Tigran Hamasyan was among the winners at the ECHO Jazz 2016 Awards. He took part in the awards ceremony held at Kampnagel in Hamburg on May 26, which was broadcast on NDR, receiving his award for International Instrumentalist of the Year, Piano, for his album Mockroot and performing the album track "Lilac." You can watch the performance here. Among the other winners were James Farm, named International Ensemble of the Year for its album City Folk, and Brad Mehldau, who received a special prize for his box set 10 Years Solo Live.

Steve Reich has been awarded the Michael Ludwig Nemmers Prize in Music Composition from the Bienen School of Music at Northwestern University. Established in 2004, the Nemmers Prize honors classical music composers of outstanding achievement who have significantly influenced the field of composition. "It is particularly gratifying to be honored in this way by a school of music, which demonstrates such passionate commitment to the study, composition, and performance of new music," says Reich. "I look forward to my two residencies at Northwestern for concerts of my music in 2017."

Laurie Anderson, in an interview with the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Denmark's Louisiana Channel, offers some sage advice to people both young and old. She suggests that applying a term as broad as "multimedia artist" to herself has helped keep her work from being pigeonholed and concludes: "Whatever makes you feel really free and really good, that's what to do. It's really simple." You can see what else she has to say in the video here. In another video, she discusses her correspondence with John F. Kennedy in 1960, which informed her new piece The Language of the Future: Letters to Jack.

The new album Cuong Vu Trio Meets Pat Metheny has been reviewed on NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross. "The album lets you hear why the headliners get along," explains Fresh Air reviewer Kevin Whitehead: "the guitarist's approach to sound and melody and streaking long tones spoke to the trumpeter from the first." You can hear the complete review here. The Guardian gives the album four stars. "Metheny enters completely into the exploratory spirit," says Guardian's John Fordham, "and gives Vu's intriguing music a fresh dimension and creative support."

Brad Mehldau, following a tour with the Brad Mehldau Trio for the new album Blues and Ballads, out this Friday, embarks on a trio tour of a different sort: he reunites with drummer Mark Guiliana, with whom he paired up for the album Mehliana: Taming the Dragon, and guitarist John Scofield for a six-night residency at the Blue Note in NYC starting tonight. "The omnivorously eclectic trouble these three get into will be worth the price of admission," exclaims the New Yorker. The trio will tour the UK and Europe in July, including sets at the Love Supreme, Montreux, Vienna, Gent, and North Sea jazz festivals, and stops in France, Italy, Spain, Israel, Turkey, and Germany, and reunite in the US for the Detroit Free Jazz Festival in September.

Lake Street Dive resumes its US tour with shows in Vermont, upstate New York, and Maine this Memorial Day weekend. Over the next month, the band makes its way along the East Coast for shows in Delaware, Pennsylvania, the Carolinas, Virginia, Georgia, and more, then heads west for shows in New Orleans and Texas. The tour picks up again in August with stops in the Midwest and West, including three dates with Dave Matthews Band, and culminates in Boston and NYC in October.

Allen Toussaint's performance of "Confessin' (That I Love You)," off his forthcoming album American Tunes, may now be heard here and downloaded with album pre-orders. The song, made known by Louis Armstrong, is one of the tracks on the album recorded with a band that includes Jay Bellerose, Bill Frisell, Greg Leisz, Charles Lloyd, and David Piltch. The Joe Henry–produced album, Toussaint's final recording, also includes a set of solo piano performances like "Big Chief," which is also available now with pre-orders.

Found yourself sitting back to enjoy a Nonesuch album (or several) and looking for the perfect accoutrements to accompany it? Look no further than the brand-new, first-ever line of Nonesuch Records apparel and accessories available in the Nonesuch Store. To deck yourself out head to hand in hat, t-shirt, hoodie, and mug all adorned with that classic Nonesuch logo, head to the Nonesuch Store now.

Stephin Merritt and the Magnetic Fields are currently working on a new album, 50 Song Memoir, for future release on Nonesuch Records. The band will perform music from the album live starting at the end of 2016 and throughout 2017. Three shows have been announced thus far: Brooklyn Academy of Music on December 2 and 3, 2016; Royce Hall in LA on April 27 and 28, 2017; and Moore Theatre in Seattle on May 6 and 7.

Kronos Quartet and Brad Mehldau's performances at Koerner Hall in Toronto this week, part of The Royal Conservatory's 21C Music Festival, will stream live at rcmusic.ca/livestream, this Wednesday, May 25, and Thursday, respectively, both at 8 PM ET. Kronos is joined by special guest Tanya Tagaq for the world premiere her new piece written for Kronos' Fifty for the Future project. Mehldau performs his Three Pieces After Bach, of the Guardian exclaimed: "A dense and dazzling recital of Bach’s classics and the compositions and improvisations inspired by them makes this a powerful, thought-provoking gig."

Lake Street Dive, following sold-out shows in London and Dublin this spring, and performances on both BBC Two's Later… with Jools Holland and RTÉ's The Late Late Show, will return to Europe this autumn for a tour of the UK and Ireland. The November run includes dates in Gateshead, Glasgow, Manchester, Bristol, Brighton, Belfast, Dublin, and Cork, and a London show at the O2 Shepherd's Bush Empire on November 10. Tickets go on sale this Thursday, May 26. The band resumes its US tour on Friday, May 27.

Brad Mehldau Trio concludes European tour in France and Switzerland … Laurie Anderson is at Moogfest as Heart of a Dog opens in UK … The Bad Plus Joshua Redman plays Brazil … Jeremy Denk performs with Detroit Symphony Orchestra … Emmylou Harris, Rodney Crowell play Nashville benefit … Kronos Quartet concludes UK tour … Pat Metheny takes up residency at Blue Note Tokyo … Youssou N’Dour returns to Brooklyn … Conor Oberst performs in his hometown of Omaha … Rokia Traoré is in Morocco … and more …