Audra McDonald joins Boston Pops, John Williams, and David Newman for Film Night at Tanglewood ... John Adams continues Australia tour at Sydney Opera House ... Devendra Banhart plays LA's FYF Fest ... Carolina Chocolate Drops tour Denmark and UK ... Jeremy Denk concludes Sydney residency ... Lianne La Havas is at Helsinki Festival ... Joshua Redman plays Festival de Jazz de Chihuahua ... Chris Thile closes out Goat Rodeo tour in California ... Sara Watkins is at Clear Mountain View Music Fest in North Carolina ... and more ...
Audra McDonald joins the Boston Pops, led by conductor and composer John Williams, for “John Williams’ Film Night” at Tanglewood’s Koussevitzky Music Shed in Lenox, Massachusetts, on Saturday. McDonald and the Pops perform selections from a number of films, including music by Williams, Gershwin, Rodgers & Hammerstein, and others. Composer/conductor David Newman also leads the orchestra in medleys of works by his father, Alfred Newman, and Henry Mancini. (David Newman is the brother of Thomas Newman and a cousin of Randy Newman.)
Coincidentally, McDonald performs next on another program featuring music by John Williams, at the Southern Vermont Arts Center's Arkell Pavilion in Manchester, Vermont, on Sunday, as part of the Manchester Music Festival. Directly following a performance by the MMF Pops Orchestra of film music including Williams’ Star Wars score, she takes to the stage with music director Andy Einhorn for the second half of the benefit concert, closing out the festival’s summer season. She performs songs from throughout her career, including selections from her latest album, Go Back Home.
Audra McDonald continues to perform in North America through the fall, including the San Francisco Symphony’s Opening Night Gala and a free show at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC, spotlighting the riches of the Library’s musical theater collections.
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John Adams, following the world premiere of his new Saxophone Concerto last night, leads the Sydney Symphony in an encore performance of the piece, featuring saxophonist Timothy McAllister, at the famed Sydney Opera House in Australia tonight. Also on the program—all conducted by Adams—is his own Violin Concerto, with violinist Leila Josefowicz, Beethoven’s Fidelio Overture, and Respighi’s Pines of Rome.
Adams heads next to Melbourne to conduct the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra in the Australian premiere of his 2009 piece City Noir at Hamer Hall next week.
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Devendra Banhart offers a set at FYF Fest in Los Angeles’ State Historic Park on Saturday, featuring songs from his Nonesuch debut album, Mala.
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Carolina Chocolate Drops perform the second of their two nights at the Tønder Festival in Tønder, Denmark, tonight, followed by a set at the Shrewsbury Folk Festival in the UK on Sunday. The band resumes its US tour next week.
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Jeremy Denk concludes his four-night residency at City Recital Hall’s Angel Place in Sydney this afternoon, as part of his two-week tour of Australia with the Australian Chamber Orchestra. The program includes works by Bach, Ives, Ligeti’s Piano Études—as heard on his 2012 Nonesuch debut album, Ligeti/Beethoven—and Brahms’ Piano Quintet, Op. 34. His Australian tour continues with a performance at Wollongong’s Town Hall on Saturday, and rounds out with a performance at Melbourne’s Recital Centre on Monday.
Nonesuch Records will release Denk's next album, a recording of Bach's Goldberg Variations, on September 24, available for pre-order now in the Nonesuch Store.
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Lianne La Havas performs at Huvila in Helsinki tonight, as part of the Helsinki Festival, billed as largest arts festival in Finland.
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Joshua Redman and his quartet—pianist Aaron Goldberg, bassist Reuben Rogers, and, for this show, drummer Obed Calvaire—perform at the Teatro de los Héroes in Chihuahua, Mexico, on Sunday, as part of the Festival de Jazz de Chihuahua. The group offers selections from Redman’s latest Nonesuch release, Walking Shadows, and more.
In the latest issue of Harvard magazine, contributor Craig Lambert muses about Redman’s college years at his alma mater—among other things, performing with the Harvard Jazz Band “while finding time to graduate summa cum laude”—as well as his first performance with his father, Dewey Redman, and moving to Brooklyn after college. You can read the full article at harvardmagazine.com.
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Chris Thile and fellow musicians of the Goat Rodeo Sessions album—Yo-Yo Ma, Edgar Meyer, Stuart Duncan, and special guest Aoife O’Donovan—round out their brief tour with three performances in Californian this weekend: at Sonoma State University’s Weill Hall outside of Santa Rosa tonight; the Greek Theatre in Berkeley on Saturday; and the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles on Sunday.
Two of the three pieces on Thile’s critically acclaimed new album, Bach: Sonatas and Partitas, Vol. 1, are due out on vinyl on September 24, and is available to pre-order in the Nonesuch Store now.
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Sara Watkins performs two afternoon sets at the Clear Mountain View Music Festival on Elliott Family Farms in Polkville, North Carolina, on Saturday and Sunday.
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