Journal
- Monday,March 16,2015
Buena Vista Social Club's Lost and Found, a collection of previously unreleased tracks, is due out next week. But you don't need to wait till then to hear it: the album is streaming in full all this week as an NPR First Listen at npr.org. "It was nearly 20 years ago, back in 1997, that the Buena Vista Social Club became an improbable worldwide sensation: a group of mainly elderly (and some younger) Cuban musicians, performing traditional son music for an album produced by Ry Cooder," writes NPR's Anastasia Tsioulcas. "If it turns out that this is the year we do say a final goodbye to the Buena Vista collective, Lost and Found provides a gorgeous reminder of what made it so famous to begin with — and what we'll all be missing."
Journal Topics: Album ReleaseArtist NewsFriday,March 13,2015This lucky Friday the 13th, Robert Plant kicks off Latin American tour in Mexico and Lollapalooza Chile ... Laurie Anderson performs in Nashville ... Bombino plays New Zealand WOMAD ... Jeremy Denk, Academy of St. Martin in the Fields tour California ... Richard Goode plays Beethoven in Amsterdam ... Kronos Quartet is in Wisconsin ... Audra McDonald performs in Tucson ... Brad Mehldau, Mark Guiliana close out Mehliana tour in Tokyo and Seoul ... Punch Brothers are on CBS and PBS ... and more ...
Journal Topics: On TourWeekend EventsThursday,March 12,2015The Nonesuch Records CD/DVD release of Louis Andriessen's opera La Commedia has won the Caecilia Prize by the association of Belgium's classical music press. The film opera, a collaboration with director Hal Hartley, is based on Dante’s Divine Comedy, with additional texts from the 16th-century German theologian Sebastian Brant, the 17th-century Dutch dramatist Joost van den Vondel, and the Old Testament’s "Song of Songs." The recording is a finalist in the 2015 International Opera Awards; the winners will be announced on April 26.
Journal Topics: Artist NewsWednesday,March 11,2015Composer Nico Muhly was the guest on NPR's On Point with Tom Ashbrook. His in-depth conversation with Ashbrook touches on a number of aspects of his work, not least his first large-scale opera, Two Boys. Nonesuch released the recording of Two Boys—recorded live during the Met's 2013 production with conductor David Robertson and director Bartlett Sher—in September. You can listen to the On Point interview here.
Journal Topics: Artist NewsRadioTuesday,March 10,2015Singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Olivia Chaney makes her album debut with The Longest River, available April 28 on Nonesuch Records. On the album, Chaney balances her original compositions with a selection of covers she has newly arranged that illustrate the broad sweep of her taste, from jazz to Purcell to folk. "Her voice holds the purity, tension, dignity and sorrow of a heritage full of songs about lost love and cruel fate," says the New York Times. "Ms. Chaney is thoroughly grounded in the past, from medieval music to [Joni] Mitchell. But in her quiet way, she’s radical." The Longest River is available to pre-order with an instant download of the album tracks "Imperfections" and "The King's Horses."
Journal Topics: Album ReleaseArtist NewsTuesday,March 10,2015Record Store Day, the annual celebration of independent record stores, is set to take place on Saturday, April 18, and included among the special limited-edition releases on that day are vinyl recordings from Robert Plant, Steve Reich, and Buena Vista Social Club.
Journal Topics: Artist NewsTuesday,March 10,2015Emmylou Harris will receive the 2015 Polar Music Prize in a gala ceremony at the Stockholm Concert Hall on June 9. She will be presented the prize by King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden, along with her fellow laureate, percussionist Evelyn Glennie. The event will be broadcast live on Sweden's TV4, viewable throughout Europe via TV4 Play. "The music of Emmylou Harris contains the history and topography of the entire American continent," reads the prize citation. "Emmylou Harris makes the world bigger and smaller, more valuable and more beautiful." Previous laureates include Kronos Quartet, Steve Reich, Youssou N'Dour, Björk, Joni Mitchell, and more.
Journal Topics: Artist NewsTuesday,March 10,2015Congratulations to David Byrne and Fatboy Slim's musical Here Lies Love, which has been nominated for three Olivier Awards: Best New Musical, Outstanding Achievement in Music, and Best Theatre Choreographer for Annie-B Parson. The awards ceremony will be held at the Royal Opera House in London on April 12. The National Theatre production of Here Lies Love was met with great critical acclaim and won the 2014 London Evening Standard Theatre Awards' Beyond Theatre award for "pushing the boundaries of musicals."
Journal Topics: Artist NewsTuesday,March 10,2015Singer-songwriter Fatoumata Diawara, who was born of Malian parents in the Ivory Coast, spoke with PBS NewsHour about the struggle to preserve Mali's rich musical heritage under the shadow of ongoing violence there. "If we want the best for Africa, the only—the first thing to do is to know how to bring peace," says Diawara. "Without peace, nothing, we cannot start any kind of government. Nothing, nothing’s possible." You can watch the piece here.
Journal Topics: Artist NewsTelevisionMonday,March 9,2015Tigran Hamasyan was featured on NPR's All Things Considered Sunday. He spoke with host Arun Rath about his new album, Mockroot, and its diverse musical influences. "Musicians arrive at their signature sounds through all sorts of influences, but [Hamasyan] may have the most unusual collection yet," says Rath, noting sources from the folk music of Hamasyan's native Armenia to metal to Indian classical music. "So when you listen to the music of Tigran Hamasyan, know that there's a lot going on there." You can listen to the conversation here.
Journal Topics: Artist NewsRadioFriday,March 6,2015Kronos Quartet premieres multimedia collaboration with Aleksandra Vrebalov, Bill Morrison in Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall ... Björk begins month-long NYC run, MoMA retrospective ... Bombino plays Australia festivals ... Brad Mehldau, Mark Giuliana begin Asia tour at Java Jazz Festival ... Natalie Merchant sings in New Jersey ... Conor Oberst concludes Australia tour at Golden Plains Festival ... Punch Brothers continue tour in Boston and Portland ... Joshua Redman joins Umphrey's McGee in California ... and more ...
Journal Topics: Weekend EventsFriday,March 6,2015Natalie Merchant brings the music of her latest album, the self-titled 2014 Nonesuch release, and more on the road as she performs a number of North American concerts in the coming months. She begins this run of shows at Kean University in Union, New Jersey, on Saturday, followed by shows in New York, Connecticut, Colorado, and Virginia, and culminating in two shows at Koerner Hall in Toronto in May.
Journal Topics: Artist NewsOn TourEnjoy This Post?
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