Caroline Shaw and Sō Percussion perform music from their 2021 Nonesuch album, Let the Soil Play Its Simple Part in California this weekend. Following last night’s West Coast premiere of the work at Zellerbach Hall in Berkeley, they play Campbell Hall in Santa Barbara tonight and Broad Stage in Santa Monica on Saturday. Tonight’s concert features an opening set of pieces from Sō’s own Eric Cha-Beach, Angélica Negrón, and Nathalie Joachim, while Sunday’s program includes Sō’s collaboration with breath artist, beat boxer, and composer Dominic Shodekeh Talifero, Vodalities: Paradigms of Consciousness for the Human Voice.

On Let the Soil Play Its Simple Part, with Shaw on vocals and Sō filling out this new band, they developed songs in the studio, with lyrics inspired by their own wide-ranging interests: James Joyce, the Sacred Harp hymnal, a poem by Anne Carson, the Bible’s Book of Ruth, the American roots tune “I’ll Fly Away,” the pop music of ABBA, and more. You can get it and hear it here.

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Jeremy Denk gives a solo piano recital at De Vereeniging in Nijmegen, Netherlands, tonight, as part of the Nijmegen Foundation for Chamber Music’s Piano Biennale. He performs works by Bach, Beethoven, Ligeti, Mozart, Ravel, and Missy Mazzoli.

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Emmylou Harris performs at Longhorn Ballroom in Dallas on Saturday and Sunday. Her second Nonesuch album, Stumble Into Grace, celebrates its twentieth anniversary this year and will be released on vinyl for the first time, in a limited cream-colored edition, on May 12.

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Kronos Quartet, in collaboration with Post:ballet and Berkeley Ballet Theater, brings still be here, featuring original scores commissioned from Kronos’ Fifty for the Future project, to the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, for performances tonight, Saturday afternoon, and Saturday evening. Kronos is joined by ensembles from Oakland School for the Arts, San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and alumni of the Crowden School of Music for the program. The score, which includes music by Bryce Dessner, Fodé Lassana Diabaté, Kronos alum Joan Jeanrenaud, Nicole Lizée, Wu Man, Angélica Negrón, and Charlton Singleton, is threaded together with electronic tracks from Kronos Music: REMIX, a collaboration between Kronos Performing Arts Association and Sunset Youth Services, and original choreography performed by the Post:ballet company and the studio company of Berkeley Ballet Theater.

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Natalie Merchant, currently touring the US in support of her new album, Keep Your Courage, is in Pennsylvania this weekend with shows at Kimmel Cultural Campus in Philadelphia tonight and Hershey Theatre in Hershey on Saturday. Mojo gives the new album four stars, calling it "her most beautiful in decades." "Welcome return of a unique voice,” says Uncut. “An album contemplating what it is that keeps us plodding forwards despite everything. Merchant’s conclusion is, as always, wittily expressed and beautifully sung.”

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Joshua Redman 3x3—the saxophonist’s trio with bassist Larry Grenadier and drummer Marcus Gilmore—performs songs by Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk, and Wayne Shorter at Koerner Hall in Toronto on Saturday.

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Cécile McLorin Salvant joins pianists Caelan Cardello, Esteban Castro, Paul Cornish, Thomas Linger, and Isaiah J. Thompson—finalists in the 2023 American Pianists Awards—and the Buselli-Wallarab Jazz Orchestra at Hilbert Circle Theatre in Indianapolis, Indiana, on Saturday, for the American Pianists Awards Gala Finals.

Salvant’s new album, Mélusine, released last month on Nonesuch, features a mix of five originals and interpretations of nine songs, dating as far back as the twelfth century, mostly sung in French along with Occitan, English, and Haitian Kreyòl. "Anyone who thinks they already know the full extent of Cécile McLorin Salvant's artistry should listen to Mélusine without further delay," exclaims Jazzwise.

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Molly Tuttle and Golden Highway bring music from their Grammy Award–winning debut album, Crooked Tree, to Texas this weekend, with a concert at The Heights Theater in Houston tonight, and a set at the Old Settler's Music Festival in Dale on Saturday.