Jeremy Denk plays solo in St. Paul. Hurray for the Riff Raff concludes Australia tour. Gabriel Kahane’s Book of Travelers / Magnificent Bird conclude in NYC. Makaya McCraven is in Santa Cruz. Brad Mehldau plays Istanbul, Athens. Gustavo Santaolalla celebrates Ronroco in London. Caroline Shaw is in Amsterdam. Chris Thile joins Colorado Symphony in Denver. Davóne Tines joins A Far Cry in Boston. Vagabon tours Texas with Crumb. Yasmin Williams plays Pacific Northwest with Michael Kiwanuka, Brittany Howard.
Pianist Jeremy Denk opens the 2024 International Artist Series at Ordway Concert Hall in St. Paul, Minnesota, on Sunday, performing a program of works by female composers from the 19th century to today—Clara Schumann, Tania Leon, Cecile Chaminade, Missy Mazzoli, Meredith Monk, Amy Beach, Ruth Crawford Seeger, Louise Farrence, and Phyllis Chen—as well as Robert Schumann and Brahms. Denk, whose new album, Ives Denk, is out next week, recently stopped by the Nonesuch offices to share some of his favorite Nonesuch albums for the Nonesuch Selects series; you can see his selections and what he had to say about them here.
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Hurray for the Riff Raff, aka Alynda Segarra, concludes their tour of Australia, bringing music from their new album, The Past Is Still Alive, to the Croxton in Melbourne, today, and two sets at the Out on the Weekend festival: at Seaworks, Williamstown, on Saturday, and Coal Creek Community Park & Museum, in Korumburra, on Sunday. Segarra performed the album track “Buffalo” on The Kelly Clarkson Show this week and released a video for the song; you can watch both here.
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The staged production of Gabriel Kahane’s Nonesuch albums Book of Travelers and Magnificent Bird at Playwrights Horizons’ Peter Jay Sharp Theater in New York City concludes this weekend, with performances tonight, tomorrow, and Sunday and shows alternating between the two albums. You can hear two new recordings released in celebration of the production, “Give Us the Ballot” and “Red Letter Days,” here. Kahane wrote both songs in October 2020, during the final month of a year spent off the internet, at the height of the pandemic, and will perform the previously unreleased songs as part of the production.
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Percussionist, producer, and composer Makaya McCraven performs at Quarry Amphitheater in Santa Cruz, California, tomorrow, as part of This Is a Festival, a one-day music festival curated by Kevin Morby. McCraven’s latest album, In These Times, made several year's best album lists, including those of Pitchfork (“a high-water mark”), NPR Music's Nate Chinen (“the culmination of a years-long experiment in groove ... just might be Makaya McCraven's manifesto”), and Treble (“McCraven's masterwork”).
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Brad Mehldau and his trio—bassist Felix Moseholm and drummer Jorge Rossy—play a sold-out set at Cemal Reşit Rey Concert Hall in Istanbul on Saturday, for the Akbank Jazz Festival, and on the Gazarte main stage in Athens on Sunday. Mehldau released two new solo albums, After Bach II and Après Fauré, on Nonesuch earlier this year. The Associated Press says: “Mehldau’s variations are bracing and daring, breathtaking and beautiful, spiritual and psychedelic. Blue notes emerge from the contrapuntal complexity as he tests the limits of Bach’s music, showing there are none.”
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Singer/composer/producer Gustavo Santaolalla continues the 25th anniversary tour of his beloved album Ronroco with a performance at the EartH Theatre in London on Saturday. A remastered edition of the Grammy and Academy Award winner’s critically acclaimed album—which the New York Times described as “unworldly”— was released on vinyl for the first time on Nonesuch earlier this year.
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Caroline Shaw performs with Kamus Quartet at Het Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, tonight, where she is this season’s composer in residence. The program includes works from her Grammy-winning album with Attacca Quartet Evergreen and more, which the New York Times calls “exuberant.” Attacca performs on Shaw's original score to Ken Burns's upcoming documentary LEONARDO da VINCI, due October 25, along with Sō Percussion, Roomful of Teeth, and John Patitucci. You can hear three tracks from the album here.
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Chris Thile joins the Colorado Symphony, conducted by Nicholas Hersh, at Boettcher Concert Hall in Denver, Colorado, to perform his piece ATTENTION!—A narrative song cycle for extroverted mandolinist and orchestra. Also on the program are works by Beethoven and Copland and Caroline Shaw's "And So." The San Francisco Classical Voice, reviewing the West Coast premiere of ATTENTION! with Thile and the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl last year, called it “always entertaining … an eclectic soup that takes in bluegrass licks, rock, folk, and classical strains.”
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Davóne Tines performs with A Far Cry chamber orchestra—who can be heard on the 2022 Grammy-nominated album The Blue Hour (New Amsterdam/Nonesuch)—this weekend at New England Conservatory’s Jordan Hall, in Boston tonight, and Connecticut College’s Evans Hall in New London on Sunday. The program, CODED, explores the legacy of Black spirituals and their ongoing survival by way of code-switching. On Tines’ solo recording debut, ROBESOИ, released last month, the musician and his band THE TRUTH grapples with the legacy of a hero, exploding the musical repertoire of Paul Robeson. “Tines proves a masterful storyteller whose work is compellingly provocative,” says Mojo in its four-star review. You can hear the album here.
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Vagabon (aka Lætitia Tamko) performs music from her latest album, Sorry I Haven’t Called, in Texas this weekend, at Ferris Wheelers Backyard & BBQ in Dallas tonight, White Oak Music Hall in Houston tomorrow, and The Aztec Theatre in San Antonio on Sunday, supporting the band Crumb on its North American tour. Released last year on Nonesuch, Sorry I Haven’t Called is an album “that chases joy at every turn,” says Dork in its four-star review, and “cycles through urgent dance, fiery indie, and feel good pop with a resilient sense of euphoria underpinning every joyous moment.” “To unspool Tamko’s music is a bountiful reward,” says Paste. “Especially on Sorry I Haven’t Called, the work is dazzling and stirring.”
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Guitarist and composer Yasmin Williams performs music from her new album, Acadia, at McMenamins Edgefield Amphitheater in Troutdale, Oregon, tonight, and Queen Elizabeth Theatre in Vancouver, BC, tomorrow, supporting Michael Kiwanuka and Brittany Howard on their North American tour. "Yasmin Williams is one of the most inventive guitar players of the last decade, an artist devoted to deploying seemingly every technique imaginable to coax new sounds and ideas out of her instrument,” Pitchfork exclaims in its review of Acadia. “Bright and gregarious yet focused, the inventive guitarist’s latest release draws on the warm camaraderie of her collaborators for an imaginative expansion of her sound." You can listen to Acadia here.
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