Grammy Weekend is here with Wilco, Allen Toussaint, Shawn Colvin, Amadou & Mariam, and Oumou Sangare up for awards; Wilco, Emmylou Harris, and k.d. lang celebrate Neil Young in concert ... Kronos Quartet, Tanya Tagaq perform for Vancouver Cultural Olympiad ... Carolina Chocolate Drops tours UK ... Christina Courtin plays acoustic at NYC's Rubin Museum ... Low Anthem tours Benelux ... Pat Metheny unveils Orchestrion in France ... Mandy Patinkin premieres new play at Yale Rep ... Sara Watkins goes Transatlantic at Celtic Connections ... and more ...
Kronos Quartet is joined by Inuit vocalist Tanya Tagaq for a performance of Canadian composer Derek Charke's Tundra Songs at The Chan Centre for the Performing Arts in Vancouver on Saturday. It's part of the official Cultural Olympiad tied to city's hosting of the 2010 Olympic Games.
There's an extensive preview of the event in Vancouver's Straight, featuring interviews with Charke, Tagaq, and Kronos Quartet's David Harrington. “It’s really one of the major, spectacular pieces that has ever been written for Kronos," he says, "and I think it’s a breakthrough piece for Derek Charke, too.”
Other upcoming Nonesuch-related performances at the Cultural Olympiad include the world premiere of Laurie Anderson's Delusion at the Vancouver Payhouse in mid-February, the Canadian premiere of John Adams's Nixon in China at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre in March. Wilco performs a free concert in Vancouver's David Lam Park on February 13 as part of the city's own 2010 Olympic Winter Games "LiveCity" festivities.
---
Grammy Weekend is here, which means this year's nominees will find out who will pick up a Grammy Award on Sunday. Five Nonesuch albums have been nominated this year: Wilco's Wilco (the album) for Best Americana Album of the Year; Allen Toussaint's The Bright Mississippi for Best Jazz Instrumental Album; Shawn Colvin's Live for Best Contemporary Folk Album; and Amadou & Mariam's Welcome to Mali and Oumou Sangare's latest World Circuit / Nonesuch release, Seya, both for Best Contemporary World Music Album.
The weekend kicks off with a special benefit concert at the Los Angeles Convention Center honoring Neil Young as the 2010 MusiCares Person of the Year tonight. Wilco, k.d. lang, Emmylou Harris, and T Bone Burnett are among more than a dozen artists who will participate in celebrating Young's life in music. Portions of event will be streamed live for the first time ever at grammy.com.
---
Vinicio Capossela, the Italian singer-songwriter whose new album, The Story-Faced Man, is out on Nonesuch in the UK and Ireland, performs two sets at London's Union Chapel this weekend, tonight and Saturday.
---
The Carolina Chocolate Drops continues its tour of the UK this weekend, following a Celtic Connections debut earlier this week the Scotland Herald called "exhilarating" in its four-star review. The trio performs at the Derby Theatre in Derby Saturday night and at Sheffield's Memorial Hall on Sunday.
---
Christina Courtin will perform a special all-acoustic set—with no mic and no amps—at New York's Rubin Museum of Art tonight at 7 PM. The event is part of Naked Soul, an all-acoustic music series presented by the museum and Music Without Borders.
---
The Low Anthem, fresh off its Celtic Connections debut at Glasgow's Old Fruitmarket, makes its way to the Continent for a string of dates with Brown Bird, beginning with a sold-out set at Ancienne Belgique in Brussels Saturday, which also includes performances by Fanfarlo and Lou Barlow, among others. On Sunday, the quartet joins Brown Bird at Vera in Groningen, Netherlands.
---
Pat Metheny unveils the instruments and the magic behind his latest Nonesuch release, Orchestrion, with the start of a months-long tour of Europe and North America. It all kicks off with shows at the Coutances Theater in northern France Saturday and Sunday nights.
---
Mandy Patinkin stars in the world premiere of Compulsion, a new play by Rinne Groff, at the Yale Repertory Theatre, opening in previews tonight, with the official Opening Night on February 4, and running through February 28. Patinkin plays Sid Silver, who strives to bring the story of Anne Frank to an American audience and believes he's the right man to adapt the young girl's diary for the stage. Compulsion is inspired by the story of Meyer Levin. The performances, a co-production with The Public Theater and Berkeley Repertory Theatre, mark the Yale Rep debuts of the playwright and director Oskar Eustis, The Public's artistic director. For tickets and more information, visit yalerep.org.
---
Sara Watkins closes out a week of Nonesuch artists' performances at Glasgow's Celtic Connections festival that included sets by the Carolina Chocolate Drops, Ry Cooder, Natalie Merchant, and The Low Anthem. She joins the many top-notch singers and instrumentalists who comprise Transatlantic Sessions, with performances in the Main Auditorium of the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall tonight and Sunday. The group then takes the show on the road to cities across the UK next week.
- Log in to post comments