Gidon Kremer and his Kremerata Baltica chamber orchestra begin a rare, six-city US tour at the 92nd Street Y's Kaufmann Concert Hall in NYC tonight, followed by performances at Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco, Stude Concert Hall in Houston, Hill Auditorium in Ann Arbor, Harris Theater in Chicago, and Ordway Center in St. Paul. The tour program features works by Weinberg, Pärt, Britten, and Shostakovich, including his satiric comic opera Antiformal Rayok, with bass Alexei Mochalov.

Carnegie Hall has announced its 2014–15 concert season, and featured among the performers taking the esteemed hall's stages are a number of artists familiar to readers of the Nonesuch Journal, including Jeremy Denk, Richard Goode, Gidon Kremer, Kronos Quartet, and Audra McDonald, as well as an all–Steve Reich program and the New York premiere of a work by Jonny Greenwood.

Fatoumata Diawara returns to North America for a month-long winter tour of Canada and the US. This leg opens with a six-city tour through Canada, starting in Alberta tonight, followed by stops in Ontario and Quebec. The US run begins February 7 with shows in Michigan, Indiana, Kentucky, North Carolina, Virginia, Vermont, and California. Diawara will be joined by fellow Malian musician Bassekou Kouyaté for several shows. She returns to the States to perform at the Savannah Music Festival in April on a double bill with Bombino.

Jeremy Denk performs Ligeti, Schumann, and Mozart in Philadelphia ... John Adams's opera Doctor Atomic opens in Karlsruhe, Germany ... Timo Andres's new percussion piece premieres at Notre Dame ... Shawn Colvin rounds US solo tour in Florida ... Richard Goode plays Debussy, Schubert, and Chopin in Scottsdale ... Inside Llewyn Davis opens in the UK ... Iron and Wine celebrates KUTX's first birthday in Austin ... Gidon Kremer, Kremerata Baltica continue at Canary Islands festival ... Natalie Merchant and orchestra perform in Colorado ... Sara Watkins plays SF Sketchfest ... and more ...

Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriters Shawn Colvin and Steve Earle announce a special run of tour dates together this March: “Songs and Stories, Together Onstage,” in which they share the stage for a night of song swapping, duets, storytelling, and guitar playing. These two longtime friends and mutual admirers will share music from their extensive catalogues as well as some of their favorite songs by other classic songwriters. The tour kicks off outside Pittsburgh on March 18, followed by stops in Bethlehem, Indianapolis, Atlanta, Troy, Boston, Philadelphia, Durham, Nashville, and Richmond.

The Barbican's 2014 marathon weekend, May 17 and 18, will celebrate Nonesuch Records in the label's 50th anniversary year. Entitled Explorations: The Sound of Nonesuch Records, this curated weekend of events includes five concerts taking place in LSO St Luke's, Guildhall School's new Milton Court Concert Hall, and the Barbican Hall, with performances from Jonny Greenwood, Kronos Quartet, Brad Mehldau, Timo Andres, Sam Amidon, Natalie Merchant, Rhiannon Giddens, Olivia Chaney, and others performing works by Greenwood, Mehldau, Andres, Steve Reich, John Adams, Philip Glass, Frederic Rzewski, Henryk Górecki, Donnacha Dennehy, and more. Satellite events will include Kronos at 40 (May 13) and Jeremy Denk (May 24) with further events to be announced.

The schedules for the Ojai Music Festival, held in Ojai, June 12–15, and Ojai North, presented by Cal Performances at Berkeley, June 19–21, have now been announced. Both festivals feature a broad-ranging program, reflecting the musical mind of this year's Music Director, Jeremy Denk, and including the premiere of a comic opera with libretto by Denk, and multiple performances from Denk and his fellow pianist and Nonesuch artist Timo Andres. Watch Denk discuss some of the Ojai programming here.

Iron and Wine, whose Nonesuch Records debut album, Ghost on Ghost, was named one of the Best New Releases of 2013 by Uncut, kicks off a US tour with a performance in Austin on Saturday to celebrate the first anniversary of KUTX; also performing are Neko Case and Thao & The Get Down Stay Down. Iron and Wine's tour continues at the Ann Arbor Folk Festival (also with Case) next week, followed by a benefit for the Old Town School of Folk Music in Chicago; stops in Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina; and a six-city tour of Florida. The music continues into the spring with a show in Hawaii and festival sets in Georgia and Delaware.

Kronos Quartet premieres music from the Oscar-nominated film Dirty Wars during a two-night run in Ann Arbor ... Bombino continues his Italian tour ... Shawn Colvin closes out California tour ... Jeremy Denk joins Baltimore Symphony Orchestra for Mozart ... Richard Goode plays Schumann in Berkeley ... Gidon Kremer, Kremerata Baltica perform in the Canary Islands ... Audra McDonald sings at two California universities ... Chris Thile concludes Australia tour in Tasmania and Melbourne ... Sara Watkins welcomes Sam Phillips to the Watkins Family Hour in LA ... and more ...

Bombino closes out a two-week tour of Australia at the Sydney Festival and in Melbourne ... Inside Llewyn Davis opens across US ... Shawn Colvin, who celebrates a birthday today, kicks off a California tour ... Jeremy Denk plays Ligeti and more in Boston ... Donnacha Dennehy resumes Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra residency ... Dr. John celebrates Gregg Allman in Atlanta ... Gidon Kremer kicks off Italian tour ... Audra McDonald hosts PBS's Live from Lincoln Center ... Natalie Merchant plays two symphonic shows in Florida ... Allen Toussaint celebrates New Orleans in NYC ... and more ...

The Carolina Chocolate Drops, who had announced a US tour for early 2014 last month, have now added several new dates to the tour, with confirmed shows from the end of January through the end of April. The group's lineup includes co-founder Rhiannon Giddens, multi-instrumentalist Hubby Jenkins, and two new musicians, cellist Malcolm Parson and multi-instrumentalist Rowan Corbett. The tour kicks off at the Charleston Music Hall on January 30, making stops across the Southeast through March, into the Northeast starting in the spring, then back South for MerleFest and more.

The Black Keys have announced a number of European tour dates for June and July of 2014, starting with the INmusic Festival in Zagreb, Croatia, followed by sets at Open Air St. Gallen in Switzerland, Down the Rabbit Hole Festival in Holland, Open'er Festival in Poland, Mainsquare Festival in France, Rock Werchter in Belgium, Rock in Roma in Italy, Optimus Alive in Portugal, and Bilbao BBK Live in Spain, before closing out at the Festival de Nimes in France.