Gidon Kremer and his Kremerata Baltica chamber orchestra kicked off their three-week tour of Asia with a performance at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre Monday night. On Tuesday, they launch the Korean leg of the tour with shows at the Seoul Arts Center's Concert Hall on Tuesday and Wednesday nights and in Goyang and Daejeon this weekend. In the weeks ahead, Kremer and the orchestra head to China, for concerts in Guangzhou and Shenzhen, and to Japan, to perform in Nagoya, Kobe, Tokyo, and Kurume. Additionally, Kremer will perform with smaller chamber ensembles in Kurume's Ishibashi Cultural Center and at Tokyo's Suntory Hall. See below for all of the tour dates; for additional details and ticket links, go to nonesuch.com/on-tour.

Kremer and the Kremerata Baltica released their latest album, The Art of Instrumentation: Homage to Glenn Gould, on Nonesuch Records on September 25, 2012, which would have been Gould’s 80th birthday. The album comprises 11 pieces and arrangements by contemporary composers that quote from or are inspired by works, mostly by Bach, that Gould famously recorded during his career; two Arnold Schoenberg pieces also are drawn upon in one piece. The CBC calls it "a haunting, highly personal homage from one great musician to another and a deeply affecting tribute to Gould's enduring genius."

To pick up a copy of The Art of Instrumentation on CD, MP3, and FLAC, head to the Nonesuch Store, where CD orders include a download of the album at checkout. (A box set of all of Kremer’s recordings of Astor Piazzolla’s music, Hommage à Piazzolla, will be released later this fall and is available to pre-order in the Nonesuch Store now.)

Kremerata Baltica was founded by Gidon Kremer in 1996 and is composed of a group of young musicians from the three Baltic States. They first performed in the violinist’s hometown of Riga, Latvia, in February 1996 and have since toured throughout the world. Kremer, who is the group’s artistic director, described the Kremerata Baltica, in an interview with the New York Times, as “a musical democracy ... open-minded, self-critical, a continuation of my musical spirit.”

The ensemble’s seven previous Nonesuch releases with Kremer are: De Profundis (2010), Mozart: The Complete Violin Concertos (2009), The Russian Seasons (2003), Happy Birthday (2003), Enescu (2002), After Mozart (2001), Silencio (2000), and Eight Seasons (2000). The violinist’s albums on the label also include Tracing Astor (2001), El Tango (1997), Homage à Piazzolla (1996), and John Adams’s Violin Concerto (1996).

GIDON KREMER & KREMERATA BALTICA ON TOUR

* Gidon Kremer w/ smaller chamber ensembles