Kronos Quartet, Punch Brothers, Chris Thile, Sam Amidon play Cincinnati's MusicNOW Festival … Seattle Symphony performs John Adams's Scheherazade.2 … Laurie Anderson brings new piece to Minnesota … Timo Andres is in Albany … Jon Brion performs Punch-Drunk Love at Brooklyn screening … Jeremy Denk plays Seattle, San Francisco … Rhiannon Giddens is in Australia … Lake Street Dive plays Philadelphia, Richmond … Clint Mansell performs his film scores in LA … Natalie Merchant tours Europe … Robert Plant concludes tour in Texas … Joshua Redman Trio, Rokia Traoré tour Europe too … and more …
The 2016 MusicNOW Festival in Cincinnati, Ohio, takes place this weekend and featured among the performers are several Nonesuch artists: Kronos Quartet, Punch Brothers, Chris Thile, and Sam Amidon.
Kronos Quartet joins the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, led by music director Louis Langrée, at Cincinnati's Music Hall the first two nights of the festival, performing Julia Wolfe's My Beautiful Scream on Friday and Terry Riley's The Sands on Saturday. Those programs also include works by Bryce Dessner, who founded the festival in 2006, Anna Clyne, Magnus Lindberg, and Lutoslawski. Prior to tonight’s concert, Kronos Quartet’s David Harrington and WNYC host John Schaefer will lead a curated listening session in Corbett Tower.
Chris Thile rounds out Friday night's Music Hall show with a solo performance. He joins his fellow Punch Brothers to close out the weekend with a performance at the Cincinnati Masonic Center Auditorium on Sunday with Nonesuch Records label mate Sam Amidon, plus Australian duo Luluc.
Before joining Punch Brothers on Sunday, Amidon concludes a three-night run with Wilco’s Glenn Kotche with shows at the Stave Sessions at 160 Mass Ave in Boston tonight and 3S Artspace in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, on Saturday.
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John Adams's piece Scheherazade.2 is performed by the Seattle Symphony and violinist Leila Josefowicz at Seattle’s Benaroya Hall tonight and tomorrow, in the final two shows of the piece’s three-night West Coast premiere. Saturday’s concert also includes a performance of Respighi’s Pines of Rome.
Adams wrote Scheherazade.2 for Josefowicz, who gave it its world premiere with the New York Philharmonic in 2014 and has performed it several times since. This "dramatic symphony" reflects on the hardship and unfair treatment of women throughout history, with the violinist representing the legendary Scheherazade. The Seattle Times, in an interview with the composer and violinist previewing the Benaroya Hall concerts, exclaims: “Adams has blazed new trails with a series of ambitious, searching works unparalleled in the history of American music.”
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Laurie Anderson, after three sold-out premiere performances of her Language of the Future: Letters to Jack at the Kennedy Center earlier this month, brings the new piece to a sold-out Fitzgerald Theater in Saint Paul, Minnesota, Saturday night. DC Metro Theatre Arts, reviewing the piece’s premiere, says, “This provocative piece is for anyone interested in performance that pushes at the boundaries of media, exploring the intricacies of time and memory, while zeroing in on the politics of now.”
Fans around the world can hear Anderson on Red Bull Music Academy's special marathon coverage leading up to the Big Ears Festival in Knoxville, Tennessee, later this month. Tune in for a Fireside Chat with Anderson this Saturday afternoon at 3 PM ET at rbmaradio.com.
Anderson was a guest on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert earlier this week, discussing her new film, Heart of a Dog, and performing from her Concert for Dogs. The film, for which Nonesuch released the soundtrack, is now available from The Criterion Collection for a limited time, on iTunes and VUDU, through March 29.
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Timo Andres performs with his ensemble Sleeping Giant at the Palace Theater in Albany, New York, Saturday night. The collective of six composers brings newly reimagined arrangements of Barber's Adagio for Strings, Vivaldi's Violin Concerto in C featuring Jill Levy, three movements of Mozart's Piano Concertos, and more.
Andres embarks on a five-night run with composer and songwriter Gabriel Kahane next month, including a stop at New York’s Carnegie Hall.
