Punch Brothers are on the road again for most of the next few months with an extensive tour of the United States. After a stop in Opelika, Alabama, last night, the guys play two more shows in the state: tonight at the Princess Theatre in Decatur and Saturday at the Alys Robinson Stephens Performing Arts Center in Birmingham.

The Birmingham News has a feature article on Punch Brothers in which columnist Mary Colurso describes the band as "dizzyingly fresh, forging a reputation among experimental bluegrass fans and touring to spread the word about its debut recording, Punch." She writes that the album's centerpiece, the Chris Thile-penned "The Blind Leaving the Blind," "might test the mettle of any musician. It boasts a complex structure and melds the influences of bluegrass, jazz and classical." She speaks with one such musician, the group's violinist Gabe Witcher, about the band's origins and the challenges and rewards of playing that piece.

---

John Adams continues to play a central role in The Juilliard School's annual FOCUS! festival, titled California: A Century of New Music. Following last night's world premiere of Adams's new String Quartet by the St. Lawrence String Quartet, the weeklong festival concludes Saturday night with a semi-staged production of Adams's opera The Death of Klinghoffer. The composer will conduct the Juilliard Opera Center in this special performance in Juilliard's Peter Sharp Theater.

---

The Black Keys' tour brought Pat and Dan to the Fillmore Detroit last night, with openers The Buffalo Killers, and led the Detroit Free Press's Brian McCollum to describe their latest Nonesuch release, Attack & Release, "one of last year's best albums, a high-energy romp that finds the Ohio duo continuing to push its blues-rock sound down new musical avenues." They head back to their home state of Ohio to play two nights with The Buffalo Killers at Cleveland's Agora Theater, tonight and tomorrow night.

---

Kronos Quartet heads across the Bay to Berkeley's Hertz Hall, where it will perform the West Coast premiere of Widows and Lovers, a new piece by Israeli composer Aviya Kopelman, part of the Quartet's Under 30 Project supporting the creation of new work by young artists. Also on the Sunday night program is another West Coast premiere, of Hanna Kulenty's String Quartet No. 4, and works by Kaija Saariaho and Aleksandra Vrebalov. Kronos will join the audience for a free post-performance discussion as part of the Hall's Sightlines program.

---

Steve Reich's participation in Modfest, Vassar's annual celebration of music, art, poetry, and film of the 20th and 21st centuries, continues this weekend. On Saturday morning and early afternoon, Vassar's Department of Music will hold workshops on electronic music, open to all, that will explore the basic techniques of tape music, including sound editing, transformations, and free software tools. That night, new-music ensemble Signal, led by conductor Brad Lubman, performs an all-Reich program in Martel Recital Hall: Daniel Variations and the composer's classic 1976 piece Music for 18 Musicians.

On Sunday morning, Reich will participate in a closed rehearsal of Vassar Repertory Dance Theatre, which will perform a program of works set to Reich's music later in the festival. That afternoon, the composer will join Richard Wilson, a composer and professor of music at Vassar, for a conversation at Martel Recital Hall. Immediately afterward, percussionists James Preiss, Garry Kvistad, Dominic Donato, Thad Wheeler, and Vassar College faculty member Frank Cassara will perform a concert of percussion music by Reich: Typing Music, Music for Pieces of Wood, Nagoya Marimbas, Violin Phase (for marimbas), and Drumming, Part 1.

For the complete schedule, visit music.vassar.edu/concerts.

Also this weekend, the New York Ballet continues its program New Combinations: A Tribute to Nureyev, featuring Lifecasting, a new work by British choreographer Douglas Lee, set to Reich's Triple Quartet, on Saturday afternoon.

---

Allen Toussaint plays the first in a series of dates at Joe's Pub in New York City Sunday at noon. His residency there continues two Sundays later, on February 15, and concludes two after that, on March 1. Special discounted tickets are being made available for fans 12 years old and under.

---

Jeff Tweedy is playing a few solo dates in the Midwest these days. From last night's gig at the State Theatre in Kalamazoo, Michigan, he heads over to Ann Arbor tonight to participate in the 32nd annual Ann Arbor Folk Festival. The festival is a fundraiser for The Ark, Ann Arbor's non-profit home for folk, roots, and ethnic music. Also on the bill tonight are Carolina Chocolate Drops, who'll play again Saturday night, when Pete Seeger headlines. Jeff will be in Champaign, Illinois, that night to close out his tour at the Foelinger Auditorium.

Fellow Wilco member Glenn Kotche performs his own solo set at the Corbett vs. Dempsey Art Gallery in the band's hometown of Chicago Saturday afternoon. The performance is part of an event celebration the release of artist John Sparagana's new book, Sleeping Beauty.

---

Dawn Upshaw begins a two-week tour of Australia with the Australian Chamber Orchestra, led by Artistic Director and Lead Violin Richard Tognetti, at Llewellyn Hall, in the country's capital of Canberra, tonight. On the tour program are works by Mozart, Strauss, Bartók, and Upshaw's frequent collaborator, Osvaldo Golijov. On Monday, the group performs the first of two nights at The Arts Centre in Melbourne.

David Byrne's world tour with Songs of David Byrne & Brian Eno also makes its way to Australia on Sunday, for the first of two nights at the Sydney Opera House. From there, they head to Perth, Brisbane, Melbourne, and New Zealand before heading back to North America in mid-February.