Devendra Banhart continues the Midwestern leg of his tour with shows in Chicago and Detroit and performs on KCRW's Morning Becomes Eclectic ... John Adams conducts the NSO and Jeremy Denk at The Kennedy Center ... Björk brings Biophilia to LA ... Bombino plays two sets at Wakarusa Festival ... Carolina Chocolate Drops play festivals in Ohio and Virginia ... Richard Goode plays Beethoven in London ... Emmylou Harris & Rodney Crowell close out European tour in Hamburg ... Iron and Wine continues its European tour ... Gidon Kremer tours China ... Natalie Merchant headlines benefit concert for victims of domestic violence in upstate NY ... and more ...
Devendra Banhart, who celebrated his birthday with a performance at Mill City Nights in Minneapolis last night, continues the Midwestern leg of his tour this weekend with a set at Park West in Chicago tonight and an all-ages show at Saint Andrew’s Hall in Detroit on Saturday. This six-week North American tour follows the release of his Nonesuch debut album, Mala, from which he performs a number of songs on the road. Banhart has two dates in Canada before rounding out his tour in the coming weeks with shows in Boston, DC, Philadelphia, and New York City. He kicks off a European tour at the end of June.
Fans around the world can hear Banhart and his band perform songs from Mala as guests on KCRW's Morning Becomes Eclectic out of Santa Monica, California, recorded during their recent tour through the state. Tune in online at 11:15 PST at kcrw.com.
In advance of his recent stop at the Sasquatch! Festival in Washington state, Banhart spoke with Seattle Weekly about the tour, having his mother in the audience, writing and recording the new album—“It was a very intimate affair”—and more. Read the interview at seattleweekly.com.
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John Adams, following his residency at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC, last week, leads another series of concerts featuring his music in DC as he conducts the National Symphony Orchestra at The Kennedy Center. The program, which premiered last night and receives additional performances tonight and Saturday, includes City Noir, his 2009 symphony inspired by Los Angeles noir films of the '40s and '50s, and Ravel’s Piano Concerto, featuring pianist Jeremy Denk.
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Björk, after a three-night residency in Richmond, California, outside of San Francisco, brings Biophilia to Los Angeles, giving the first of three performances in the round at the Hollywood Palladium on Sunday, followed by shows on Wednesday and Friday. The residency includes educational programs for children at LA’s Museum of Contemporary Art revolving around interactive versions of the Biophilia album created for the iPad.
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Bombino, whose Nonesuch debut album, Nomad, was released in April, continues his US tour with two sets at Mulberry Mountain in Ozark, Arkansas, on Saturday and Sunday, as part of the Wakarusa Festival. Also playing at the festival is Gogol Bordello, with whom Bombino performs supporting sets in the upcoming week.
Prior to his recent show at Aspen’s Belly Up, Bombino spoke with the Aspen Times about growing up in a Tuareg nomadic tribe and the role of music. He explains how “the guitar was dangerous to the government in Niger during the Tuareg rebellion because it was a way of bringing people together …Then also the songs began protesting the situation, so the music became political even further.” You can read the full interview at aspentimes.com.
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Carolina Chocolate Drops continue their slew of festival sets with two more this weekend: at Appalachian Uprising in Scottown, Ohio, tonight and at the Graves Mountain Festival of Music in Syria, Virginia, on Saturday.
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Pianist Richard Goode returns to Wigmore Hall in London to perform an all-Beethoven solo piano recital on Sunday. The program includes the Piano Sonata in E Major, Op. 109; the Piano Sonata in A-flat Major, Op. 110; Bagatelles, Op. 119 (nos. 6-11); and finally, the Piano Sonata in C minor, Op. 111. Goode famously recorded a landmark set of the Complete Beethoven Sonatas for Nonesuch in 1993.
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Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell close out the European leg of their months-long tour featuring music from their new duets album, Old Yellow Moon, at Laeizhalle in Hamburg tonight.
Soon after returning to the States, Harris hosts Woofstock, a charity event to benefit her dog rescue Bonaparte’s Retreat, in Nashville next weekend, before reuniting with Crowell for the next US leg of their tour in Santa Fe on June 15.
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Iron and Wine continues its tour of Europe, where the new album, Ghost on Ghost, is out on 4AD, this weekend with performances in three different countries: a sold-out show at Barbican Hall in London tonight, at La Cigale in Paris on Saturday, and at Vredenburg in Utrecht on Sunday. Singer-songwriter Sam Beam and the band played the first of two shows at the Barbican earlier this week, to which the Guardian gave four stars. “Beam writes with an artist’s eye, his songs alive with place and time,” writes the Guardian’s Betty Clarke. His “easy charm dazzles.”
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Gidon Kremer, Chinese pianist Chen Sa, and Lithuanian cellist Giedre Dirvanauskaite, a member of the Kremerata Baltica chamber orchestra, perform at the Guangzhou Opera House in Guangzhou, China, on Sunday. The program includes works by Haydn, Rachmaninov, Schubert, and Moishei Weinberg. The musicians offer an encore performance of the program at the Shanghai Oriental Art Center on Wednesday.
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Natalie Merchant is joined by the Kalmia String Quartet for a special benefit concert on Sunday titled Shelter: A Concert to Benefit Victims of Domestic Violence in the Hudson Valley. The concert takes place at Bard College’s Fisher Center for the Performing Arts in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, on Sunday and includes performances from Amy Helm, Elizabeth Mitchell, and others. All proceeds will be donated to two domestic violence shelters in the region: The Washbourne House and Grace Smith House.
Merchant recently discussed the concert and the importance of the organizations it supports. You can listen to the interview at wamc.org.
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