The year that began with the final season of HBO's The Wire and the Nonesuch release of the series' only soundtracks—"... and all the pieces matter": Five Years of Music from "The Wire" and Beyond Hamsterdam: Baltimore Tracks from "The Wire"—now comes to a close with the release of the complete five seasons in a single, 23-DVD box set: "a handsome, thorough and well-appointed cap to the show’s amazing run," says Paste magazine, for what "was the best show on television ... It was—is—a monument."

Mandy Patinkin begins a two-week residency at Manhattan's Public Theater tonight in honor of the 20th anniversary of his first concert at the esteemed New York City venue. Accompanied by pianist Paul Ford, Mandy will alternate among three different programs, beginning tonight with Dress Casual, featuring music by Rodgers and Hammerstein, Stephen Sondheim, Harry Chapin, and others; Celebrating Sondheim, a journey through the music and lyrics of the legendary composer; and Mamaloshen, an exploration of traditional, classic, and contemporary songs sung entirely in Yiddish.

Kronos Quartet's performance in Carnegie Hall's Zankel Hall on Friday night featured a number of first performances: three New York premieres, including that of Glenn Kotche's Anomaly, and three world premieres. Also on the program was the piece that first launched the group in 1973: George Crumb's Black Angels. The New York Times says, for Kronos, it was "a springboard for an extraordinary career of boundary-breaking discovery and innovation." Friday night's "vivid, powerfully realized staging" added still more to the power of the piece, at one point eliciting "a collective gasp" from the audience.

Following his sold-out concert at Carnegie Hall with Kronos Quartet on Friday night, Glenn Kotche joined his Wilco bandmates for a sold-out show of their own at the Auditorium Theater in Rochester, New York. It was their first-ever performance in the city, leading Rochester Democrat and Chronicle to exclaim: "It was worth the wait ... as spectacular a show as we've seen this year."

k.d. lang returns to The Tonight Show with Jay Leno this evening to perform a song from her latest Nonesuch release, Watershed. Also scheduled to appear on tonight's episode are actor Will Smith and Food Network celebrity chef Paula Deen. Coincidentally, Smith recently made Barbara Walters's list of the year's "most fascinating people," a distinction inaugurated in 1993 by, among others, k.d. lang.

Glenn Kotche and Kronos Quartet premiere Kotche piece at Carnegie Hall; Kronos continues with a Family Concert ... Dawn Upshaw is at Carnegie to perform Golijov's Ainadamar with Orchestra of St. Luke's ... Adams's A Flowering Tree gets its Japanese premiere ... David Byrne continues his musical "outpouring of joy" (Hartford Courant) in Connecticut and Tennessee ... Brad Mehldau plays two nights in Paris ... Mandy Patinkin keynotes SightLife's fall fundraiser and preps for two-week residency at New York's Public Theater ... Reich's Electric Counterpoint gets a xylosynth perfromance in England ... Wilco is on the road with Neil Young ... and more ...

Congratulations to Brad Mehldau, who received the prestigious Edison Jazz Music Award (the Dutch Grammy) in the Jazz International category for his latest Nonesuch release, his Trio's Live recording from New York's Village Vanguard. At the ceremony, held at the Frits Philipshall in Eindhoven, Netherlands, on November 28, Brad performed Lennon/McCartney's "Martha My Dear," which the Trio recording on their 2005 Nonesuch album, Day Is Done.

The Glass Box, the new 10-CD Nonesuch retrospective of works by Philip Glass, is recommended in The Republican, out of Western Massachusetts,  among "the more notable box sets" of the year, describing it as "one of the most innovative of this year and certainly one of the most musically fascinating." Glass has also announced the initial line-up for his annual Tibet House Benefit Concert at Carnegie Hall in February. Slated to perform are Vampire Weekend, Patti Smith, and The National.

The Grammy nominations are in, and a big congratulations goes out to the many Nonesuch artists whose work has been recognized by the Recording Academy, the organization behind the awards. Pat Metheny, Bill Frisell, Brad Mehldau, Ry Cooder, Emmylou Harris, Toumani Diabaté, Youssou N'Dour, Stephen Sondheim, Jonny Greenwood, and Isabel Bayrakdarian were all recognized for their recent Nonesuch releases, as were producers Danger Mouse and Judith Sherman for their work on Nonesuch albums this year.

To celebrate Elliott Carter’s 100th birthday, Nonesuch will release Elliott Carter: A Nonesuch Retrospective, a four-disc set, in February 2009. The discs include most of the recordings Nonesuch made of Carter’s music between 1968 and 1985, with performances by such acclaimed musicians as Paul Jacobs, Gilbert Kalish, the Composers Quartet, Jan DeGaetani, Fred Sherry, Arthur Weisberg, the Contemporary Chamber Ensemble, and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra conducted by James Levine; plus a 58-page booklet with photos, score examples, texts, an essay by Paul Griffiths, and tributes by musicians and composers.

Steve Reich's complete musical archive has been acquired by the Paul Sacher Foundation, a research center for contemporary music, with a vast collection of estates from leading composers and performers. The composer's working papers, comprising letters, sound recordings, manuscripts, along with his many audio and program files, will soon be made accessible to scholars at the Foundation's headquarters in Basel, Switzerland.

As was just announced, Amadou & Mariam’s new album, Welcome to Mali, will be released in the US this March. It was released last month in the UK to great critical acclaim, taking the top spot on Metacritic's as the year's best-reviewed album. The Observer named it the CD of the Week, describing it as "consistently banging; busily upbeat and lushly-produced." Both Observer Music Monthly and Uncut give the album a perfect five stars; Pitchfork gives it an 8.4 and concludes: "'Inevitable' is a pretty good word for the stardom of Amadou & Mariam. People this amazingly talented and open to new sounds and ideas rarely remain obscure, especially after so many years honing their craft and building their catalog."