The Magnetic Fields bring 50 Song Memoir to the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM)’s Howard Gilman Opera House for two sold-out performances, tonight and Saturday, following its recent world premiere at MASS MoCA. The 50-song album, which chronicles 50 years of songwriter Stephin Merritt’s life with one song per year, will be performed over two nights (songs 1–25 on night one, songs 26–50 on night two). On the album, Merritt plays more than 100 instruments, ranging from ukulele to piano to drum machine to abacus. In the stage extravaganza, directed by Jose Zayas, the music will be played and sung by a newly expanded Magnetic Fields septet in a stage set featuring 50 years of artifacts both musical and decorative. The seven performers each play seven different instruments, either traditional or invented in the last 50 years.

The band begins a full US tour following the album’s release in March. The Guardian calls Merritt “an incomparable lyricist capable of balancing arch wit with painfully acute observation … The most exciting dissector of modern love around.”

Five songs from 50 Song Memoir are available to download now with album pre-orders on iTunes and in the Nonesuch Store in five-LP and five-CD editions including a 100-page book with an extensive interview by Daniel Handler and facsimile handwritten lyrics by Merritt, and as a standalone bound book with a full-album download card.

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Composer John Adams conducts the London Symphony Orchestra in his 2000 Nativity oratorio El Niño at the Barbican in London on Sunday. Nonesuch released the world premiere recording of the piece, featuring singers Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, Dawn Upshaw, and Willard White, in 2001. The Los Angeles Times called it “Adams’s most powerful and affecting and sublimely assured music.” This weekend's performance is part of the Barbican's season-long celebration of milestone birthdays for Adams, Steve Reich, and Philip Glass.

Adams leads the LSO in his Scheherazade.2 at the Barbican, Opéra de Dijon, and Philharmonie de Paris next week; they perform El Niño in Paris then as well.

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Devendra Banhart is in Mexico this weekend: he performs at El Plaza in Mexico City tonight, followed by a set at the Trópico festival in Acapulco on Saturday. Banhart will perform songs from his new album, Ape in Pink Marble, on tour in North America, Europe, and the UK starting in early 2017; tickets are on sale now. Q magazine and the Times of London give the new album four stars; Uncut calls it "excellent."

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Brazilian samba singer Teresa Cristina performs at Imperator in Rio de Janeiro tonight. Her new live album and DVD, Canta Cartola, was recorded in Rio late last year. Caetano Veloso, who was at that performance, says: “"With Cartola's songs, Teresa's artistry really shows. Her elegance on stage, the simultaneous spontaneity and decorum of every gesture, the humor, the tone, impeccable intonation—all combine in this true creator-singer, a genuine artist."

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Pianist Jeremy Denk joins the Pacific Symphony, conducted by Carl St. Clair, to perform Brahms’s First Piano Concerto at Segerstrom Concert Hall in Santa Ana, California, tonight and Saturday. Also on the program are works by Richard Strauss and Johann Strauss.

Denk recently brought his Medieval to Modern program to Lincoln Center’s White Light festival. The New York Times calls it “fresh and insightful,” writing that it seems to “sum up music’s past while anticipating its future.” The Chicago Tribune calls it “magical.”

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Emmylou Harris performs at The Hamilton in Washington, DC, on Sunday. She is joined by mandolinist Sam Bush and guitarist Jon Randall for this special concert to benefit her dog rescue, Bonaparte’s Retreat.

Nonesuch recently released the first-ever vinyl edition of Red Dirt Girl, Harris’s 2000 Grammy-winning Nonesuch debut album, her first set of self-penned songs. The New York Times says: "In songs about lonely journeys and lost companions, Ms. Harris has found herself."

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Kronos Quartet brings music from its Fifty for the Future commissioning project to Zellerbach Hall in Berkeley, California, on Saturday. The program includes Philip Glass’s String Quartet No. 7, works by Aleksandra Vrebalov and Garth Knox, the world premiere of Anna Meredith’s Tuggerno, and more.

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Faroese singer/songwriter Teitur performs three sets at the Días Nórdicos festival in Argentina this weekend: at Xirgu Espacio Untref in Buenos Aires tonight, Quinta Trabucco in Vicente López on Saturday, and at Centro Cultural Recoleta in Buenos Aires on Sunday. The festival concludes in São Paulo next week.

Teitur and American composer Nico Muhly released a new collaborative album, Confessions, on Nonesuch in October. The Line of Best Fit calls it “bright, lively and youthful … a record of bottomless charm.”

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Chris Thile continues his inaugural season as host of A Prairie Home Companion with a show at The Town Hall in New York City on Saturday. Joining him as special guests for the episode are Corinne Bailey Rae, Marcus Mumford, and the Daily Show's Trevor Noah. Folks in the US can tune in on their favorite public radio station this weekend, and fans around the world can watch the live broadcast online at prairiehome.org starting at 5:45 PM ET.

Thile and pianist / label-mate Brad Mehldau will release their first duo record, Chris Thile & Brad Mehldau, a mix of covers and original songs, in January.

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Rokia Traoré plays two shows in France this weekend: at Théâtre du Vellein in Villefontaine tonight and MC2 in Grenoble on Saturday. She released her sixth album, Né So, on Nonesuch earlier this year. "Traoré has made the album of her career,” exclaimed the Times. “This accessible yet sophisticated album offers its own defiance against hard times.