The Magnetic Fields’ 50 Song Memoir, chronicling the 50 years of songwriter Stephin Merritt’s life with one song per year, is out now, and with its release began the 50 Song Memoir concert tour in Philadelphia earlier this week. Performing two nights in each city (songs 1–25 on night one, songs 26–50 on night two), the newly expanded Magnetic Fields septet next brings the music to Lincoln Theatre in Washington, DC, on Saturday and Sunday.

The five-disc recording has received widespread critical acclaim. It's "quite an achievement," says NPR Music. "Some of its wordplay is truly remarkable ... More importantly, Memoir is a tour-de-farce of melody and arrangement." Pitchfork calls 50 Song Memoir “an immersive, incisive listen ... It suggests that our deepest wisdom can be located in our most personal thoughts." The Wall Street Journal calls it "a highly entertaining summary of pop culture of the past half-century … 50 Song Memoir is a treat.”

For a sneak peek at the live show, check out several of the music videos originally created for the tour here.

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Composer John Adams recently celebrated his 70th birthday, and the New York Philharmonic continues the celebration, performing his Short Ride in a Fast Machine at David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center tonight and Saturday. Alan Gilbert, in his final season as music director, leads the orchestra in the program, which also includes performances of Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique and Esa-Pekka Salonen’s new Cello Concerto, performed by Yo-Yo Ma.

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Composer/pianist Timo Andres gives a rare performance of his multi-movement piece Work Songs at National Sawdust in Brooklyn on Saturday. Joining him are Becca Stevens and Gabriel Kahane, both on vocals and guitar, Ted Hearne on vocals and keyboard, Nathan Koci on accordion, and Taylor Levine on guitar. The program also includes works by these performers.

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Tigran Hamasyan, currently on a world tour featuring music from his forthcoming album, An Ancient Observer, due March 31, performs at Auditorium Gazzoli in Terni, Italy, tonight, and Festival di Cultura e Musica Jazz di Chiasso in Switzerland on Saturday. Hamasyan recently spoke about the new album and more with the Huffington Post, which calls him “one of jazz’s most dynamic artists.” You can read what he has to say here.

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Lake Street Dive rounds out its US Side Pony tour out West with a show at Montbleu Resort Casino in Stateline, Nevada, tonight, followed by two sold-out shows in California: at Fox Theater in Oakland on Saturday and Belly Up in Solana Beach on Sunday. The current leg of the tour concludes next week at The Theatre at Ace Hotel in Los Angeles. The band hits the road again starting at New Orleans Jazz Fest in May.

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Conor Oberst's new album, Salutations, is out now, and with The Felice Brothers as his backing band, he continues his world tour with shows at Warehouse Live in Houston tonight, The Civic Theatre in New Orleans on Saturday, and Cox Capitol Theatre in Macon, Georgia, on Sunday.

Uncut praises the album’s “expanded palette, majoring on warm, Dylanesque waltzes and rolling country-rock.” NPR says: “This remains some of Oberst's most personal and reflective material … They still sound full of life, and still feel ragged at times, but they shine in new and different ways." The UK’s Sunday Times calls Oberst “one of the best songwriters around.”

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Saxophonist Joshua Redman takes Still Dreaming, a quartet with trumpeter Ron Miles, bassist Scott Colley, and drummer Brian Blade, on a six-city run of the US, beginning at the Berklee Performance Center in Boston on Sunday.

Still Dreaming was formed in homage to the late Dewey Redman, Joshua’s father, and his role in the classic Ornette Coleman alumni quartet Old and New Dreams. “This is a band where we feel pretty comfortable with that language,” Redman told Houstonia Magazine ahead of a recent show. “I love playing in situations that are really open. It allows for true collective improvisation. In a way, we may be trying to collapse the distinction between playing something that is formally ‘free’ and something that isn’t.”

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Composer Steve Reich joins eighth blackbird and Third Coast Percussion for a special performance of his Music for 18 Musicians at Hill Auditorium in Ann Arbor, Michigan, on Saturday. It's a celebration of the composer's 80th birthday, which took place in October, and the 40th anniversary of the premiere of the seminal piece. Also on the program is Reich's 1984 piece Sextet.

Nonesuch Records released a recording of Music for 18 Musicians by Steve Reich and Musicians in 1998 that went on to win a Grammy Award. It was recently reissued on two 180-gram vinyl LPs, available in the Nonesuch Store. The New York Times said: "It would be hard to think of any American music more important than this."

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The Staves conclude their North American tour with a show at Phoenix Concert Theatre in Toronto tonight. The trio recently released two new tracks, which you can download from iTunes and the Nonesuch Store and listen to on Spotify and Apple Music.

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Mandolinist/composer/singer/songwriter Chris Thile launched a ten-city solo tour of Europe this week and continues with a show at Handelsbeurs in Ghent tonight, followed by a sold-out show at Bimhuis in Amsterdam on Saturday and a concert at Queen’s Hall in Edinburgh on Sunday.

“The most impressive musicians are often versatile, but few match the breadth of the brilliant mandolinist Chris Thile,” says the New York Times. “His versatility is apparent in the remarkable range of colors and shadings he produces on his instrument; phrases unfold with myriad subtle gradations.”

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Caetano Veloso and Brazilian samba singer Teresa Cristina play City Center in Rosario, Argentina, on Saturday.

Veloso and fellow legendary Brazilian musician Gilberto Gil released a live double album, Dois Amigos, Um Século de Música: Multishow Live, in the US last year.

Cristina’s live album and DVD, Canta Cartola, was released on Nonesuch last year as well.