Saxophonist Joshua Redman and pianist Brad Mehldau have brought their world tour, featuring music from their new duo album, Nearness, to Australia. They perform at the Melbourne Recital Centre, as part of the Melbourne Festival, tonight, and at the Queensland Performing Arts Centre in Brisbane on Sunday.

"Few American jazz musicians have come to Australia with more impressive credentials than pianist Brad Mehldau, 46, and saxophonist Joshua Redman, 47," exclaims The Australian's Eric Myers in a review of the duo's Sydney show on Wednesday. "This particular format, the duo, enables them to perform with effortless virtuosity in the quiet formality of the concert hall ... With lightning communication, theirs was empathy at a high level." Read the complete review at theaustralian.com.au.

The Nearness tour heads next to Europe at the end of the month, kicking off a two-week tour that makes stops in Switzerland, Italy, Germany, France, the Netherlands, and the UK.

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John Adams’s Scheherazade.2 is performed by the Minnesota Orchestra and violinist Leila Josefowicz, conducted by Edward Gardner, at Orchestra Hall in Minneapolis tonight.

Nonesuch released the first recording of Scheherazade.2 last month. 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, masterfully illuminated by conductor David Robertson and the St. Louis Symphony," says NPR. "The fierceness and vulnerability Leila Josefowicz expresses contributes to an award-caliber performance." Scheherazade.2 "sets a whole new standard for narrative and theatrical vibrancy," exclaims the San Francisco Chronicle.

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Devendra Banhart performs at the Beach Goth festival at The Observatory Grounds in Santa Ana, California, on Sunday. His new album, Ape in Pink Marble, was released on Nonesuch last month. LA Weekly spoke to Banhart ahead of Sunday’s performance; you can read the interview here. Banhart was also recently featured on NPR's All Things Considered, which you can listen to here.

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Jeremy Denk joins the Florida Orchestra, conducted by Karina Canellakis, for three performances of Mozart’s Piano Concert No. 20 this weekend: at the Starz Center in Tampa tonight, Mahaffey Theater in St. Petersburg on Saturday, and Ruth Eckerd Hall in Clearwater on Sunday.

Denk is an “irrepressibly charismatic pianist,” writes the New York Times in a review of his performance with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra in New York last weekend. His “interplay with the orchestra’s individual soloists, like the fine clarinets, appeared easy and equal—a joy to watch.”

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Emmylou Harris, Robert Plant and their touring companions, including Steve Earle, Patty Griffin, Buddy Miller, and The Milk Carton Kids, bring the current Lampedusa: Concerts for Refugees tour to a close with a performance at George Washington University’s Lisner Auditorium in Washington, DC, tonight. The tour worked to raise awareness for the unprecedented worldwide refugee crisis, with funds going to support Jesuit Refugee Service's educational programs for refugees around the world.

The Boston Globe, reviewing the tour’s stop at Berklee Performance Center last weekend, says it’s “something quite spectacular: good works begetting great art.”

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Portuguese singer Mariza continues her North American tour in support of her newest album, Mundo, with a sold-out show at the Zeiterion Theatre in New Bedford, Massachusetts, on Saturday, followed by a show at the Quick Center for the Performing Arts in Fairfield, Connecticut, on Sunday. "Mundo is a sensually charged, wonderful album that is truly a work of art," exclaims All About Jazz. “The enormity of Mariza's gift is immediately and intoxicatingly evident upon first hearing.”

Mariza was a guest on NPR's World Cafe yesterday, discussing and performing songs from the new album; you can hear the sessions here.

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Natalie Merchant gives a benefit concert for the Maya Gold Foundation at Studley Theater at SUNY New Paltz in upstate New York on Saturday. Proceeds from the concert will both support programs for teens in New Paltz and the surrounding areas and provide education and essentials to young people in Nepal.

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American composer Nico Muhly and Faroese singer/songwriter Teitur mark the release of their new collaborative album, Confessions, by performing the record in its entirety, with special guests New York Baroque Incorporated, at (le) Poisson Rouge in New York City tonight. The Line of Best Fit calls Confessions “bright, lively and youthful … a record of bottomless charm.”

Muhly and Teitur performed songs from the album and answered fans questions in a New York Times Facebook Live session earlier this week. You can watch that here.

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Chris Thile officially took over as host of A Prairie Home Companion last weekend, and he continues his inaugural season with a sold-out show at the program’s home base at Fitzgerald Theater in Saint Paul, Minnesota, on Saturday. Joining Thile as special guests for the episode are Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats, Anaïs Mitchell, and author/comedian John Hodgman. The Minneapolis Star Tribune writes that Thile “seems right at home” as the show’s new host, and the Chicago Tribune says the show is “still the oasis [Thile] said he sees it as, still a first-rate companion.”

Folks in the US can tune in on their favorite public radio station this weekend, and fans around the world can watch the live broadcast online at prairiehome.org starting at 4:45 PM CT. You can listen to last week’s season premiere episode, with Lake Street Dive and Jack White as special guests, here.