David Byrne brings his show—"as enigmatic and adventurous as his three decades-long career" (Boston Globe)—to Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, and DC ... Adams's Doctor Atomic explodes onto movie screens around the world ... Laurie Anderson's Homeland tours Italy ... Shawn Colvin tours the Northeast and talks to the Washington Post ... Toumani Diabaté travels the West Coast ... Bill Frisell Trio's film music plays Eastern Europe ... Glass-scored ballets leap from Toronto to Miami to Sweden ... Kronos does Denver with Alternative Radio ... k.d. lang plays the Mile High City too ... Brad Mehldau and Joshua Redman trios meet up in Spain ... Punch Brothers play the Peace Center Bluegrass Festival ... Pacific Northwest Ballet performs to Reich ... Laura Veirs plays Portland's Siren Festival ... and more ...
David Byrne's Songs of David Byrne & Brian Eno tour, which has earned critical acclaim in every city it's hit across the United States, continues this weekend with stops at Pittsburgh's Carnegie Music Hall tonight, Philadelphia's Tower Theatre Saturday, and DC's Warner Theatre Sunday.
The Boston Globe says last weekend's show there was "as enigmatic and adventurous as his three decades-long career ... In short, the man was the same as he ever was: brilliant." After Wednesday's show in Albany, the Times Union called it "a seamless fusion of a new wave funk concert and modern dance recital," concluding: "It was a party. And quite a glorious one at that." The Schenectedy Daily Gazette says it was a "thrilling, funky and beautiful show."
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As reported earlier, the Met's Saturday afternoon production of John Adams's Doctor Atomic will be broadcast live in movie theaters around the world through The Met: Live in HD, which, now in its third season, reaches close to 800 participating screens. To find a participating theater near you, visit metoperafamily.org.
Adams's ever-popular Short Ride in a Fast Machine will be played on both sides of the pond this weekend, as the Birmingham Conservatoire Senior Wind Orchestra plays it tonight at Adrian Boult Hall in Birmingham, England, and the Southwest Symphony Orchestra takes it to the Trinity Christian College in Palos Heights, Illinois, on Saturday. Also in the States that day, Adams's Chamber Symphony is on the Peabody Conservatory Ensemble's program at Leith Symington Griswold Hall in Baltimore. Back in Europe, Sunday sees the composer's Christian Zeal and Activity played in Freiburg-Gundelfingen, Germany, by the student ensemble at the Kath. Pfarrkirche Bruder Klaus.
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Laurie Anderson is in Italy this weekend, continuing her Homeland tour of the country, which runs through Wednesday. Saturday's performance is at the Pala Martino in the southern coastal town of Bari.
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Shawn Colvin's tour takes her through the Northeast this weekend, with stops at the Calvin Theater in Northampton, Massachusetts, tonight; Albany's The Egg on Saturday; and Philadelphia's World Cafe Live on Sunday.
The Washington Post previews her Monday night show in Alexandria, Virginia, with a profile that examines the many phases of her career and the evolving relationship with the music she plays. Writer Moira E. McLaughlin describes Colvin as "exactly what you would expect after listening to her music. Chilled-out without sounding tired. Introspective without sounding fake. At peace without sounding like she knows it all. She sounds remarkably like the friend that fans through the years have found in her music."
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Toumani Diabaté, whom the Seattle Times calls "the planet's greatest living player of the kora," is touring the United States with music from his latest Nonesuch release, The Mandé Variations. It continues on the West Coast this weekend, with stops at the Clark Center in San Luis Obispo, California, tonight; the Rio Theatre in Santa Cruz Saturday; and The Triple Door in Seattle for two sets as part of the Earshot Jazz Festival on Sunday.
Previewing his show at San Francisco's Herbst Theatre this past Wednesday, the San Francsico Bay Guardian said Toumani's playing on the new record "creeps and seeps inside, infecting you with its melancholy minor key and uneven intervals while surrounding you with the cozy pleasure of your insulated bedroom and warm flannel sheets."
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Bill Frisell and his Trio of Tony Scherr and Kenny Wollessen continue acrsoss Europe with their multimedia performance of music to the films of Buster Keaton, Bill Morrison, and Jim Woodring. This weekend, they're in Eastern Europe, moving from the Béla Bartók National Concert Hall in Budapest, Hungary, tonight; to the Górnośląskie Cultural Center in Katowice, Poland, for the International Festival of New Improvisational Music on Saturday; to the Vienna Concert House on Sunday.
