John Adams’s 1995 "songplay" I Was Looking at the Ceiling and Then I Saw the Sky receives its long-overdue LA premiere in a Long Beach Opera performance at the Ford Amphitheatre on Saturday. The piece, with a libretto by the late poet June Jordan, uses the 1994 Northridge, California, earthquake as a starting point to explore race, gender, and immigration issues among young Angelenos. Nonesuch Records released the recording of Ceiling/Sky in 1998, featuring Audra McDonald, among others.

Saxophonist Joshua Redman’s trio, featuring Reuben Rogers on bass and Gregory Hutchinson on drums—which can be heard on Redman’s recent Nonesuch release, Trios Live—will tour the US this fall. The tour kicks off with two sets at Catalina’s in LA on September 29 and makes stops across the country, including multi-night residencies in San Francisco, Seattle, Boston, NYC, St. Louis, and Washington, DC’s Blues Alley, where the trio recorded the new album. (Trios Live also includes tracks recorded at NYC’s Jazz Standard with Matt Penman on bass.) 

Sam Amidon and Bill Frisell close out the Kilkenny Arts Festival in Ireland ... Louis Andriessen’s De Materie gets German premiere ... The Black Keys’ performance on Late Show with David Letterman re-airs ... Bombino tours Italy ... Carolina Chocolate Drops play UK, Netherlands festivals ... Emmylou Harris gives benefit concert in Nashville... Iron and Wine is in Dallas ... Randy Newman plays Rocky Mountain Folks Fest ... Nickel Creek tour mid-Atlantic ... Conor Oberst is in Germany ... Robert Plant plays Summer Sonic Festival in Japan ... and more ...

John Adams’s Saxophone Concerto receives West Coast premiere with saxophonist Timothy McAllister at Cabrillo Festival ... Bombino tours Europe ... Carolina Chocolate Drops play home state of North Carolina ... Emmylou Harris, Shawn Colvin play benefit in Aspen ... Iron and Wine is at Hollywood Bowl ... Kronos Quartet launches concert season in northern California ... Pat Metheny Unity Group closes out US summer tour ... Nickel Creek tours out West ... Conor Oberst plays European festivals ... Robert Plant headlines at Glastonbury Abbey ... Joshua Redman tours East Coast with The Bad Plus ... and more ...

Robert Plant and the Sensational Space Shifters today announced their 2014 fall tour in support of the new album, lullaby and... The Ceaseless Roar, due September 9. Kicking off in Port Chester, NY, at the Capitol Theater on September 25, the dates finish in Los Angeles on October 7 at the Hollywood Palladium. All Citi card members can purchase their tickets to the tour beginning August 12. Each presale will include a copy of Robert Plant’s new record. The general public presale begins August 15. Plant will also be performing two shows at Brooklyn’s BAM as part of Nonesuch 50th anniversary concerts. A live version of the album track "Rainbow" has premiered via Rolling Stone.

Steve Reich is special guest at and focus of Bang on a Can's MASS MoCA Summer Music Festival ... Sam Amidon is in Belgium ... Bombino plays festivals in Sweden and Italy ... Shawn Colvin performs in the Bay Area ... Gidon Kremer, Kremerata Baltica revisit Eight Seasons of Vivaldi plus Piazzolla in France ... Pat Metheny Unity Group, Conor Oberst are in upstate New York ... Nickel Creek kicks off West Coast tour ... and more ...

Kronos Quartet has announced its 2014–15 concert season, including a month-long tour of European summer festivals that culminates in a residency at Kraków's Sacrum Profanum. Kronos returns to the US in late September for the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM)'s celebration of Nonesuch Records' 50th anniversary, Nonesuch Records at BAM, featuring a concert of folk music with Natalie Merchant, Rhiannon Giddens, Sam Amidon, and Olivia Chaney, and five nights with Laurie Anderson performing her Landfall. Another season highlight is the multimedia program Beyond Zero: 1914–1918, which Kronos will perform throughout the US.

Pat Metheny Unity Group has announced a tour of Asia and Australia for this October, featuring music from its debut album, Kin (←→). The tour begins in Seoul, South Korea, on October 5, then heads to Japan for stops in Osaka, Nagoya, Kobe, and three nights in Tokyo; followed by Australia, with stops in Brisbane, Melbourne, Canberra, and the Sydney Opera House; and comes to a close in Singapore on October 27. Metheny talks about the tour on ABC Jazz's Talking Jazz this Friday. The Unity Group is currently in the midst of a US tour with special guest Bruce Hornsby.

Robert Plant has teamed up with Genero TV to give fans the unique opportunity to produce the music video for "Rainbow," the lead track off his forthcoming album, lullaby and... The Ceaseless Roar. The competition gives filmmakers a chance to receive $3,000 and have their video used as the music video for "Rainbow." Robert Plant and the Sensational Space Shifters will be appearing for the first time at the iTunes Festival at London's Roundhouse on September 8. 

Natalie Merchant’s summer US tour dates, which were postponed due to illness, have been rescheduled for the fall, as noted here. Tickets purchased for the original July dates will be honored at the newly rescheduled dates.

The Royal Conservatory's Koerner Hall in Toronto has announced its 2014–15 concert season, the organization's sixth anniversary season, which will feature performances from several artists familiar to readers of the Nonesuch Journal: Jeremy Denk, Richard Goode, and Natalie Merchant, making their Koerner Hall debuts, and a return visit from Gidon Kremer. Tickets are on sale now.

The Nonesuch Journal is taking a bit of a break for a summer holiday, ready to return with all the latest Nonesuch news on Monday, July 28. Until then, the summer concert season remains in full swing, of course, and with plenty of great music being made around the world, here's a look at some of the many events featuring Nonesuch artists in the coming days, hopefully reaching wherever your summer travels may take you.