Kronos Quartet gives the New York premiere of the multimedia work Beyond Zero: 1914-1918 in Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall on Saturday night. "A Kronos concert always includes a fascinating array of new music," writes the New Yorker; "the high point of this one is ... Beyond Zero: 1914-1918." Written to mark the 100th anniversary of the start of World War I, the piece interweaves music written by Aleksandra Vrebalov, archival audio recordings, and a film by Bill Morrisson, which includes rare footage of the Great War from the Library of Congress. This is the fifth piece written for Kronos Quartet by Vrebalov, whose piece ... hold me, neighbor, in this storm ... Kronos performs on its 2009 album, Floodplain. An overview of Morrison’s work will be featured at the Big Ears Festival, of which Kronos is artist in residence, in Knoxville, Tennessee, at the end of the month. 

Also on this weekend’s Carnegie Hall program are the world premieres of two new works: Merlijn Twaalfhoven’s On Parole and Derek Charke’s Dear Creator, help us return to the centre of our hearts. On Parole will feature the student musicians of Face the Music. Completing the program is Bryce Dessner’s Tenebre. All of these works were written for Kronos Quartet.

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Just hours before the Kronos concert, Björk, who is the subject of a new retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City opening on Sunday, begins a seven-concert run in New York with a matinee performance at Carnegie Hall at noon on Saturday. The shows continue at Carnegie Hall and City Center in Manhattan and at the recently renovated marvel Kings Theater in Brooklyn over the next month. While the concerts center on her new album, here's hoping to hear songs from her earlier albums, like Biophilia and Voltaic as well. Björk returns to New York in June to perform at the Governors Ball festival on Randall's Island.

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Bombino continues his Australian tour, featuring a number of festival appearances, with shows all weekend: at WOMADelaide in Adelaide tonight, Panama Festival in Golconda on Saturday night, and the sold-out Golden Plains Festival at the Meredith Supernatural Amphitheatre in Victoria on Sunday night. He wraps up his tour of Oceania in New Zealand next weekend.

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As noted in the Nonesuch Journal, Brad Mehldau and Mark Giuliana begin a tour of Asia this weekend with music from their debut duo album Mehiliana: Taming the Dragon. The tour kicks off with two performances at Java Jazz Festival in Jakarta on Saturday and Sunday night. They continue their tour with stops in Japan and South Korea .

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Natalie Merchant begins a run of North American concerts with a performance at Kean University’s Enlow Recital Hall in Union, New Jersey, on Saturday. The concerts continue in the United States and Canada throughout this spring.

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Conor Oberst concludes his tour of Australia with performances at the Taronga Zoo in Sydney tonight, joined by special guests the Felice Brothers, and the Golden Plains Festival in Meredith on Sunday night.

“Oberst has amassed the kind of catalogue that rewards celebration,” wrote the Sydney Morning Herald in a four-star review of his recent Melbourne show. “With a crystal-clear mix highlighting the lyrical lead, Oberst … took off through rollicking anthems, … heart-tugging epics … and the kind of crowd-shushing, stark folk … that earned him a cult following.”

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Punch Brothers close out the current leg of their extensive North American tour with shows at House of Blues in Boston tonight and at the State Theatre in Portland, Maine, on Saturday, with special guest Gaby Moreno supporting both nights. of the tour, featuring music from their new album, The Phosphorescent Blues, resumes on the West Coast later this month. Boston NPR member station WBUR, previewing Friday's show, calls the new album "their most diverse and joyously inventive album to date." The New Yorker, previewing last night's astounding show at the Beacon Theatre in New York City, exclaims: "'Virtuosity loves company' might be the motto of this act," describing the new album as "their most richly complex work to date."

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Joshua Redman joins Umphrey’s McGee tonight at the Wiltern in Los Angeles and tomorrow night at the Fox Theatre in Oakland. Redman and the band performed together in Denver over New Year’s, a show described as “dazzling” by PopMatters.