Lake Street Dive plays Iceland Airwaves, begins UK, Ireland tour … John Adams’s Scheherazade.2 performed in Zurich with Leila Josefowicz … Laurie Anderson gives talks in NYC, Miami … Tyondai Braxton concludes tour in The Hague, Glasgow … Jeremy Denk plays upstate New York ... Rhiannon Giddens sings at the Opry at the Ryman … Junun tour launches in London, Turin … Kronos Quartet is in Iceland, Lithuania … Conor Oberst plays Nashville … Joshua Redman, Brad Mehldau tour Europe … Steve Reich at 80 is celebrated in London … The Staves play Wisconsin … Rokia Traoré tours Canada … and more …
Lake Street Dive brings its Side Pony tour to Iceland for a set at the Iceland Airwaves festival in Reykjavik tonight (label mates Kronos Quartet perform at the festival today as well; see below for more). The band then kicks off its tour of the UK and Ireland with a show at Sage Gateshead on Sunday, followed by stops in Glasgow, Manchester, London, Bristol, Brighton, Belfast, Dublin, and Cork. From there, the band heads to Australia, New Zealand, and Japan for dates in December and January.
Lake Street Dive made its Nonesuch debut with the release of Side Pony earlier this year. "A band steeped in Motown Soul, Beatles melodies, and pop divas from Dusty Springfield to Adele," says Rolling Stone, "the retro vibe rules, vividly captured by producer Dave Cobb … pretty irresistible."
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John Adams’s Scheherazade.2 is performed by Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich and violinist Leila Josefowicz, conducted by Alexander Liebreich, at Tonhalle Zürich on Saturday and Sunday.
Nonesuch released the first recording of the piece in September. Josefowicz, for whom the piece was written, performs it on the album with the St. Louis Symphony led by Music Director David Robertson. Adams's "cinematic music goes a long way in unfolding a potent drama," says NPR. "The fierceness and vulnerability Leila Josefowicz expresses contributes to an award-caliber performance."
Also in Europe, performances of Adams’s groundbreaking opera Nixon in China continue at the Royal Swedish Opera, led by director Michael Cavanaugh and conductor Lawrence Renes, in Stockholm on Saturday.
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Laurie Anderson joins author, scientist, humanitarian, and Buddhist monk Matthieu Ricard in conversation about his new book, A Plea for the Animals, and more at Marble Collegiate Church in New York City on Saturday. Anderson then heads to Florida for a discussion of her own career, including her new film, Heart of a Dog, at the Frost Art Museum in Miami on Sunday.
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Tyondai Braxton concludes his solo tour of Europe and the UK with a set at ReWire Korzo #3 in The Hague tonight, followed by a free show at Deathkill 4000 @ BLOC+ in Glasgow on Saturday. Praised by the Washington Post as “one of the most acclaimed experimental musicians of the last decade,” Braxton made his Nonesuch debut last year with the release of HIVE1, which Q calls "a sonically absorbing experience.”
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Pianist Jeremy Denk gives a sold-out recital, performing works by Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, and John Adams, at Howland Chamber Music Circle in Beacon, New York, on Sunday.
“Denk brought a delicate but authoritative touch and an almost improvisational air to the proceedings,” writes the St. Louis Post Dispatch in its review of his performance with the St. Louis Symphony last weekend. “He explored the myriad moods of Mozart’s score with every appearance of enjoyment. The cadenza that concluded the first movement sparkled.”
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Rhiannon Giddens performs in both sets of the Grand Ole Opry live from the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville this Saturday. Fans around the world can tune in at opry.com.
Giddens joined Eric Church at the CMA Awards earlier this week. You can watch their performance of the song "Kill a Word" here.
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Composer/musician Shye Ben Tzur, guitarist Jonny Greenwood, and a group of Indian musicians known as the Rajasthan Express, who came together in Jodhpur, India, last year to record the album Junun, reunite to perform the album on tour in the UK and Europe. The concerts begin with a performance at The Troxy in London tonight, as part of the Illuminations festival, which also includes a free, weeklong exhibit of artwork and films from the recording of album at the Omeara Gallery in London, which opened Wednesday. The tour continues with a set at Lingotto, as part of Club to Club festival, in Turin, Italy, on Saturday.
The musicians first reunited to play Junun in its entirety at Barbican Hall in London earlier this year. The Financial Times gave the show four stars, praising the music’s “uncomplicated exuberance … this was music that transported the listener, not just to the state of Rajasthan but to a state of mesmeric bliss.”
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Kronos Quartet performs at Iceland Airwaves, with Icelandic group múm, in Reykjavik tonight. The group continues on to a show at Kongresų rūmai Vilniuje in Vilnius, Lithuania, performing works by Sigur Rós, Geeshie Wiley, Terry Riley, Pete Townshend, Laurie Anderson, Philip Glass, and Steve Reich’s Triple Quartet.
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Conor Oberst resumed his Ruminations tour in his hometown of Omaha yesterday, and continues with a performance at the historic Ryman Auditorium in Nashville on Sunday.
“Ruminations is one of Conor Oberst's most personal records," says NPR Music's Bob Boilen, "a collection of brave, dark songs ... that are unmistakably moving and contain some of Oberst's best lyrics and imagery." Glide magazine says "Ruminations is one of those albums that will inevitably rank as a landmark in Oberst’s trajectory," likening it to Bruce Springsteen's Nebraska, Bob Dylan's Blood on the Tracks, and Leonard Cohen's Songs of Love and Hate.
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Saxophonist Joshua Redman and pianist Brad Mehldau have brought their world tour, featuring music from their new duo album, Nearness, to Europe. They perform at Jazzfest Berlin tonight, the Jazzdor Festival in Strasbourg, France, on Saturday, and BASF-Feierabendhaus in Ludwigshafen, Germany, on Sunday.
The Courier Mail, reviewing a recent show the duo played in Brisbane, writes: “Together, the fusion of their sounds, and the seeming telekinetic way they communicated, created plenty of hypnotic moments … simply breathtaking.”
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As noted yesterday in the Nonesuch Journal, Steve Reich’s 80th birthday celebration is in full swing at the Barbican in London this weekend: On Saturday, Britten Sinfonia gives the sold-out European premiere of Reich's Pulse at Barbican Hall on a program that also includes his Pendulum Music, Nagoya Guitars, Electric Counterpoint, Different Trains, and his 2002 collaboration with video artist Beryl Korot, Three Tales. Earlier in the evening, Guildhall Musicians perform two classic Reich works, Drumming and City Life, at Milton Court Concert Hall, in another sold-out show. Sunday is an LSO Discovery Day on Steve Reich that culminates in a performance of You Are (Variations), Daniel Variations, and The Desert Music.
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The Staves play two sold out shows at Pine Hollow in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, on Saturday and Sunday. The trio, which recently spoke to the Minneapolis Star Tribune about their relocation to the US, have announced a North American tour for February and March. Tickets are on sale now.
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Rokia Traoré brings her North American tour near its conclusion with shows at Kay Meek Centre in West Vancouver tonight, and Farquhar Auditorium in Victoria, British Columbia, on Saturday. The tour concludes on Monday in Seattle, and Traoré heads to France for a trio of shows next month.
Traoré 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.
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