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Jon Brion joins New York's Wordless Music Orchestra, led by conductor Ryan McAdams, with percussionists Yuri Yamashita-Morales and Wilson Torres, for a live performance of his score to Paul Thomas Anderson's Punch-Drunk Love at a special screening of the film at BAM’s Howard Gilman Opera House in Brooklyn on Saturday. Singer Norah Jones will make a special guest appearance, joining Brion and the Wordless Music Orchestra to perform Harry Nilsson’s “He Needs Me.” Nonesuch Records released the soundtrack to the film in 2002.
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Jeremy Denk gives two solo piano recitals this weekend, performing works by Bach, Bolcom, Stravinsky, Ives, and more, at the University of Washington’s Meany Hall in Seattle tonight and Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco on Sunday.
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Rhiannon Giddens kicks off a week-long tour of Australia this weekend, with two sets at the Blue Mountains Music Festival in Katoomba, New South Wales, performing Saturday and Sunday evenings. The tour continues with stops outside Sydney and in Melbourne before culminating at the Byron Bay Bluesfest.
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Lake Street Dive continues to tour in support of its Nonesuch debut album, Side Pony, with two sold-out shows: at The Fillmore in Philadelphia tonight and The National in Richmond, Virginia, tomorrow. Side Pony has received rave reviews, with the Boston Globe calling the album an "exuberant, harmony-rich blend of pop, soul, and jazz.” Earlier this week, the band announced a number of new tour dates for June; tickets are on sale now.
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Composer Clint Mansell and his band perform music from a number of his film scores at The Theatre at Ace Hotel in Los Angeles tonight. Mansell has scored several films for director Darren Aronofsky, including The Fountain, Noah, and Requiem for a Dream, the soundtracks for which were released on Nonesuch. The first-ever vinyl edition of the Requiem for a Dream soundtrack will be released at independent record stores on Record Store Day, April 16.
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Natalie Merchant takes her run of sold-out shows to Europe, with stops at the Universität der Künste in Berlin tonight, and TivoliVredenburg in Utrecht, Netherlands, on Sunday. She performs music from her latest release, Paradise Is There: The New Tigerlily Recordings, and more. The album, released late last year on Nonesuch, features new recordings of the beloved songs of her multi-platinum solo debut album, Tigerlily.
The Daily Telegraph, in its four-star review of Merchant's show at London's Royal Albert Hall earlier this week, says, “As her spellbound audience swayed, it felt that we were in the presence of a rare breed: an artist who has never compromised, but instead evolved with integrity, thought and meaning.” The Guardian, in its four-star review, says: "Merchant’s lush acoustic, orchestral set is dramatic, intimate and impressive to witness."
On Sunday morning, Merchant can be heard performing on BBC One’s The Andrew Marr Show; fans around the world can tune in on bbc.co.uk.
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Robert Plant and The Sensational Space Shifters conclude their "Southern Journey" tour of the American South in Texas this weekend, stopping at Wagner Noël Performing Arts Center in Midland tonight and playing a sold-out show at Austin City Limits Live at The Moody Theater on Sunday. Plant and his band will perform at the Moody Theater again on Monday night for a taping of the Austin City Limits show, which will stream live at 8 PM CT / 9 PM ET on the show’s YouTube Channel.
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The Joshua Redman Trio, with Joe Sanders on bass and Gregory Hutchinson on drums, kicks off a four-night European run at Fasching in Stockholm on Sunday. Redman stays on in Europe for the remainder of the month, performing as a featured guest with the Trondheim Jazz Orchestra, among other groups, before launching a United States tour with The Bad Plus in April. Nonesuch released The Bad Plus Joshua Redman’s self-titled debut last year, which the New York Times called “a knockout.”
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Rokia Traoré, touring in support of her new album, Né So, plays Flagey in Brussels tomorrow and Maison Communale de Plainpalais in Geneva, as part of the Festival Voix de Fête, on Sunday. Traoré heads to the United States next week, playing shows in New York City, DC, and Savannah. The Sydney Morning Herald gives Né So four stars, calling it “subtly pointed but always elegant.”
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