and Edgar Meyer's tour in support of their new, debut duo album continues in California this weekend, including a stop in San Diego on Sunday. The San Diego Union-Tribune says of Thile: "I can't think of any other mandolinist who is more talented or consistently innovative ... [He] is a master of his instrument who rarely fails to inspire or elevate his listeners." It goes on to praise the new album as "an all-instrumental gem that never sacrifices nuance and musicality for virtuosity, even when the two perform at a seemingly superhuman tempo ... Their fusion of classical and bluegrass, the earthy and the sophisticated, is so seamless and evolved that it seems unlikely anyone will catch up soon."

Kronos Quartet is in London this weekend for what promises to be a whirlwind of events at the Barbican: both its Open Weekend and Ramadan Nights, its annual festival of Muslim music. Kicking things off, Kronos performs tonight with the man who has been called Azerbaijan's greatest singer, Alim Qasimov, and his ensemble, including his daughter, Fergana. The Times (UK) calls the power of their vocals "devastating" and quotes Kronos's David Harrington as placing Alim Qasimov "up there in the top five of all time" among the world's greatest singers.

Edgar Meyer and Chris Thile released their debut duo album on Nonesuch this week, as well as a deluxe version of the recording with a DVD of performance videos and a behind-the-scenes look at their collaborative process. Tonight, in Boulder, Colorado, they launch a month-long tour that will come to a close at Carnegie Hall. Northern Colorado's Longmont Times-Call speaks with Thile about working with his hero and concludes that tonight's audience is in for "a shot at transcendence."

The Black Keys are on the road again, with opener Jessica Lea Mayfield, who contributed harmony vocals on the Attack & Release track "Things Ain't Like They Used to Be" and recorded her own CD with the Keys' Dan Auerbach as producer. The Knoxville News describes last night's show in that city as "All you want in a rock show." The Houston Chronicle previews an upcoming show by calling the band's recordings as "progressively varied, interesting and exciting."