John Adams's new album, featuring his Son of Chamber Symphony performed by the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), led by Adams, and his String Quartet, performed by the St. Lawrence String Quartet, is out next Tuesday, May 31. All this week, NPR's Lara Pellegrinelli is following ICE's executive director, flautist Claire Chase, as she goes about her exhausting daily schedule, reporting via Twitter and preparing a piece to air at a later date on NPR.

John Adams received an honorary Doctor of Music degree from the Juilliard School at the conservatory's 106th Commencement Ceremony and delivered the commencement address at the ceremony, held at Alice Tully Hally in New York City on Friday, May 20, 2011. Also receiving honorary doctoral degrees from Juilliard President Joseph W. Polisi were pianist and producer Herbie Hancock, actor Derek Jacobi, and choreographer Twyla Tharp. The full text of Adams's commencement address is posted here.

Jessica Lea Mayfield's "Our Hearts Are Wrong," the opening track off her album Tell Me, has been named American Songwriter's Lyric of the Week. Relix, in its review of Tell Me, says Mayfield "twists her country roots into contemporary alternative rock that even folds in bits of hip-hop, psychedelic-soul and electro-pop without ever stretching too far for comfort ... always keeping the focus on Mayfield’s hypnotic, timeless and vulnerable vocals." KDHX in St. Louis calls her recent performance there "stunning ... with a mix of hauntingly gorgeous vocals and feedback-laden guitar wizardry."

John Adams received an honorary doctorate from the Juilliard School, gave the commencement address ... Laurie Anderson performs Delusion in Germany ... The Black Keys, up for Billboard Music Awards, play the Hang Out Music Fest ... James Farm tours Europe ... Ben Folds tours Australia ... Wanda Jackson hits Houston, New Orleans ... Kronos Quartet performs in Phoenix ... The Low Anthem talks to Marketplace ... Philip Selway plays a set at Liverpool Sound City ... Chris Thile and Michael Daves are in Annapolis ... and more ...

Irish composer Donnacha Dennehy's Grá agus Bás receives a perfect five stars from the Guardian, which calls the title piece "remarkable ... a piece of startling freshness." That the Night Come, also on the new album and sung by Dawn Upshaw, "is exquisitely shaped and perfectly conceived for Upshaw's voice." Los Angeles Times music critic Mark Swed calls the title piece "rapturous" and says "Upshaw gets at the heart of Yeats’ sad, haunted beauty" of That the Night Come.

Jonny Greenwood's orchestral piece Doghouse, featuring music used in his Norwegian Wood film score, receives its US premiere in performances by Ensemble Signal with the Wordless Music Orchestra and conductor Brad Lubman at the New York Society for Ethical Culture tonight and tomorrow night. Tonight's concert will be webcast live on Q2. The Wall Street Journal says the Radiohead guitarist's "sideline role as a composer of orchestral music might just trump what he's been up to with his band."

Tell My Sister, the three-disc set of newly remastered editions of Kate & Anna McGarrigle, Dancer with Bruised Knees, and a third disc of demos, receives four stars in the Irish Times, which says of the self-titled debut: "Its timeless melodies, shimmering voices, songs of honest pain, vulnerability and simple joy and its unabashed pride in roots parlour-room music make it a desert-island disc." Anna McGarrigle talks with the Montreal Gazette about the new collection and hearing her late sister's voice on the demos. “She sounds so fierce in it ... The energy that woman had was so amazing.”

Ben Folds has three more shows in his Australian tour, before heading to Indonesia, Japan, and South Korea. He spoke with 774 ABC Melbourne radio about working with Nick Hornby on their album Lonely Avenue, which The Australian calls "a fine ensemble of adult pop songs ... He has a gift for seizing on the minutiae of everyday life and wrapping them in well-crafted melodies." The Brisbane Times says: "The musician's feel for the rhythm and emotional arc of a good story perfectly complements the novelist's lyrics."

Randy Newman was featured in the Observer last weekend, in which his song "Losing You" was described as "a reminder of what a poignant musician Newman can be." Now, as part of the Guardian and Observer's How I Wrote video series, he performs the song at the piano and shares the beautiful and touching true-life story behind the song. Watch the video here. The A.V. Club offers the uninitiated an introduction to Newman's work, calling him "one of the finest songwriters of his time."

The Carolina Chocolate Drops are today's Daytrotter artist: their session of five songs has now been published. The band's infectious sounds brighten even the deepest doldrums brought on by a relentlessly sodden spring, according to the site. "They bust you out of your stupor and you're immediately more agile, only because you've got to keep up with your heart rate," says Daytrotter. "We feel good again ... We're at a hoedown that was put together just for us, just to build us back up into people who could appreciate a clear blue, bright yellow day."

The Low Anthem, Carolina Chocolate Drops, and Punch Brothers are all included in the new SPIN magazine article inviting readers to "Meet the New Stars of Americana." As distinct as their music is, "the idea uniting these bands is their joint pursuit of Americana 'feeling' a warm-and-friendly guilelessness that's been largely absent from the pop landscape for years," says SPIN. "They may borrow from ancient strains of folk music, but their sepia-toned approximation of those sounds is almost incidental: It's all about the heart."

Emmylou Harris will serve along with Tennessee's Governor and First Lady as honorary co-chairs for the 73rd Annual National Folk Festival in Nashville over Labor Day weekend. The festival is free. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, reviewing her new album, says: "Few weave stories like Emmylou Harris. Her Hard Bargain is a collection of tales that can make us feel whole again." The Boston Phoenix says Harris is "still singing and writing beautifully after all these years ... Hard Bargain is a gorgeous album."