Nonesuch President Bob Hurwitz was featured on the NPR program Here & Now last week. He spoke with show co-host Robin Young about his more than three decades as head of the label and shares his perspective on the unique artists with whom he has worked over those years. "The rarest thing is when you hear someone who is doing something you have never heard before, and you love it," says Hurwitz. "And then it's a kind of instant reaction, almost like falling in love." You can hear the Here & Now piece, which includes music from several of those artists, here.

Longtime Nonesuch Records senior executive David Bither has been named Co-President of the label, effective January 1, 2016. Bither, who joined Nonesuch in 1995 as Senior Vice President, has played an instrumental role in guiding the label's A&R direction and forging its distinctive culture. The move comes in the wake of the announcement at the end of September that current Nonesuch President Bob Hurwitz will be gradually stepping away from the day-to-day running of the company. Once the transition is complete in 2017, Bither will become sole President, with Hurwitz serving as Chairman Emeritus, continuing to work with selected Nonesuch artists as an executive producer.

Nonesuch Records President Bob Hurwitz has announced his intention to gradually step away from the day-to-day running of the label. Under his transition plan, Hurwitz, who has been head of the iconic label for the past 31 years, will remain President through the end of 2016. He will become Chairman Emeritus in January 2017. This move will allow Hurwitz to continue working at the label in an A&R capacity, including as Executive Producer on ten to twelve albums a year, while also being able to devote more time on a variety of ongoing interests, among which are teaching, writing, and archival projects. Hurwitz’s successor as President will be announced shortly.

David Littlejohn, who taught journalism at the University of California, Berkeley, for 35 years, died at his home in Kensington, California, on June 4. He was 78. Littlejohn published some 400 works—reviews, profiles and critical essays—and 14 books in his lifetime. He also worked on the arts program Critic at Large, which aired on PBS stations across the United States. Nonesuch Records President Bob Hurwitz, who was a student of Littlejohn’s at Berkeley in 1971, offers this remembrance.

As part of its tenth-anniversary commemoration of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, New Orleans Area Habitat for Humanity (NOAHH) has begun a ten-day, ten-home building blitz called Rebuilding America Street, in conjunction with Habitat for Humanity International's AmeriCorps Build-A-Thon. Nonesuch and Warner Bros. Records staff members are proud to join the Build-A-Thon from Memorial Day through its culmination on Saturday, May 30. In 2005, Nonesuch released the benefit album Our New Orleans, proceeds from which supported NOAHH's building of homes for Musicians' Village in New Orleans' Upper Ninth Ward.

Composer John Adams's 1991 opera The Death of Klinghoffer received its Metropolitan Opera premiere last night, the first of eight Met performances during the 2014–15 season. The opera, with a libretto by Alice Goodman, was originally directed by frequent Adams collaborator Peter Sellars. It addresses the 1985 hijacking of the Achille Lauro ocean liner and the murder of a Jewish-American passenger, Leon Klinghoffer, by Palestinian terrorists. Nonesuch Records released the first recording of The Death of Klinghoffer, with the Orchestra of the Opéra de Lyon, in 1992. Here, Nonesuch President Robert Hurwitz offers his reflections on the piece and some background about the 1992 recording

As the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s celebration of Nonesuch Records’ 50th anniversary, Nonesuch Records at BAM, began with a series of unforgettable concerts from Philip Glass, Steve Reich, Timo Andres, Nico Muhly, Brad Mehldau, and Chris Thile earlier this week, NPR’s All Things Considered took a look back at the label’s history and its evolution over the decades, talking with Nonesuch President Bob Hurwitz (who celebrates his own 30th anniversary with the company this year), founder Jac Holzman, and artists Thile, Randy Newman, and Jeremy Denk. "Sometimes good things come in small packages," says NPR. Nonesuch Records at BAM continues through September 28.

Nonesuch Records President Bob Hurwitz and Senior Vice President David Bither recently sat down with the folks at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) in Brooklyn, New York, to discuss the history of Nonesuch Records, the family of artists, and the longstanding relationship between those artists and BAM for an online exclusive video. This comes in advance of BAM's forthcoming celebration of the 50th anniversary of the label: Nonesuch Records at BAM: Celebrating a Label Without Labels, a wide-ranging series of concerts and events, September 9–28, 2014. Watch the video here.

The legendary producer John McClure passed away at his home in Vermont recently. McClure produced countless recordings for Columbia Records, including many famed recordings with Leonard Bernstein, Aaron Copland, and Igor Stravinsky; led the Columbia Masterworks label; and produced or engineered several albums for Nonesuch Records, working with John Adams, Dawn Upshaw, Mandy Patinkin, Audra McDonald, and others. Nonesuch President Bob Hurwitz offers this remembrance.

Jac Holzman, the founder of both Elektra Records and Nonesuch Records, will receive the NYU Steinhardt Music Business Program’s Visionary Award at a ceremony on Wednesday. Holzman will interact with students, faculty, and administrators and discuss his six‐decade career with Phil Galdston, NYU Faculty Songwriter‐in‐Residence and Master Teacher in Songwriting. "Jac Holzman is a towering figure in music," noted Dr. Ron Sadoff, Director of the Department of Music and Performing Arts Professions. "He has brought a unique combination of skills, talent, and insight to his work, and, in so doing, forever changed the cultural and business landscape."

Today is the 50th anniversary of Nonesuch Records. It was 20 years after the founding, 30 years ago today, that Bob Hurwitz, the label's president, was offered that position. Here he reflects on his early days at the company.

On Tuesday, June 11, Nonesuch Records Senior Vice President David Bither was honored at the annual Bang on a Can Benefit and presented with the organization’s 2013 Visionary Award. The special event included an intimate concert featuring Bang on a Can’s Asphalt Orchestra, violinist Todd Reynolds, Bang on a Can All-Star David Cossin with Wilco's Glenn Kotche, Devendra Banhart, and Carolina Chocolate Drops. The evening brought moving tributes from Nonesuch President Bob Hurwitz and Bither’s brother Philip. Here are the remarks David Bither gave in accepting the award.