Following Kronos Quartet’s historic 50th-anniversary season, longtime members John Sherba (violin) and Hank Dutt (viola) will retire from the ensemble at the end of June. Dutt joined Kronos in 1977; he and founder David Harrington (violin) recruited Sherba to join the group in 1978. Between now and the end of June, Sherba and Dutt will perform more than 20 shows with Harrington and cellist Paul Wiancko, who joined the quartet in 2023, culminating at the ninth annual Kronos Festival at the SFJAZZ Center. Kronos will enter its sixth decade with two new members: violinist Gabriela Díaz and violist Ayane Kozasa will join Harrington and Wiancko.

Hurray for the Riff Raff is in Philadelphia and Woodstsock. John Adams’ Frenzy gets world premiere at the Barbican in London. Sam Amidon tours New England with This Is The Kit. Jeremy Denk joins Danish String Quartet in Denmark. Kronos Quartet is in Berkeley. Mandy Patinkin is in California and Colorado. Cécile McLorin Salvant joins Jon Batiste at Montreux Jazz Festival Miami. Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway play WinterWonderGrass Steamboat in Colorado.

Julia Bullock is on the latest episode of the Criminal podcast to talk with host Phoebe Judge about singer/songwriter Connie Converse on this year's 50th anniversary of Converse's disappearance. "'One by One' is about seeking connection in times when maybe you're feeling isolated and acknowledging that you are in communion with other people, even in times of great despair," Bullock says of the Converse song, which she sings on her Grammy Award–winning debut solo album, Walking in the Dark. "Sometimes I'm struck with searing emotion while singing her songs, which in some ways is sort of surprising, because it's not like the melodies are really demanding, but I think she found this extraordinary way to release emotion."

Girls of the Golden West, John Adams’ eighth music theater work to be released by Nonesuch, is due April 26. The composer leads the LA Phil in this recording made in Disney Hall, with the Los Angeles Master Chorale led by Grant Gershon. You can hear the aria "Wagon Ride," featuring Davóne Tines and Julia Bullock, now. For the opera, which tells the story of the California Gold Rush, longtime Adams collaborator Peter Sellars drew from original sources from the era—letters, journals, newspaper articles, and familiar song lyrics—to create the libretto. The cast also includes Paul Appleby, Hye Jung Lee, Elliot Madore, Daniela Mack, and Ryan McKinny.

As part of Kronos: Five Decades, the year-long celebration of Kronos Quartet’s 50th anniversary, the group is publishing five decade-spanning playlists curated by its founder and violinist David Harrington. The fifth and final playlist, featuring music Kronos performed in its fifth decade, 2013–2022, is out now. It includes music from their album A Thousand Thoughts; Folk Songs, with vocals by Sam Amidon, Olivia Chaney, Natalie Merchant, and Rhiannon Giddens; their Grammy-winning collaboration with Laurie Anderson, Landfall; and Terry Riley's Sun Rings. You can hear it here.

Vagabon (aka Laetitia Tamko) stopped by for the Nonesuch Selects video series, in which artists visit the Nonesuch office, pick some of their favorite albums from the music library, and share a few words on their choices. She chose music by Jonny Greenwood, Sam Gendel, Yussef Dayes, and Rostam, as well as her own new album, Sorry I Haven't Called. You can watch it here.

Pianist Jeremy Denk was on BBC Radio 3's Music Matters on Saturday to talk with presenter Sara Mohr-Pietsch ahead of his performance of the complete Bach Partitas at Wigmore Hall in London that night. "Inevitably when I practice, I don't say that I'm doing this, but I kind of take the piece apart and ask myself why every part is there," Denk says. "You don't want to say you're going into the mind of the composer, but you do a little bit. And then I like to feel that every part is justified, that I can make sense of it for myself." You can hear their conversation here.

Vagabon stopped by Amoeba Music in San Francisco for a shopping trip and a chat for Amoeba’s What’s in My Bag? series, in which she picks up music by Manu Dibango, Earl Sweatshirt, Janet Jackson, Nakibembe Embaire Group, The Friends of Distinction, Stevie Wonder, Lauryn Hill, Solange, Ali Farka Touré, and Aphex Twin. You can take a look inside and hear what she has to say about her picks here.

Hurray for the Riff Raff (aka Alynda Segarra)'s new album, The Past Is Still Alive, is out now. Segarra made the album during a period of personal grief, when they found inspiration in radical poetry, railroad culture, outsider art, the work of writer Eileen Myles, and activist groups like ACT UP and Gran Fury. Segarra uses their lyrics as a way to immortalize and say goodbye to those they have loved and lost, and to honor both the heartbroken and the hopeful parts of themselves. "Segarra has created an epic tale of life on the road, a nearly mythic version of their own life story that stands alongside other great American musical travelogues," exclaims NPR Music. "Career-defining." Rolling Stone says: "Segarra has honed their craft into a cohesive, astonishingly realized singer-songwriter record ... the best batch of songs Segarra's ever written." Paste calls it "a celebratory measure of love, sanctuary, and defiance ... In their hands, the trauma of the present day is a prelude to the possibilities of a better tomorrow."

Timo Andres makes his Carnegie Hall solo debut in Zankel Hall. Ambrose Akinmusire is at The JAI in La Jolla. Sam Amidon tours Pennsylvania with This Is the Kit. Laurie Anderson talks with Tom McCarthy at the Rubin Museum in NYC. Jeremy Denk performs the Bach Partitas at Wigmore Hall in London. Rhiannon Giddens concludes her European tour in Glasgow and Dublin. Mary Halvorson and the Tomeka Reid Quartet tour New England. Hurray for the Riff Raff kicks off a tour at Tipitina's in New Orleans. Kronos Quartet is in Scottsdale. Makaya McCraven is in North Bethesda and Durham. Mandy Patinkin performs in Montclair, NJ. Cécile McLorin Salvant is in Towson, MD.

Hurray for the Riff Raff, aka Alynda Segarra, who celebrates Friday's release of their new album, The Past Is Still Alive, with the launch of a months-long headline tour in New Orleans on Sunday, will join Norah Jones on her North American tour this summer. The nine-city run starts in Colorado with shows at the Gerald R. Ford Amphitheater in Vail and Red Rocks in Morrison on July 22 and 23, respectively, followed by stops in Utah, Idaho, Washington, British Columbia, and Oregon, culminating in San Francisco August 3. 

Congratulations to Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway, who won the International Folk Music Awards' Album of the Year for City of Gold, which had also won the Grammy Award for Best Bluegrass Album, and to Hurray for the Riff Raff (aka Alynda Segarra), who received the International Folk Music Awards 2024 People’s Voice Award, presented to "an individual who unabashedly embraces social and political commentary in their creative work and public careers," in a ceremony at the Folk Alliance International Conference in Kansas City, Missouri, last night.