Laurie Anderson, Philip Glass, John Zorn, and Lou Reed will be among the artists performing at the Concert for Japan, a 12-hour event on April 9 presented by NYC's Japan Society to benefit organizations that directly help people affected by the earthquake and tsunamis that struck Japan. Additional activities will be available for all ages, including making paper cranes and washi lanterns for good luck, basic Japanese language classes, and access to the exhibit Bye Bye Kitty!!!. All proceeds will go to Japan Society's Japan Earthquake Relief Fund.

SXSW is in full swing today in Austin, with countless showcases, performances, parties, events, and radio broadcast on tap. Emmylou Harris and Jessica Lea Mayfield are among today's SXSW performers who can be heard around the world when their sets stream live online: Harris via NY public radio station WFUV, Mayfield on the Waterloo Records site. "Our Hearts Are Wrong," off Mayfield's album Tell Me, has been named NPR Song of the Day.

Bill Frisell launches an 11-city European tour featuring the music of his last Nonesuch album, Disfarmer, in Hamburg, Germany, tonight. Joining him on tour are steel-guitar player Greg Leisz, bassist Viktor Krauss, and violinist Carrie Rodriquez. In the multimedia piece, inspired by the life, work, and subjects of eccentric photographer Mike Disfarmer, projected images of Disfarmer's portraits illuminate Frisell's musical perspectives on this fascinating character.

Emmylou Harris, who is in Austin, Texas, this week to perform at the SXSW Music Conference, has announced a series of European tour dates in May and June in support of her forthcoming album, Hard Bargain. The European shows include two previously announced dates in Norway along with nearly a dozen new shows in Denmark, Sweden, Ireland, the UK, Netherlands, and Germany. Prior to the tour, Harris will take part in a TimesTalk in New York City.

Steve Reich talks to The State of Things from NPR member station WUNC today about Kronos Quartet's premiere of his latest work, WTC 9/11, in an all-Reich program Saturday at Duke University, where Reich and Kronos are artists-in-residence this week. Saturday's concert includes all three quartets Reich has written for Kronos. The Quartet gives the NY premiere of WTC 9/11 in an all-Reich program at Carnegie Hall on April 30, with Bang on a Can All-Stars, Glenn Kotche, eighth blackbird, and So Percussion.

The SXSW Music Conference gets under way in Austin, Texas, this week as thousands of bands and music lovers from all over the world descend on the live-music capital for several days of non-stop music making. Nonesuch artists will be well represented among them, with a dozen performances to come from Emmylou Harris, Jessica Lea Mayfield (one of SPIN's 35 Must-Hear Acts at SXSW), and Wanda Jackson. Many of the events will be broadcast live on the radio and online for fans around the world to hear.

The Low Anthem plays the pasta sauce factory of Smart Flesh fame ... Carolina Chocolate Drops head home to North Carolina ... Shawn Colvin joins Loudon Wainwright III in New England ... Philip Glass Festival unfolds in Southern California ... Emmylou Harris celebrates Canadian Music Week ... Wanda Jackson plays her home state of Oklahoma ... k.d. lang and the Siss Boom Bang take to the streets of LA for John Varvatos benefit ... Jessica Lea Mayfield is in Texas for the 35 Conferette ... Brad Mehldau, Joshua Redman, Timothy Andres play Carnegie Hall ... Randy Newman conquers Colorado ... Punch Brothers play in Alaska ... Stephen Sondheim receives the Olivier Special Award ... and more ...

Brad Mehldau, Joshua Redman, Timothy Andres and others join forces for the world premiere of Mehldau's Rock 'n' Roll Dances No. 3 and 4 at Carnegie Hall and at the Sanders Theatre in Cambridge this weekend; Mehldau and Andres also perform excerpts from Andres's Shy and Mighty. The BBC says of Mehldau's "excellent" new album, Live in Marciac: "After repeated hearings, the music sounds as fresh as ever ... His music is so rich that at times it is possible to believe two players are at work." All About Jazz says it "stands out as a signpost on Mehldau's evolutionary path." PopMatters calls it "100 minutes of pure uninterrupted piano virtuosity" through which "Mehldau is able to show off the full scope of his sickening talents."

Laurie Anderson's recent performance on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon will be rebroadcast tonight on NBC. She performed an excerpt of "Another Day in America," off her album Homeland, with her male alter ego, Fenway Bergamot, contributing vocals. Prefix, in a recap of the performance, says: "Anderson’s command of drama is still palpable. Respek!" She speaks about her work with Robert Storr, dean of the Yale University School of Art, at New York's 92nd Street Y tonight.

The Carolina Chocolate Drops and Punch Brothers will be among the performers at the first Dave Matthew Band Caravan, a series of three-day, multi-artist festivals taking place this summer. Atlantic City, New Jersey, will host this first Caravan, which will take place June 24–26 at Bader Field, formerly the site of the Atlantic City Municipal Airport. Tickets go on sale to the general public on Friday, March 25.

Wanda Jackson will perform at Rachael Ray's Feedback Party at the SXSW Music Festival in Austin next Saturday, March 19. She is the latest Nonesuch artist to join the SXSW line-up, joining Emmylou Harris and Jessica Lea Mayfield. Jackson comes in at No. 1 on the Prefix list celebrating "some of our personal favorite frontwomen, singers, songwriters, and icons" on International Women's Day. This Saturday, she will be featured on CMT's Insider.

Randy Newman's North American tour brought the singer-songwriter to the New York area for several performances, including Saturday's show at The Town Hall in New York City. Time Out New York exclaims: "The Town Hall is across the street from the Stephen Sondheim Theatre, whose namesake, along with Bob Dylan, gives this great American songwriter his only real competition." The Village Voice concurs, calling him "the greatest living songwriter not named something that rhymes with Smob Smylan."