k.d. lang and the Siss Boom Bang kick off their Australian tour on Saturday with an early show at the Swan Valley Sandalford Winery in Caversham. Over the course of the tour, lang and the Siss Boom Bang will play the State Theatre in Sydney a remarkable six times. Every show during her Sydney residency is sold out, except for the final night, November 20, for which a limited number of seats are available. The tour also includes stops in Canberra, Melbourne, Adelaide, and Brisbane.

lang celebrated her 50th birthday in style on Wednesday when she and the Siss Boom Bang gave a performance at the Esplanade Theatre in Singapore. The Straits Times, in a review of the birthday-bash concert, calls it "a treat ... a splendid evening of song."

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It's a weekend of local premieres of John Adams's music in Europe. While the Finnish National Opera gives the Finnish premiere of Adams's 2005 opera Doctor Atomic at the National Opera in Helsinki tonight, launching a month of performances there, The Cleveland Orchestra and conductor Franz Welser-Möst give the Austrian premiere of Doctor Atomic Symphony, the instrumental work based on the opera, at Musikverein in Vienna.

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Laurie Anderson brings her latest performance piece, Delusion, to Mexico City for a performance at the Teatro de Palacio de Bellas Artes on Saturday night. Back in the US, Anderson's Forty-Nine Days in Bardo exhibit, which uses the structure of a diary and The Tibetan Book of the Dead to explore the themes of love and death, continues at the Fabric Workshop and Museum in Philadelphia.

Earlier this week, Anderson was honored at Legends 2011, a scholarship benefit from New York's Pratt Institute. She spoke with Women's Wear Daily about her music, art, the Occupy Wall Street movement, and being named a "Legend," at wwd.com.

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Timothy Andres performs two concerts at Princeton University's Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) this weekend, tonight and Saturday night. For both performances in IAS's Wolfensohn Hall, Andres is joined by current IAS Artist-in-Residence Derek Bermel, on clarinet, and violinist Haruni Rhodes. The program pairs Andres and Bermel's own works with compositions by Schumann, Ives, and Copland. Friday's concert will conclude with a concert talk from the stage; Saturday's performance will feature a pre-concert talk.

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Iva Bittová joins clarinetist David Krakauer and accordionist Merima Ključo for a performance as Checkpoint KBK at the Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas, Texas, tonight. Checkpoint KBK brings together the artists' unique talents, each deeply connected to their musical traditions (Rom, Jewish, and Bosnian), in an explosion of improvisation and original composition and a comment on a shared central European identity.

Bittová then makes her way to Roulette in Brooklyn, New York, for Vital Vox, a vocal festival celebrating the power of the human voice.

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As noted yesterday in the Nonesuch Journal, Carolina Chocolate Drops began their five-show run at Chicago's Old Town School of Folk Music last night, with the world premiere of Keep a Song In Your Soul: The Black Roots of Vaudeville. Joining the Carolina Chocolate Drops is ragtime pianist Reginald Robinson and skilled jazz tappist Reggio "The Hoofer" McLaughlin, as they celebrate, through music and dance, the African-American heritage of vaudeville. A Q&A session follows each show with each of the performers as well as special guest moderators each night.

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Shawn Colvin continues her four-night run at City Winery in New York with a performance each night this weekend. Charlie Mars opens each night.

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Ry Cooder is at Skylight Books in Los Angeles this Sunday evening to discuss his new book, Los Angeles Stories (City Lights Publishers), with Los Angeles Times book reviewer David Ulin. The book, Cooder's first, is currently at No. 4 on the LA Times bestseller list for paperback fiction. Both the book and Cooder's latest album, Pull Up Some Dust and Sit Down, are available in the Nonesuch Store.

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Ben Folds joins the St. Louis Symphony on Sunday night for a one-night-only performance at Power Hall in St. Louis. Reviewing last night’s concert at the Civic Center Music Hall in Oklahoma City, The Oklahoman’s Look at OKC says: “Ben Folds possibly set a new standard for pops performances with the Oklahoma City Philharmonic."

Be sure to catch Folds as a judge on NBC's The Sing Off, which airs every Monday night.

