Christina Courtin, the New York City–based singer/songwriter/violinist, is due to make her Nonesuch album debut this year. She starts the year off with a performance in the city this Thursday night at Le Poisson Rouge in Greenwich Village. Opening for her is singer/pianist/composer Gabriel Kahane.

The New York Times's Amanda Petrusich finds a bit of PJ Harvey in Courtin's voice, which, she writes, "feels uniquely otherworldly, as if it couldn’t possibly be entirely human born. Her slinky, oozing compositions—which take surprisingly prickly detours from time to time—are odd and entrancing."

Time Out New York, an early supporter of Christina's work, lists her among the people to watch in 2009 in its "New Year's Revolutions" piece. TONY's Jay Ruttenberg says the mix of her Juilliard violin studies and self-taught singing give her music "the sophistication of a professional and the immediacy of the untutored ... [H]er ballads are smooth and traditional, with classy arrangements backing her commanding, undulating voice."

Ruttenberg gives a glimpse of what's to come on Christina's Nonesuch debut when he describes the songs slated for the release as having "an exquisiteness that extends beyond any genre ghetto." He concludes: "This is how you wanted Norah Jones to sound."