Bill Frisell has won the award for Best International Guitar Player at the inaugural ECHO Jazz Awards. The award is being given for Frisell's latest Nonesuch release, Disfarmer. The ECHO gala awards ceremony will take place in Centennial Hall in Bochum, Germany, on May 5, and will be broadcast on German television on May 8.

John Adams led the LSO in the European premiere of his City Noir at London's Barbican Hall last week, to which the Times (UK) gives four stars and calls "brilliant." Adams and the LSO bring to Salle Pleyel in Paris to launch Domain privé John Adams, an 11-day celebration of the composer's music there and at Cité de la musique, with six concerts, three premieres, and a forum with the composer. The Vancouver Sun describes last weekend's Canadian premiere of Adams's Nixon in China as “brilliantly effective.”

Brad Mehldau's latest album, Highway Rider, is out now. The New York Times examines this "impressive" album and the pairing of Mehldau and producer Jon Brion. Given the success of their previous project, Largo, says the Times, this brings with it "a certain expectation, one that Highway Rider meets more than halfway." The Financial Times says: "Mehldau, with his trust in his own experience, came through in spades, pulling his musical influences into orchestrated coherence, and communicating the fun he had in doing it." The Times (UK) gives four stars to this "inspired set."

Stephen Sondheim celebrates his 80th birthday next Monday, March 22. The New York Philharmonic celebrates with two sold-out concerts at Lincoln Center tonight and tomorrow night, hosted by David Hyde Pierce and starring Audra McDonald, Mandy Patinkin, Michael Cerveris, Patti LuPone, Victoria Clark, Bernadette Peters, Elaine Stritch, and many others. Sondheim's A Little Night Music, due out April 6, is available for pre-order now from the Nonesuch Store.

Remember: Daylight Savings Time ... Carolina Chocolate Drops bring "playful bent" to NYC's Bowery Ballroom ... Vinicio Capossela concludes US tour in California ... Perspectives: Kronos Quartet continues at Carnegie Hall ... The Low Anthem headline ... The Magnetic Fields play third sold-out set at NYC's Town Hall ... Brad Mehldau goes solo in France ... Pat Metheny's Orchestrion tour of Europe continues ... Nicholas Payton is in residence at Village Vanguard ... Chris Thile plays his Mandolin Concerto with Winston-Salem ... Jeff Tweedy performs solo benefit shows at Chicago's Vic Theatre ... Dawn Upshaw, Emanuel Ax perform Chopin, Schumann at Barbican Hall ... and more ...

John Adams led the LSO in the European premiere of his City Noir at London's Barbican Hall last night. The Evening Standard gives it four stars, calling the new piece "a dazzling showpiece." Adams's first opera, Nixon in China, receives its Canadian premiere at the Vancouver Opera tomorrow for the 2010 Cultural Olympiad. Next week, Long Beach Opera presents the first LA staging in two decades. Los Angeles Times' Mark Swed reflects on the opera's history, calling it a "classic" and "a marvelous, ever interesting" work.

Brad Mehldau and his forthcoming Nonesuch release, Highway Rider, were slated to be featured on tomorrow's episode of NPR's Weekend Edition Saturday, but the segment has been postponed to a future date. The Guardian, in a five-star review of the album, calls it "the real deal," saying: "Highway Rider's contrasts and dramatic entries spring constant surprises, and show how much progress the mesmerising improviser has made as a big-ensemble composer."

Louis Andriessen will be the featured composer of the 2010 Frontiers+ festival at the Birmingham Conservatoire in Birmingham, England, which runs all next week, March 15 through 19. Performances for Frontiers+Andriessen come from an array of musicians and student performers. The composer will be in residence as well, attending performances, working with student performers, giving master classes to composition students, and receiving an Honorary Doctorate from Birmingham City University.

Pat Metheny and his recent Nonesuch release, Orchestrion, were slated to be featured on NPR's Morning Edition tomorrow morning, but will be rescheduled for a later date. Metheny was featured on BBC Radio 3's Late Junction earlier this week. The album is full of "lush diatonic harmonies and sweetly melodic improvisations," says Sequenza21, but "what makes this disc so special" is Metheny's "interaction with a robot ensemble" and its "surprising richness and warmth."

The Low Anthem, fresh off a two-week tour with The Avett Brothers, kicks off its first US headlining tour with two shows in DC tonight: a free early show at the Kennedy Center's Millennium Stage, which will be webcast live, at 6 PM ET, and a later set at the 9:30 Club. The Washington Examiner says of the band's Nonesuch debut, Oh My God, Charlie Darwin, that "critics were rightfully awed by the elegant, intricate stylings of the songs." Spinner previews the band's upcoming SXSW stint, asserting that the album has "pushed the band to the forefront of the burgeoning indie-folk scene."

Kronos Quartet performs the first of four performances over as many nights in Carnegie Hall's Zankel Hall tonight as part of the Hall's season-long Perspectives: Kronos Quartet. Tonight, Kronos and composer Terry Riley celebrate 30 years of collaboration, with an all-Riley program featuring a world premiere, two New York premieres, and selections from Sun Rings and Salome Dances for Peace.

Recollection, k.d. lang's most recent Nonesuch release, remains at No. 1 on the charts in Australia and in the Top 5 in her home country of Canada, where she wowed audiences at the Vancouver Winter Olympics last month. The Vancouver Sun, in one of two new articles on lang, says her "electrifying rendition of Leonard Cohen's 'Hallelujah' ...  is widely regarded as the highlight of the opening ceremonies." The Irish Times says: "The distinctive sound of k.d. lang’s rich voice transcends every divide she has crossed," with Recollection showcasing "most of her many fine moments in song."