Audra McDonald follows her stellar Tanglewood performance with a trip to Washington, DC, to perform at A Broadway Celebration, hosted by President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama at the White House, tonight. Tune in to a live web stream of tonight's event starting at 7 PM EDT on whitehouse.gov. The show will be broadcast on PBS stations across the US starting October 20.

Laurie Anderson played the fourth and final concert in her brief tour with music from her album Homeland at The Birchmere in Alexandria, Virginia, on Friday. The Washington Post calls Homeland "one of her best ... more contemplative, as well as prettier than Anderson's best-known work." She will sign copies of the new album at Other Music in New York City on Wednesday.

The Carolina Chocolate Drops brought the latest leg of their US summer tour to a close with a free outdoor concert in Milwaukee and return to the States in late August. Up next, the Drops head to Europe for a brief festival tour, with stops in the UK, Norway, and Belgium. The trio sat down for a quick video chat about the tour you can watch here.

Christina Courtin performed at Joe's Pub in New York City on Friday night and performs again in New York later this month for the Reclaim the Coast concert at City Winery to benefit the Gulf Restoration Network. Courtin recently performed two songs off her self-titled Nonesuch debut album in Brooklyn for La Blogotheque's "Take-Away Shows." You can watch the resulting videos here.

Kronos Quartet, Philip Glass perform his Dracula score in Germany ... Alarm Will Sound are in residence at Mizzou New Music Fest ... Laurie Anderson brings Homeland to The Birchmere ...  Ben Folds guests with Utah Symphony ... Marlboro Music opens under Richard Goode's artistic direction ... Gidon Kremer's Lockenhaus Fest concludes ... The Low Anthem, Allen Toussaint play Green River Festival ... Audra McDonald debuts at Tanglewood ... Natalie Merchant continues at Town Hall ... Punch Brothers tour Michigan ... Joshua Redman's Double Trio tours Europe ... and more ...

News of the engagement of Bristol Palin (Sarah Palin's daughter) and Levi Johnston comes on the heels of the forthcoming Nonesuch release of the Ben Folds and Nick Hornby album Lonely Avenue, featuring the track "Levi Johnston's Blues," which Folds and Hornby were inspired to write after the young couple's introduction to the world at the 2008 Republican National Convention. The Huffington Post calls Lonely Avenue "one of the most interesting collaborations of the year." Listen to the album track and read the lyrics here.

The new film I Am Love, featuring the music of John Adams, has now opened in movie theaters across the US, with still more to be added in the coming weeks. The Huffington Post says that wonderful as it is, what "was truly powerful was the music used in the film." The Arts Desk calls the soundtrack album "an excellent single CD introduction to one of our greatest modern composers," complete with "impulsive, inventive and melodically rich post-systems gems."

Alarm Will Sound is the resident ensemble of the inaugural Mizzou New Music Summer Festival, taking place all this week at the University of Missouri in Columbia, Missouri. The school’s Mizzou New Music Institute selected eight composers from around the world to participate in workshops and master classes and have their work premiered by Alarm Will Sound in the festival's culminating concert this Sunday.

Laurie Anderson created an unforgettable four minutes of late-night television when she performed "Only an Expert," from her album Homeland, on Late Night with David Letterman last night, adding new references to the BP oil disaster. At the song's end, Letterman exclaims: "Exactly. That's exactly what I was thinking." The performance is featured on The Daily Beast's Video Cheat Sheet. BlogCritics says: "If there's one CD so far this year that's a must buy—Homeland is it."

Natalie Merchant continues the first week of her summer tour with two nights at The Town Hall in New York City. The Hartford Courant, reviewing Tuesday's show, says Merchant's "distinct voice remains an instrument of power and beauty." She and her band can be heard performing on the latest episode of NPR's eTown, her first appearance on the show in a decade. The Washington Post's Express Night Out calls Merchant's Nonesuch debut album, Leave Your Sleep, "her most ambitious effort to date."

The Low Anthem kicks off its summer tour this weekend, starting three weeks of shows along the US East Coast, from Virginia to Vermont. Following a Sunday set at the Green River Festival in Massachusetts, the Providence-based quartet heads back to its hometown to headline a benefit concert for Congressional candidate David Segal. The band returns to Rhode Island at the end of month to perform on the Newport Folk Festival's Main Stage.

Laurie Anderson performs the song "Only an Expert," off her new album, Homeland, on the Late Show with David Letterman tonight. She will sign copies of the album at New York's Other Music shop next week. AnOther magazine calls Homeland "art of the highest order; daring and poetic it speaks truth where other important artists of the day have not, and, ultimately, shows us that Anderson is still at the top of her spy game."