Kronos Quartet and Toumani Diabaté are set to headline the fourth-annual MusicNow festival in downtown Cincinnati's Memorial Hall, which runs tonight and tomorrow night. The festival is curated by Cincinnati native Bryce Dessner, of The National.

For tonight's concert, which starts at 8 PM, Kronos will perform two new pieces commissioned for the festival—Uffe's Woodshop by Battles' Tyondai Braxton and Quartet for Heart and Breath by Arcade Fire's Richard Reed Parry—as well as works by J.G. Thirlwell (Foetus), John Zorn, Glenn Branca, Ramallah Underground, Michael Gordon, and Café Tacuba. Opening the show are The Books, who performed at the inaugural MusicNow festival in 2006.

Tomorrow night, the Quartet will open the show with music from across the globe, by artists like Ram Narayan, Blind Willie Johnson, Hamza El Din, Chalino Sánchez, and Alexsandra Vrebalov. Kora master Toumani Diabaté takes the stage after intermission to perform songs from last year's solo album The Mandé Variations.

Among the festival's Nonesuch alumni are Glenn Kotche (2006, 2008) and Bill Frisell (2008). For more information on the festival and tickets, which will be available at the door, visit musicnowfestival.org.