Devendra Banhart and Rokia Traoré kick off Explorations: The Sound of Nonesuch Records, the Barbican's month-long celebration of Nonesuch Records' 50th anniversary, sharing an "unplugged" evening featuring recent and past material, at the Barbican Hall in London on Friday, May 2, 2014. Tickets are on sale now. Explorations: The Sound of Nonesuch Records includes a marathon weekend of concerts, May 17-18, and additional satellite events throughout the month of May.

Timo Andres is the subject of the latest episode of Q2 Music's Q2 Spaces, which looks inside the homes and studios of composers and performers in the new-music world. Andres welcomes viewers into his Brooklyn home for a conversation about Beethoven, Ingram Marhsall, Edward Gorey, and much more. Watch it here. He gives the world premiere of a new piece, Work Songs, in New York City this Wednesday as part of the Ecstatic Music Festival. Andres wrote the piece especially for fellow composers and multi-instrumentalists Gabriel Kahane, Ted Hearne, Becca Stevens, and Nathan Koci, who will perform it in the concert. The concert will be hosted by WNYC’s John Schaefer and webcast live on Q2 Music.

Kronos Quartet's 40th anniversary celebrations continue with two nights at Royce Hall in LA, joined by Laurie Anderson for the area premiere of Landfall ... John Adams’s joins Gustavo Dudamel for NYC TimesTalk; his The Death of Klinghoffer receives Southern California premiere ... Olivia Chaney celebrates fRoots' 35th anniversary in London ... Richard Goode performs in Miami ... Brad Mehldau Trio tours France and Spain ... Pat Metheny Unity Group rounds out Midwest tour ... Randy Newman concludes Colorado tour ... Joshua Redman Quartet is in France ... and more ...

Natalie Merchant will be joined by The School of Life Founder and philosopher Alain de Botton for an evening of conversation and music at Shoreditch Town Hall in London on Thursday, May 15. The two will discuss the inspirations for the songs on her new, self-titled album, due May 5 on Nonesuch Records, and Merchant will offer a selection of live musical illustrations. Merchant will perform two sold-out concerts in London in May and join fellow Nonesuch artists for a sold-out concert there later that month.

Randy Newman will lead a one-night-only performance of his famed 1995 musical Faust in concert at New York City Center on July 1, 2014, as part of the Encores! Off-Center series. The performance, directed by Thomas Kail (In the Heights), will feature Newman starring as the Devil, with additional casting still to be announced. Tickets go on sale to the general public on Monday, March 17.

Pat Metheny Unity Group takes Kin (←→) to his home state of Missouri ... John Adams leads Canadian premiere of his Absolute Jest ... Carolina Chocolate Drops round out Southern leg of US tour ... Richard Goode plays to poetry at Princeton ... Americana Music Honors & Awards show airs with performances by Emmylou Harris, Rodney Crowell, Dr. John ... Gidon Kremer plays hometown of Riga ... Kronos Quartet gives family concert in San Francisco ... Audra McDonald joins Atlanta Symphony Orchestra for benefit gala ... Brad Mehldau Trio tours France ... Natalie Merchant joins Virginia Symphony Orchestra ... Punch Brothers kick off tour at Oberlin ... Joshua Redman Quartet is in Germany ... Rokia Traoré plays the Netherlands ... 

Punch Brothers kick off a three-week US tour at Oberlin College this Sunday, part of the group's three-part residency on the campus this academic year. The tour, with support from singer/songwriter Aoife O'Donovan, continues through the end of the month with shows in Pennsylvania, Virginia, North Carolina, West Virginia, Indiana, Wisconsin, Connecticut, and upstate New York, as well as festival sets at Suwannee Springfest in Florida and Savannah Music Festival in Georgia. Punch Brothers will also perform at the High Sierra and Sasquatch! festivals in the Pacific Northwest in July.

Carolina Chocolate Drops continue the Southern leg of their US tour in Birmingham and Atlanta ... Shawn Colvin joins Mary Chapin Carpenter, New York Philharmonic at Lincoln Center ... Jeremy Denk plays Ravel in Madrid ... Fatoumata Diawara is in Santa Monica ... Dr. John previews Mardi Gras in Florida, where Iron and Wine rounds out six-city tour ... Kronos Quartet performs Terry Riley’s Sun Rings at Notre Dame ... Audra McDonald returns to California’s Central Valley ... Brad Mehldau Trio tours France, Italy ... Pat Metheny Unity Group plays out West ... Chris Thile, Mike Marshall play duo shows in Pacific Northwest ... and more ...

John Adams has teamed up with Toronto Symphony Orchestra Music Director Peter Oundjian for the tenth-annual New Creations Festival, running Saturday, March 1, through Friday, March 7. Following his TSO debut in the 2011 New Creations Festival, Adams returns with his music as a focus in the 2014 Festival, with Oundjian leading the TSO in his Doctor Atomic Symphony and the composer leading the orchestra in the Canadian premieres of his Slonimsky’s Earbox and Absolute Jest.

Jonny Greenwood and the London Contemporary Orchestra perform music from his film scores in London ... John Adams leads Orquesta Nacional de España in Beethoven and Adams ... Bombino concludes Europe tour in Benelux ... Shawn Colvin sings in Connecticut ... Jeremy Denk joins Spokane Symphony Orchestra ... Fatoumata Diawara tours Vermont and Montréal ... Richard Goode gives recital in Gent ... Iron and Wine heads South ... Kronos Quartet celebrates music of Mali in Maryland ... Audra McDonald is in Massachusetts ... Pat Metheny Unity Group plays Texas ... Sara Watkins sets sail on a Caribbean cruise ...

Emmylou Harris and Shawn Colvin will join fellow Grammy Award-winning and/or -nominated women in music for Grammy Festival at Sea: Women Who Rock, a four-day cruise aboard the Norwegian Pearl, departing from Miami and headed to the Bahamas, November 4-8, 2014. Harris and Colvin join Heart, Indigo Girls, Estelle, Skylar Grey, and others for performances, Q&As, and other activities hosted by the performers. There also will be one-of-a-kind opportunities to interact with the artists on board.

To coincide with the release of her new self-titled album, Natalie Merchant will perform two concerts at Milton Court Concert Hall in London on May 10 & 11, showcasing new songs as well as material drawn from her catalogue as a solo artist and with 10,000 Maniacs. These two concerts are part of a wider celebration at the Barbican to mark Nonesuch Records’ 50th anniversary, including a marathon weekend entitled Explorations: The Sound of Nonesuch Records (May 17-18), during which Merchant will join fellow Nonesuch artists Kronos Quartet, Rhiannon Giddens, Sam Amidon, and Olivia Chaney, and others for a unique concert of traditional and contemporary music collaborations. Tickets are on sale now.