Ben Folds launches his fall US tour at The Riviera in Chicago tonight, featuring music from Lonely Avenue, his collaboration with Nick Hornby. The 14-city tour features a Thanksgiving weekend homecoming performance to benefit the Nashville Symphony and concludes at the Beacon in New York City in December. Folds will also participate in the National Geographic Live series Music on ... Photography and will return as a judge on NBC's a cappella competition The Sing-Off. Folds and Hornby discuss their new album on Sirius/XM's Bob Edwards Show.

Punch Brothers will appear on NYC public radio station WFUV, 90.7 FM (wfuv.org), today at 1 PM ET, performing songs from their album Antifogmatic. Watch The Late Show with David Letterman tomorrow night for their performance with Steve Martin. And tune in to A Prairie Home Companion Thanksgiving weekend, when Punch Brothers will be the musical guests. They open for Dave Matthews Band in two shows this weekend.

Gidon Kremer and the Kremerata Baltica continue their North American tour with a sold-out show at the Newman Center in Denver, featuring works from their album De Profundis. The San Francisco Chronicle describes Sunday's show in Berkeley as "deeply satisfying" and Lera Auerbach's Sogno di Stabat Mater, off the album, as "fascinating. The San Jose Mercury News calls that piece "best of all" in this concert of "enchantment and mystery," the new album "superb ... dark and mesmerizing."

AfroCubism makes its much belated North American release this week, followed by a three-city tour of Montreal, Boston, and New York City. The New Yorker calls the project a "collaboration well worth the wait." The New York Times, in a feature article on the album, calls it "a rich yet subtle fusion of African and Cuban sounds." AfroCubism is also featured in a Reuters/Billboard article and reviewed by Dusted, which calls it "elegant."

Gidon Kremer and the Kremerata Baltica launched their North American tour over the weekend. Los Angeles Times music critic Mark Swed calls their new album, De Profundis, "profound, pioneering," and says: "I can't think of another soloist before the public today who has Kremer's combination of depth and breadth—and technique." Time Out Chicago gives the album four stars, saying "Kremer’s ear and emotions are in perfect sync." The Denver Post says: "Like Kremer, the orchestra ... never fails to venture in unexpected directions, as its latest thematic album, De Profundis, makes clear." Seattle's Crosscut, reviewing the tour opener, says: "The concert crackled with the sense of inspired adventure that is their trademark."

Allen Toussaint celebrates New Orleans in Ohio residency ... Alarm Will Sound celebrates Halloween at UC Davis ... Laurie Anderson performs Delusion in Maryland ... The Black Keys tour the UK ... Gidon Kremer, Kremerata Baltica start North American tour in Seattle ... Kronos Quartet launches partnership with YBCA in San Francisco ... The Magnetic Fields attend Strange Powers screening in NYC ... Brad Mehldau closes out European tour ... Randy Newman joins Judd Apatow at 826 benefit in LA ... Punch Brothers plays two shows in Portland, Maine ... and more ...

Kronos Quartet launches a three-year partnership with San Francisco's Yerba Buena Center for the Arts with two nights of concerts at YBCA's Novellus Theater. The program includes George Crumb's Black Angels, Bob Ostertag's All the Rage, Ingram Marshall's Fog Tropes II, and new works by Aleksandra Vrebalov and Sahba Aminikia. "Kronos Quartet brings together an extraordinary legacy of evoking powerful expression with an unflagging commitment to supporting new artists and global perspectives," says YBCA curator Angela Mattox. "Tonight's program is emblematic of that commitment to support bold expression and profound human response."

Punch Brothers, Wanda Jackson, and Sara Watkins are all slated to perform at the 2011 Stagecoach country music festival, which will be held April 30 and May 1, 2011. Next year's Stagecoach marks the annual music festival's fifth consecutive year and will be held at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California. The festival celebrates more than five decades of country music with a diverse musical lineup, also including Rodney Crowell, Gatlin Brothers, Loretta Lynn, and many more.

The new documentary feature Strange Powers: Stephin Merritt and The Magnetic Fields, receives its North American theatrical release at the Film Forum in New York City tonight; the band and the filmmakers will attend. A new Magnetic Fields exhibition opens at Other Music in Manhattan as well. In the coming months, the film will open theaters in Toronto and in cities across the US, including Los Angeles, Austin, San Francisco, Minneapolis, Dallas, and Seattle.

The Low Anthem and Carolina Chocolate Drops have been selected to perform as part of Lincoln Center's acclaimed series American Songbook, which celebrates the diversity of American popular song, from the golden age of musical standards to today’s most dynamic songwriting. The Low Anthem perform on January 13, Carolina Chocolate Drops on February 2, in the Allen Room, overlooking Central Park. The two bands are set to tour together in December.

Gidon Kremer and the Kremerata Baltica launch their North American tour in Seattle this Friday. Their latest Nonesuch release, De Profundis, was featured on NPR's All Things Considered Sunday, among select albums for the fall. The album "plays through like a fascinating mix tape, with a surprise around every corner," says NPR classical producer Tom Huizenga. "It's fantastic ... a very heady but very listenable and terrific mix of music and politics."

Pat Metheny closed out his fall Orchestrion tour of North America with a final concert in Connecticut on Saturday. The Hartford Courant describes Metheny as "a visionary artist, as he displayed throughout Saturday's performance"; his "one-man orchestra proved to be an exciting and constantly creative endeavor." MassLive, reviewing Thursday's show in Northampton, says Metheny has "found a way to create world’s tightest jazz band."