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The National Ballet of Canada opened its 2008/09 season earlier this week with the program In the Upper Room, featuring the 1986 title ballet by choreographer Twyla Tharp, set to music by Philip Glass. Performances continue at the Four Seasons Centre in Toronto through the weekend. Coincidentally, the piece is part of the Miami City Ballet's current season and will be performed at the Au-Rene Theater in Ft. Lauderdale this weekend as well.
Sweden's Royal Ballet premieres choreographer Nils Christe's work Moving Glass, set to Philip Glass's Symphony No. 3, tonight at the Kungliga Operan in Stockholm. Performances take place through the weekend and run through November 26.
On Saturday and Sunday, Alabama's Mobile Symphony, led by conductor Scott Speck, performs Funeral Music from Glass's 1983 opera Akhnaten.
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Kronos Quartet gives an encore performance of the Alternative Radio program it performed last week in Maryland, this Saturday at the Newman Center for the Performing Arts in Denver, Colorado. The program includes any number of pieces of music from around the world, determined as its host, David Barsamian, chats with special guest Diane Wilson, author of the book An Unreasonable Woman. Denver's Rocky Mountain News previews the concert by stating: "The ensemble has left the traditional concert format in its dust over the past 35 years, and the program Saturday at the University of Denver's Newman Center is no exception."
While in Denver, the Quartet will conduct master classes at the University of Denver and host a listening party of David Harrington's favorite music. More info: du.edu/newmancenter.
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k.d. lang heads to Denver's Temple Buell Theatre Saturday night with music from her latest album, Watershed, which the Denver Post says "sounds like, in a way, is the sum of k.d. lang's parts, a natural magnet for the fans she has collected over the years. If they liked any one of her past 12 albums, it makes sense to snap this one up." On Sunday, she'll play a sold-out show at the Lensic Theatre in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
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The Brad Mehldau Trio concludes its current European tour this weekend, returning to the States to tour the country next week. After last night's performance at Jazzfest Sarajevo, the Trio plays the nearby Zagreb Jazz Festival tonight. Brad's final European performance for this leg of the tour will be a special duo performance with label mate Joshua Redman at the Auditorio de la Musica in Barcelona on Sunday.
Redman concludes his own European Trio tour on Monday, after a series of concerts throughout Spain in the preceding days. In addition to Sunday's performance with Brad, he joins the Trio of Reuben Rogers and Eric Harland at Sala Insular de Teatreo in Las Palmas tonight and Auditorio Zaragoza in Zaragoza Saturday. Redman switches gears next week for a week of dates in Scandinavia with the Trondheim Jazz Orchestra.
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After a warm-up set at the intimate Living Room last night in New York City, Punch Brothers are back on the road starting with a series of dates in the South. Tonight they'll start things off at the J. E. Broyhill Civic Center in Lenoir, North Carolina, and tomorrow, they're down in South Carolina for the Peace Center Bluegrass Festival in Greenville. The weekend-long event includes 11 free concerts as well as ticketed concerts by such headliners as Punch Brothers.
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Earlier this week in Seattle, the Pacific Northwest Ballet debuted its program New Works, featuring the world premiere of choreographer Benjamin Millepied's new work set to Steve Reich's 1986 piece Three Movements. Performances continue through the weekend with a performance tonight and two tomorrow at Seattle's Marion Oliver McCaw Hall. Additional performances continue through November 16.
Also tonight, students in the drumming class at the Academy of Music and Performing Arts in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, tackle Reich's Drumming in a concert at the Academy tonight, and the Philadelphia Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra, led by Daniel Spalding, perform Reich's Triple Quartet at the Arden Theater in Philadelphia. The Smith Quartet concludes its tour of South Korea with that piece in two concerts at the Arts Centre in Seoul on Saturday that also include Philip Glass's String Quartet No. 5.
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After a month's residency of Two Beers Veirs shows in her hometown of Portland, Oregon, Laura Veirs plays that city's 2008 Siren Nation Music, Art, and Film Festival celebrating wormen, art, and community, which has been going on all week. Laura's set takes place on Saturday.
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