Nonesuch Records, founded in New York City in 1964, celebrates its 60th anniversary throughout 2024. The label and its friends mark the occasion with events including special programming at March’s Big Ears Festival in Knoxville, TN; Vinyl Me, Please exclusive Nonesuch reissues; a podcast; an exhibition and portfolio set of twenty-five years of Nonesuch artist portraits by photographer Michael Wilson; classic album vinyl reissues; limited edition anniversary merchandise; flash sales on Nonesuch recordings; playlists; a video series; and more. Further details will be announced over the course of the year.

“We spend most of our time looking into the future, working with artists on their next releases—so an anniversary gives us a chance to reflect on what has been accomplished, as well as where we are headed,” says Nonesuch President David Bither, who has been at the label since 1995 and in his current position since 2017. “It also gives us a welcome opportunity to work closely with some of our longtime friends in the music community.”

Additional programming, including artist talks, art shows, a radio series, and collaborations with other organizations, will be announced soon.

Big Ears Festival

The line-up for the 2024 Big Ears Festival—taking place in venues throughout downtown Knoxville, Tennessee, March 21–24—includes fifteen Nonesuch artists past, present, and future, in celebration of the label’s 60th anniversary: Sam Amidon, Laurie Anderson, Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society, Tyondai Braxton, Rhiannon Giddens, Mary Halvorson, Robin Holcomb, Wayne Horvitz, Hurray for the Riff Raff, Kronos Quartet, Brad Mehldau, Ringdown (Caroline Shaw and Danni Lee), Davóne Tines, Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway, and Yasmin Williams.

“Big Ears is conceived as an adventure,” says Founder and Artistic Director Ashley Capps. “It’s an opportunity to hear the world’s most exciting musical creators as well as to open up to new ideas and experiences. It spurs the imagination and nourishes the soul. That’s the real magic of Big Ears,” says Capps, who called Nonesuch “iconic and influential” when announcing the festival lineup.

Vinyl Me, Please, The Paragon Series

Vinyl Me, Please (VMP) curates and creates premium vinyl packages with quality that can be heard and felt. Their passion for this experience has led them to make the best-sounding records with the best in the business, building a community fueled by a deep appreciation for music.

As part of the 60th Anniversary, VMP will release The Paragon Series, twelve reissues from the Nonesuch catalogue. Cutting a wide swath across the label’s recordings—and including artists like The Black Keys, Philip Glass, Carolina Chocolate Drops, Stephen Sondheim, Sam Gendel, and Laurie Anderson—each Paragon Series release will be from the highest quality audio sources. They will be pressed at VMP's own pressing plant, Vinyl Media Pressing, in Denver, Colorado, with lacquers cut by Ryan K. Smith at Sterling Sound and plating by Gary Salstrom at Vinyl Media Pressing.

Classic vinyl reissues

Throughout 2024, Nonesuch will reissue a selection of its most beloved albums on vinyl, beginning in January with Gustavo Santaolalla’s Ronroco and also including Kronos Quartet’s Black Angels, Wilco’s A Ghost is Born, and Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker. Additional reissues will be announced throughout the year.

Online Content

Nonesuch launches a new video series today, Nonesuch Selects, which features the label’s artists choosing records by their labelmates, past and current from the label’s library. The first Nonesuch Selects video, featuring guitarist and composer Mary Halvorson, may be seen here:

A playlist of more than 750 tracks, which includes one track from nearly every digitally available album the label has released, also debuts today and can be heard here via Spotify and Apple Music. Other playlists, including one featuring the artists scheduled to perform at Big Ears 2024, will follow.

Nonesuch Store

The Nonesuch Store features limited-edition 60th anniversary-branded merchandise, including new crewneck sweatshirts and crewneck t-shirts with a lattice of Nonesuch logos. Additionally, flash record sales will take place throughout the year, announced via the label’s social media accounts and newsletters.

About Nonesuch Records

Founded by Elektra’s Jac Holzman as a classical label in 1964, Nonesuch Records has since grown to pursue a broad mission, dedicated to contemporary composers, jazz, American roots music, alternative music, world music, classical music, and soundtracks and music theater. In a business filled with constant change, its leadership has been remarkably stable: three people—the late Tracey Sterne, Bob Hurwitz, and most recently David Bither—have been at the helm for most of the label’s sixty years, and the label’s releases have reflected the distinctive visions of each. Though the Nonesuch artist roster has changed dramatically since its early years, the label has retained its most important characteristics during its history: recording music of originality and innovation, regardless of genre. Nonesuch artists have won Pulitzer Prizes, MacArthur “Genius” Fellowships, and other awards, including Grammys in categories ranging from Alternative to Classical to Jazz to Folk to World Music to Rock and beyond.

The New York Times Magazine explained Nonesuch’s distinctiveness: “The tiny, vigorously eclectic label ... has become a kind of American cultural institution. It has an influence far out of proportion to its size ... Where it was once seen as a niche classical label, now eminently innovative musicians of every stripe ... want to come aboard ... It's customary for musicians to gripe about their labels, yet it's hard to locate a Nonesuch artist with complaints. ‘It's a complete oasis in the recording business today,’ said the New Music composer Steve Reich.”