The 53rd Annual Grammy Awards are taking place at the Staples Center in Los Angeles this Sunday, with Nonesuch artists having garnered a dozen nominations, including six for The Black Keys, two for Punch Brothers, and one each for Laurie Anderson, Carolina Chocolate Drops, Stephen Sondheim, and World Circuit / Nonesuch artists Ali Farka Touré and Toumani Diabaté.

Anderson will be among the Grammy nominees presenting the first awards of the day at the pre-telecast ceremony, which will be streamed live on grammy.com and YouTube, beginning at 1 PM PT. Following the pre-telecast ceremony, the 53rd Annual Grammy Awards will be broadcast live on CBS from 8 to 11:30 PM ET/PT.

Nonesuch sends out congratulations to all the nominees.

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As noted earlier today in the Nonesuch Journal, the Metropolitan Opera's premiere production of John Adams's 1987 opera Nixon in China continues on Saturday afternoon, with the composer at the podium. Audiences both in and outside of New York City will be able to watch the performance live at their local movie theaters as part of The Met: Live in HD series. The New York Times says: "The opera and the production may have come to the Met at just the right time to comprehend the continuing resonances of this audacious and moving opera." To find it at a theater near you, visit metopera.org.

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Odair Assad performs a solo show on Saturday at the St. Jean Baptiste Church at Dominican University College in Ottawa, Ontario. Saturday’s show is followed by a second solo performance on Sunday afternoon at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. South Coast Today calls a solo performance from one half of the Assad brothers duo “a rare treat.”

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The Black Keys perform on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno tonight. Tune in at 11:35 PM ET on NBC. You can watch a film trailer for "Howlin' for You," featuring their music, posted earlier today in the Nonesuch Journal.

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Shawn Colvin performs at The Royal Conservatory's Koerner Concert Hall in Toronto, Ontario, tonight, followed by a concert at the Landmark on Main Street in Port Washington, New York, on Saturday.

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Wanda Jackson's European tour is in full swing with three concerts in Germany  with Chris Aron & Band this weekend: at the Bassy Club in Berlin tonight, Rosis Amüsierlokal in Dresden on Saturday, and 59:1 in Munich on Sunday.

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Jessica Lea Mayfield continues her tour with Justin Townes Earle, performing two concerts in the Midwest this weekend: at the Six Strings Club in Bloomington, Illinois, tonight, and at the High Noon Saloon in Madison, Wisconsin, on Saturday. Mayfield has one more tour date with Earle on Monday, before joining up with the Avett Brothers for three shows next weekend.

The Chicago Reader named last night's show at Metro a Critics' Choice, saying that much of Mayfield's new album, Tell Me, features "flinty grooves and biting electric-guitar bursts that perfectly enhance her chilly delivery, highlighting the distance between the sound and the content of her seductively catchy songs."

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Randy Newman performs at the Manship Theatre in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, tonight, and at Florida State University’s Ruby Diamond Auditorium in Tallahassee, Florida, on Saturday, as part of the 7 Days of Opening Nights Festival.

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Fernando Otero continues his run at Nublu in New York City with a performances with his Electric Quintet on Saturday. The group performs there every Saturday this month.

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Mandy Patinkin stars in the world premiere production of Rinne Groff's Compulsion at the Public Theater in New York City, directed by Oskar Eustis. The play takes place in 1951 with Patinkin in the role of Sid Silver, a man who, deeply moved by Anne Frank's diary, is driven to bring her story to the American masses by promoting the book's publication and adapting the diary into a work of theater. The San Francisco Chronicle describes Patinkin's performance as "virtuoso acting"; the San Jose Mercury News calls him "simply stunning."

Compulsion, now in previews, opens officially next week and runs through March 13. For more information, visit publictheater.org.

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Punch Brothers head to Colorado this weekend to play three shows: at the Boulder Theatre tonight, the Wheeler Opera House in Aspen on Saturday, and the Vilar Performing Arts Center in Beaver Creek on Sunday.

The band is up for two Grammy Awards this Sunday, including Best Country Instrumental Performance on the tune "New Chance Blues," the bonus track on the digital deluxe edition of their latest Nonesuch release, Antifogmatic, at Amazon.com. The Wall Street Journal's Jim Fusilli feels that the best of this year's Grammy nominees can be found categories like the above, which Fusilli says "is one of this year's strongest ... The tracks are all great cuts, each a winner in its own way."

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Allen Toussaint gives the fourth installment of a five-week stint of Sunday noon performances at Joe’s Pub in New York City.

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Dawn Upshaw continues her second term as Artistic Partner with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra with three nights of performances featuring Britten's Les Illuminations, a setting of poems by French symbolist Arthur Rimbaud. Also featured on the program are Ravel's Pavane for a Dead Princess and Schoenberg's Second Symphony. The program premiered last night at the Shepherd of the Valley Lutheran Church in Apple Valley, Minnesota, and continues with performances at the Ordway Center for the Performing Artsin Saint Paul tonight and tomorrow.

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This weekend brings two more sold-out shows for Sara Watkins on her tour with The Decemberists. They perform at the Wiltern in Los Angeles on Saturday, followed by Sunday’s show at the House of Blues in her hometown of San Diego. Sign On San Diego says that Watkins “adds spring” to the tour saying that “in nearly every instance, she has elevated the music at hand with her luminous singing, incisive violin playing and admirable ability to resist showing off, even when the spotlight is on her.”