Bombino closes out a two-week tour of Australia at the Sydney Festival and in Melbourne ... Inside Llewyn Davis opens across US ... Shawn Colvin, who celebrates a birthday today, kicks off a California tour ... Jeremy Denk plays Ligeti and more in Boston ... Donnacha Dennehy resumes Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra residency ... Dr. John celebrates Gregg Allman in Atlanta ... Gidon Kremer kicks off Italian tour ... Audra McDonald hosts PBS's Live from Lincoln Center ... Natalie Merchant plays two symphonic shows in Florida ... Allen Toussaint celebrates New Orleans in NYC ... and more ...
Bombino—who closed out 2013 landing on many a year-end best list, including those of NPR, the CBC, iTunes, and Rolling Stone, for his Dan Auerbach-produced Nonesuch debut album, Nomad—closes out a two-week tour of Australia this weekend. Having played the first of three Sydney Festival sets last night, in the Spiegeltent in Hyde Park, he returns to the venue to perform again tonight, then heads to Parramatta to play The Lennox at the Riverside Theatres on Saturday. (Also at the Sydney Festival this weekend is the Malian duo Amadou & Mariam.)
Bombino and his band make their way down to Melbourne for a final Australian show at the Corner Hotel on Sunday. They launch a five-week European tour in Paris on Wednesday.
In advance of his tour of Oz, the Tuareg guitarist spoke with The Australian about the Tuareg rebellion, guiding Angelina Jolie through the desert, and the ban on music in northern Mali. He also told the Sydney Morning Herald: “I started playing as a refugee in Algeria as an escape from the suffering and it has since been a central part of my music; I wandered different countries and saw my people suffering in all of these places. It inspired me to seek to calm people in the same way I was calmed by music.”
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Inside Llewyn Davis, the new film from Joel and Ethan Coen, which opened in select US theaters in December, opens wide in theaters all across the United States today. To find a theater near you and order tickets now, click here. And tune in to NBC Sunday night to see the Golden Globe Awards ceremony broadcast live; the film has been nominated for three Golden Globes: Best Motion Picture, Best Actor, and Best Original Song.
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Shawn Colvin, who celebrates her birthday today, kicks off the California leg of her solo tour at the Crest Theatre in Sacramento on Sunday, performing selections from her latest Nonesuch album, All Fall Down, and favorites from throughout her career. She begins a three-night residency at Yoshi’s in San Francisco on Tuesday; it was during a sold-out run at the Oakland branch of the club that she recorded her 2009 Live album.
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Jeremy Denk, who’s Nonesuch recording of the Goldberg Variations placed on the New York Times’ list of Favorite Classical Recordings of 2013, returns to the Gardner Museum’s Calderwood Hall in Boston on Sunday afternoon. As part of the museum’s Sunday Concert Series, Denk’s sold-out solo performance includes Ligeti’s Etudes No. 11, No. 12, and No. 13 (featured on his Nonesuch debut album, Ligeti/Beethoven); Schumann’s Davidsbündlertänze, Op. 6; and two Mozart Piano Sonatas: No. 15 in F-major, K. 533/494; and No. 18 in A-minor, K. 310.
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Irish composer Donnacha Dennehy resumes his residency at Bass Performance Hall in Fort Worth, Texas, tonight, during which conductor Miguel Harth-Bedoya leads the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra (FWSO) in a performance of Dennehy’s 2009 piece Crane. The program follows with two works by Prokofiev—Violin Concerto No. 2 (featuring violinist Anna Akiko Meyers) and Symphony No. 7—and will be given additional performances on Saturday and Sunday afternoon.
As FWSO Composer-in-Residence during the 2013–14 season, Dennehy returns in the spring for the third and final installment: the FWSO performs his piece The Vandal May 23– 25, closing out the orchestra’s concert season.
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Dr. John joins the Allman Brothers, Taj Mahal, Keb’ Mo’, and others at the Fox Theatre in Atlanta, Georgia, tonight, as part of All My Friends: Celebrating the Songs & Voice of Gregg Allman. He recently spoke with the Washington Post’s Express about his backing band, his recent appearance on the Bravo TV show Top Chef, and his plans for 2014. You can read the interview at washingtonpost.com.
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Gidon Kremer and his Kremerata Baltica chamber orchestra kick off the Italian leg of their European tour at Auditorium Pedrotti in Pesaro on Sunday, performing works by Beethoven, Weinberg, Tchaikovsky, and Piazzolla, then continue with stops in Milan, Mantova, La Spezia, and Pistoia, before heading to Spain. Kremer and the orchestra launch a six-city US tour at the 92nd Street Y’s Kaufmann Concert Hall in New York City on January 30.
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Audra McDonald, host of PBS's Live from Lincoln Center, returns to host "Richard Tucker at 100: An Opera Celebration," premiering on PBS stations across the US tonight at 9 PM. The evening of opera celebrates the centennial of tenor Richard Tucker's birth, with performances by previous Tucker Award winners Joyce DiDonato, Renee Fleming, and Susan Graham; this year's winner, Isabel Leonard; and more.
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Natalie Merchant joins the Florida Theatre Symphony for two concerts in its home state this weekend: at The Florida Theater in Jacksonville on Saturday and the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts in Miami on Sunday. Along with new works, the shows feature favorites from throughout Merchant’s storied career, including selections from her Nonesuch debut album, Leave Your Sleep.
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Allen Toussaint joins fellow southerners Ruthie Foster, Paul Thorn, and the Blind Boys of Alabama at B. B. King Blues Club in New York City tonight, as part of the inaugural New York Brass and Heritage Festival celebrating New Orleans music and culture. Toussaint did the same on his Nonesuch debut, Our New Orleans, a 2005 album benefiting Hurricane Katrina relief efforts. He heads to Missouri for a solo set at Folly Theater in Kansas City on Saturday.
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