Composer Donnacha Dennehy, whose piece Land of Winter, performed by Alarm Will Sound and conductor Alan Pierson, was released earlier this month on Nonesuch, shares some insight on the work, which explores the subtleties of Ireland’s seasons via twelve connected sections representing the months of the year, in a new essay. "It is the varying quality of light that truly demarcates the seasons," he says, "from the shorter days of grey or piercing light in the winter to the warmer but mercurial light of summer days that at solstice stretch almost to midnight. I like this play between light and time, and it is the major inspiration behind the piece."

Molly Tuttle was on the Country Music Association (CMA) Awards at the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, joining Golden Highway fiddler Bronwyn Keith-Hynes, Dierks Bentley, and Sierra Hull to perform Tom Petty's "American Girl." You can watch it here.