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As noted earlier this week in the Nonesuch Journal, Philip Glass's opera Satyagraha makes its return to the Metropolitan Opera in New York City tonight, kicking off a set of seven performances from now until December 1. Satyagraha is based on Mahatma Gandhi's early life in South Africa, where he developed his philosophy of non-violent resistance. This is the first revival of Phelim McDermott and Julian Crouch's 2008 production, which uses a combination of large-scale puppetry, sets made of materials such as corrugated metal and newspaper, and projected supertitles to immerse the viewer in Glass’s poetic world.

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Wanda Jackson continues her European tour with two performances in Spain this weekend: at Sala Rockitchen in Madrid tonight and at Nuevo Teatro Circo in Cartagena tomorrow as part of the Cartagena Jazz Festival, with Herman Duke opening.

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Kronos Quartet welcomes special guests Homayun Sakhi Trio, featuring Afghan rubab virtuoso Homayun Sakhi, for a performance at the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts in Vancouver, British Columbia, tomorrow night. After separate sets, the Quartet and Trio will come together for Sakhi's Rangin Kaman (Rainbow). Ticket holders are invited to a pre-show screening of a short documentary that gives a behind-the-scenes look of the artists rehearsing the culminating piece.

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Jessica Lea Mayfield began her fall headlining tour this week in Tennessee and Alabama and remains in the South this weekend with two performances in Mississippi: at Proud Larry's in Oxford tonight and at The Bottling Company in Hattiesberg. Ri¢hie—Mayfield's old guitarist, Richie "Ghostfinger" Kirkpatrick's new solo project—opens both shows, as he does throughout tour. Later this fall, Mayfield will support the Drive-By Truckers on a handful of dates and join Ryan Adams on tour.

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Audra McDonald begins her weekend with a performance at the Hill Auditorium in Ann Arbor, Michigan, tonight. Following this performance, McDonald heads to Florida where she joins the Naples Philharmonic Orchestra for its Opening Night Gala at the Philharmonic Center for the Arts in Naples. On Sunday, McDonald closes out her busy weekend with a concert at the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall in Sarasota, Florida.

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Brad Mehldau sits in as a special guest as vocalist Fleurine performs at The Falcon in Marlboro, New York Saturday night. Also backing Fleurine are Freddie Bryant on guitar and Doug Weiss on bass. Mehldau joins label mate Joshua Redman for a duo tour of Europe starting next week.

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Pat Metheny Trio, featuring bassist Larry Grenadier and drummer Bill Stewart, continue their European tour with three shows this weekend. First off, the trio performs at Stadthalle in Ingolstadt, Germany. Later in the weekend the group goes to Poland, performing at Dom Muzy ki l Tanca in Zabrze on Saturday and at Orbita in Wroclaw on Sunday.

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Randy Newman is at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut, tonight for a special performance at the school's Memorial Chapel. The concert is a benefit event for the After School Arts & Science Program at Wesleyan's Green Street Arts Center, which aims to encourage diversity and foster creativity through collaboration.

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As noted earlier today in the Nonesuch Journal, Punch Brothers set out on a three-week tour with legendary musical icon Paul Simon tonight, with a concert at the UNO Lakefront Arena in New Orleans. Tomorrow night, they head out to the Cedar Park Center in Texas, and on Sunday, they head up to the Civic Center Music Hall in Oklahoma City.

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Stephen Sondheim is due to receive the Chicago Tribune Literary Award in a ceremony at the Symphony Center in Chicago Sunday morning. The event, which is part of the Chicago Humanities Festival, also includes an interview with Sondheim about his life and work. Previous recipients of the Chicago Tribune Literary Award include Tony Kushner and Sam Shepard.

Earlier this week, Sondheim was awarded the Handel Medallion, New York City's highest award for achievement in the arts, in a ceremony hosted by Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Alec Baldwin. Sondheim's second book of collected lyrics, Look, I Made a Hat, is due out later this month.

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Sara Watkins and her brother Sean began a two-month tour in support of the Blind Boys of Alabama earlier this week with a performance at the Cedar Cultural Center in Minneapolis. The tour continues with a concert at the Stoughton Opera House in Stoughton, Wisconsin, tonight, followed by two stops in Illinois: at FitzGerald's in Berwyn on Saturday and at Eastern Illinois University in Charleston on Sunday.