Emmylou Harris kicks off the 2011 Sydney Festival ... John Adams Slonimsky's Earbox featured in LA Phil live cinematic broadcast across the US ... Timothy Andres performs with his brother in Connecticut ... The Black Keys are musical guests on Saturday Night Live ... Björk hosts karaoke marathon in Iceland to fight energy company sale ... David Byrne talks Here Lies Love on MPR's The Current ... Randy Newman joins Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra in New Orleans ... The Low Anthem plays close to home ... Stephen Sondheim's A Little Night Music closes on Broadway ... Allen Toussaint plays Tokyo ... and more ...

The Black Keys are in New York City this week to kick off the new year and the new season of NBC’s Saturday Night Live with host Jim Carrey. This appearance comes after a monumentally successful 2010 for the duo, which they closed out with three sold-out New Year's shows at Chicago's Aragon Ballroom. The Chicago Tribune says the band is an example of "how modern artists can earn mainstream success without sacrificing integrity," their live show exhibiting the "combination of persistence and persuasion that helped the band own 2010."

Wanda Jackson will ring in the New Year on Jools Holland's Hootenanny, airing on BBC Two starting at 11 PM on December 31. The 18th annual Hootenanny will feature Jackson's rendition of Amy Winehouse's "You Know I'm No Good," off her forthcoming album The Party Ain't Over, plus performances from Kylie Minogue, Vampire Weekend, Cee-Lo Green, Roger Daltrey, Toots Hibbert, and Secret Sisters, among many others.

Tonight marks the season finale of The Sing-Off, the NBC a cappella competition, in which all-vocal singing groups vie for a professional recording contract and $100,000; tune in at 8 PM EST to see who wins. Ben Folds has garnered nothing but the highest praise as a judge on the show. He spoke with the Wall Street Journal about Lonely Avenue, his collaborative album with Nick Hornby, which the Journal describes as "a Tin Pan Alley-style collaboration," resulting in "a quirky and loose affair."

Punch Brothers perform on NPR's Mountain Stage ... Emmylou Harris hosts Miracle on Music Row in Nashville to benefit Bonaparte's Retreat dog shelter ... The Mark Morris Dance Group concludes its run of The Hard Nut at BAM in Brooklyn ... Jeff Bridges, the star of True Grit, hosts Saturday Night Live ... and more ...

On January 8, 2011, The Black Keys will kick off the new season of NBC’s Saturday Night Live with host Jim Carrey. This appearance comes after a monumentally successful 2010 for the duo, whose acclaimed release Brothers, recently received six Grammy nominations. Additionally the album was named iTunes’ Album of the Year and Rolling Stone’s No. 2 Album of the Year. The record also tops American Songwriter’s year-end list and is featured on round-ups at NPR, Time magazine, and Magnet, among many others. The duo is also currently featured on the cover of Spin magazine’s Best of 2010 issue as Artist of the Year.

Ben Folds brought his Lonely Avenue tour to NYC on Tuesday for a sold-out show at the Beacon. The tour continues late next month, including two just-announced shows in Missouri and Oklahoma. The Village Voice describes the songs of Lonely Avenue as "stupendously likable." Nick Hornby, Folds's writing partner, made the USA Today's Pop Candy's 100 People of 2010. Folds appeared on the Today show to talk about the album at The Sing-Off; you can watch the segment here.

k.d. lang recorded the modern Christmas classic “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch” for the Glee cast’s holiday album. Tonight on Fox TV at 8 PM, the song will be featured on the show’s special Christmas episode. lang will release a new album of her own, Sing It Loud, in the spring of 2011 on Nonesuch Records; further details will be announced shortly.

Ben Folds returns to NBC tonight as a judge on Season 2 of The Sing-Off, the search for America's best a cappella group, premiering tonight at 8 PM ET. The New York Times calls Folds "one of the better reality-competition judges television has seen: knowledgeable, engaging, constructive rather than cruel." The Washington Post says, unlike other, more cynical TV competitions, the goal here is "the fleeting, ephemeral beauty of a song well sung." Folds tells Spinner: "People singing together is very underrated and very necessary."

Ben Folds and Nick Hornby's Lonely Avenue is CD of the Week at Minnesota Public Radio's The Current. Folds will appear on A Different Spin with Blink 182's Mark Hoppus on Fuse tonight. On Friday, Folds, an accomplished photographer, will present some of his images in the series Music on ... Photography at the National Geographic Society's Washington, DC, headquarters. Season 2 of NBC's The Sing-Off gets under way on Monday, with Folds returning to judge the a cappella competition; he has begun blogging about it at nbc.com.

Stephen Sondheim celebrated his 80th birthday this past March, a momentous milestone that has been marked in many ways throughout the year, including two New York Philharmonic concerts at Lincoln Center. The New York Times called it "thrilling." That show, Sondheim! The Birthday Concert, is airing on PBS's Great Performances, starting tonight. David Hyde Pierce hosts a stellar cast, including Mandy Patinkin, Audra McDonald, Laura Benanti, John McMartin, Michael Cerveris, Patti LuPone, Victoria Clark, Bernadette Peters, Elaine Stritch, and many others.

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.