Kronos Quartet leads a weeklong workshop at Carnegie Hall April 9–15, 2016, open to student and young professional string quartets aged 18–35 to explore new works commissioned as part of Fifty for the Future: The Kronos Learning Repertoire. The tuition-free workshop culminates in a public performance at Zankel Hall and will also focus on several of Kronos’s signature works. The application deadline is November 17, 2015. Kronos performs at Zankel Hall on April 2. The group performs at the St. Ann's Warehouse opening in Brooklyn this Saturday and the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum in Manhattan on Tuesday.

As previously noted, special one-night-only screenings of the documentary Paradise Is There, A Memoir by Natalie Merchant, The New Tigerlily Recordings have been announced for the fall. The film will be released by Nonesuch Records on November 6, 2015 on DVD as a companion piece to Natalie Merchant's upcoming album, Paradise Is There: The New Tigerlily Recordings. Merchant will perform in a handful of international cities in the spring with her An Evening with Natalie Merchant: The 2016 Paradise Is There tour; tickets go on sale Friday. She has released the album track "Carnival," which you can hear here; pre-order the album to download it now.

The Bad Plus Joshua Redman kicks off a tour of North America at Dartmouth's Hopkins Center for the Arts tonight, followed by stops this month in Toronto, Chicago, Madison, Carmel, Columbus, Saratoga Springs, Northampton, and Boston. In December, the band heads West for shows in Boulder, Phoenix, Albuquerque, San Diego, and Santa Cruz, closing out the 2015 touring with a four-night residency at SFJAZZ in San Francisco, December 10–13. The tour features music from The Bad Plus Joshua Redman's recently released self-titled debut album, which the New York Times calls "a knockout," and NPR describes as "a roaring and beautiful summit meeting."

Rhiannon Giddens returns to Austin City Limits … Jeremy Denk performs at The Kennedy Center … Emmylou Harris leads pet shelter benefit … Kronos Quartet performs at Stanford … Lianne La Havas continues in Canada … Audra McDonald sings in Massachusetts … Brad Mehldau heads to France … Pat Metheny plays Uppsala Guitar Fest … Randy Newman kicks off Europe tour … Orquesta Buena Vista Social Club takes "Adios" tour to California … Rokia Traoré performs Desdemona in LA … and more …

Randy Newman kicks off a month-long tour of Europe and the UK with two performances in the Netherlands, in Eindhoven and Nijmegen, followed by shows in Belgium in Antwerp, Bruges, and Brussels, and a return to the Netherlands for shows at The Hague and in Amsterdam, Utrecht, and Groningen. From there, Newman makes his way to the UK and Ireland, performing in London, Dublin, Glasgow, and Gateshead, and returns to the Continent to close out the tour in Germany and Austria.

Select North American cities will host one-night-only screenings of the documentary Paradise Is There, A Memoir by Natalie Merchant, The New Tigerlily Recordings starting October 26. The film, which had its world premiere at the Woodstock Film Festival last week, will be released by Nonesuch on DVD with Natalie Merchant’s upcoming album, Paradise Is There: The New Tigerlily Recordings, on November 6.

Ry Cooder, Emmylou Harris, Rodney Crowell, Kronos Quartet, Conor Oberst, Punch Brothers play free Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival in San Francisco … Laurie Anderson premieres new work at Park Avenue Armory … Orquesta Buena Vista Social Club passes through Pacific Northwest … Olivia Chaney concludes week-long US tour with Decemberists … Rhiannon Giddens plays Austin City Limits … Lianne La Havas takes tour to Toronto, Detroit, Chicago … Brad Mehldau visits Vienna … Audra McDonald performs in Disneyland … Randy Newman shows LA some love … and more …

London-based singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Olivia Chaney joins The Decemberists as their special guest for several shows in the US this week. The shows begin at the Iroquois Amphitheater in Louisville tonight, followed by stops in Indianapolis, Madison, Dallas, and Austin, for an ACL Festival Late Night Show, on Saturday. Chaney rounds out her US tour with a solo show at McCabe's in Santa Monica on Sunday.

The Arcs announce their first tour this fall with music from their acclaimed new album, Yours, Dreamily, with North American dates in December at Chicago's The Vic, Akron's Civic Theatre, New York's Terminal 5, and Nashville's Ryman Auditorium, among others, following recently announced European tour dates in November. The December tour dates also follow the band's sold-out performance at Bowery Ballroom in NYC this Saturday, September 26, which will be live streamed exclusively on Yahoo. The band makes its television debut on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert this Friday, September 25.

Robert Plant and the Sensational Space Shifters play NYC and Boston … Sam Amidon closes out Ireland tour … Jeremy Denk joins Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra … Rhiannon Giddens tours US Midwest, as do Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell … Lianne La Havas kicks off North American tour … Audra McDonald joins Sioux City Symphony Orchestra on Opening Night … Punch Brothers play Fresh Grass Festival … Joshua Redman closes out Europe tour … and more …

English singer/songwriter/guitarist Lianne La Havas, whose second album, Blood, was released this summer, kicks off a month-long North American tour at Theatre of Living Arts in Philadelphia this Sunday, September 20, followed by stops in Washington, DC; Chicago; Boston; San Francisco; Los Angeles; and Austin, among many others across the US and Canada. 

Park Avenue Armory premieres a new work this fall developed by Laurie Anderson in collaboration with Mohammed el Gharani, a former Guantanamo Bay detainee. Habeas Corpus, commissioned by the Armory, expands on Anderson's fusing of storytelling and technology, creating an installation and performance piece that examines lost identity, memory, and the resiliency of the human body and spirit. The work premieres for three days and nights, October 2–4, 2015.