Audra McDonald brings her nationwide tour to a place at which the four-time Tony Award winner is quite at home: the New York City stage. She performs in Carnegie Hall's main hall, Stern Auditorium, Saturday night.

"The thought-cloud of a lyric, perfumed by music," McDonald writes of her homecoming in the program notes to Saturday's concert, "a song is unique in its ability to convey emotion and meaning in a way that is abstract and yet, simultaneously, incredibly human. It’s impossible for me to express in a few short words how happy I am to be 'home' at Carnegie Hall, to share with you some songs I love in the best way I know how."

The Los Angeles Times's Chris Pasles, reviewing her recent performance at the Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall in Costa Mesa, says "Audra McDonald is amazing. She becomes the character of every song she sings. Yet she slips easily in and out of character to charm with personal stories ... McDonald made it all seem easy. Don’t be deceived. Behind that illusion is lots of hard work. McDonald is one in a million."

The Orange County Register, reviewing the show, calls McDonald "spectacular."

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Laurie Anderson has a full weekend of events in Providence, Rhode Island, centered around her Saturday night performing of Delusion, at the Veterans Memorial Auditorium, as part of the FirstWorks 2011 Festival. The events begin this afternoon when Anderson gives a free presentation/lecture in the Martinos Auditorium at Brown University's Granoff Center for the Creative Arts. To cap things off, Anderson will join in a continental breakfast Sunday morning followed by an up-close Q&A at RISD's Chace Center.

Anderson spoke with GoLocal Providence in advance of this weekend's FirstWorks events in an interview you can read at golocalprov.com.

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Alarm Will Sound performs at Roulette in Brooklyn tonight for New York's SONiC Festival, which features music written in the 21st century by composers aged 40 and under. The ensemble's festival program includes works by Nico Muhly, Stefan Freund, and Aphex Twin.

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Björk continues her sold-out, nine-show residency at the Harpa Concert Hall in her home town of Reykjavik this weekend with a performance Saturday night, playing songs off of her critically acclaimed new release Biophilia, plus favorite songs from throughout her career.

New York magazine had this to say about Björk's "pitch-perfect" performance at Harpa last weekend: " Her hybrid instruments hummed and sparked and boomed around her—a computer-pipe-organ, a trio of turtle-ish kettle drums, four giant pendulums, an enormous electrode—while a choir of two dozen in gold and blue swayed above and below her like some Art Nouveau freeze."

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The Black Keys play a special one-off performance for the grand opening of the new Microsoft Store at University Village in Seattle tonight. "Lonely Boy," the first single off the band's forthcoming album, El Camino, hits iTunes and the airwaves this Wednesday, October 26. A digital download of the song is also included with pre-orders of the album in the Nonesuch Store.

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Carolina Chocolate Drops play two shows in Wisconsin this weekend, first at the Stoughton Opera House tonight and the second at the Cedarburg Cultural Center on Saturday.

Reviewing the group's recent performance at Purdue University, the Journal and Courier's Tim Brouk calls it "one of the top-10 shows at Purdue University in the past 10 years."

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Ry Cooder's recent City Arts & Lectures discussion at the Herbst Theater in San Francisco will be broadcast in the San Francisco Bay Area on KQED-FM 88.5 at 1 PM PST on Sunday. Cooder talks about his new book, Los Angeles Stories, published by City Lights and available in the Nonesuch Store. Fans around the world can listen in online at kqed.org.

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Ben Folds is at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York City today to discuss his career and influences with Errol Kolosine. Along with the interview is a short performance, followed by a Q&A session. This appearance is part of the 131st Audio Engineering Society Convention, taking place through Sunday.

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Richard Goode continues his 2011-12 concert season as he reaches the Lawrence Memorial Chapel in Appleton, Wisconsin, tonight, performing works by Beethoven, Chopin, and Mozart.

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Wanda Jackson, who celebrated her 74th birthday yesterday, is in North Carolina this weekend, making a stop at the Lake Eden Arts Festival (LEAF) in Black Mountain tonight, and another at the Clayton Center for the Arts in Clayton tomorrow night. Jackson's LEAF appearance takes place on the Lakeside stage at 6:15.

Following this weekend's shows, Wanda Jackson heads to Europe for a two-week tour of Belgium, Netherlands, Switzerland, Austria, Spain, and the UK.

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Gidon Kremer returns to Lincoln Center's White Light Festival for a program titled Homage to J.S. Bach. Kremer will be joined by cellist Giedre Dirvanauskaite and pianist Andrius Zlabys for a program that includes works by Bach, Gubaidulina, and Shostakovich, as well as the US premiere of Silvestrov's Dedication to J.S. Bach for violin and piano.

"The fascinating link between Bach and these Russian composers," writes Paul Schiavo in the program notes, "also extends to the very different intimations of spirituality their music carries, even when it is not overtly religious."

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Kronos Quartet continues its Australian tour with two performances at the WOMAD Earth Station in Adelaide this weekend, performing Terry Riley's Sun Rings.

World Music Central says of this weekend's shows: ”Kronos Quartet’s performance of Sun Rings and the enlightened eco-orientated boutique companion event to WOMADelaide, Australia’s premier world music festival are simply made for one another."  

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k.d. lang and the Siss Boom Bang continue their tour out West with performances at the Pearl Concert Theater at the Palms in Las Vegas tomorrow night and the McCallum Theater in Palm Desert, California, on Sunday. Singer-songwriter Teddy Thompson opens both shows, as he has done for the entirety of the tour.  

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The Low Anthem closes out its US tour not far from home at the Somerville Theater outside of Boston tonight with Joe Pug supporting. The tour, which began in the middle of September, has received strong reviews across the board.

"This is an immensely talented band," writes Eric Gorski of Reverb Music, reviewing a tour stop in Denver, "with jaw-dropping good lyrics that are smart and literate and original without being precious or pretentious. Their show did their work justice and more."  

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Jessica Lea Mayfield brings her three-show run with the Avett Brothers to a close tonight with a performance at the Mesa Amphitheatre in Mesa, Arizona. She launches her own headliner tour next month in Tennessee.

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Brad Mehldau and Joshua Redman close out their US duo tour with a pair of performances at San Francsico's Herbst Theatre as part of the San Francisco Jazz Festival. The two sets mark the two performers' West Coast debut as a duo.

Before the tour finale, Mehldau takes a night away from the duo partnership for a solo performance at Nordstrom Recital Hall in Seattle, Washington, tonight as part of the Earshot Jazz Festival.

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Natalie Merchant is close to home in upstate New York this weekend for two intimate benefit performances at the Old Dutch Church in Kingston Saturday afternoon and evening. The shows are part of Radio Woodstock's 13th Annual Pink October Fundraiser benefiting the Dyson Center For Cancer Care at Vassar Brothers Medical Center. Also performing are Elizabeth Mitchell and Mike & Ruthy.

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As noted earlier today in the Nonesuch Journal, Pat Metheny launches his European tour with the Pat Metheny Trio, featuring bassist Larry Grenadier and drummer Bill Stewart, at the National Palace of Culture in Sofia, Bulgaria, Saturday night.

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Allen Toussaint plays a hometown set at Harrah's in New Orleans tonight.

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Sara Watkins and her brother Sean take the Watkins Family Hour on the road for a special performance at The Crowley Theater in Marfa, Texas, tonight, with special guest Michael Nesmith.