Brad Mehldau joins the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra for the US premiere of his Variations on a Melancholy Theme, which he says sounds “as if Brahms woke up one day and had the blues." Also on the program are works by Brahms and Beethoven. The three-city tour includes stops in Massachusetts and Pennsylvania, and the New York premiere at Carnegie Hall. Mehldau then kicks off a ten-day US tour of Mehliana, a new electric duo with drummer Mark Guiliana, and heads to Europe for a week of solo shows before a two-week Mehliana tour of Europe and the UK.

Mandolin virtuoso Chris Thile—who, with his fellow Punch Brothers, performed at the unforgettable benefit concert Another Day, Another Time: Celebrating the Music of “Inside Llewyn Davis,” inspired by music from the upcoming Coen Brothers’ film, Inside Llewyn Davis, in New York City on Sunday—kicks off a solo tour performing music from his new album, Bach: Sonatas and Partitas, Vol. 1, at Meany Hall for the Performing Arts in Seattle tonight. The tour makes its way across the US West, down South, and into the Midwest before heading to the Northeast for stops including a sold-out New York City show in Carnegie Hall's Zankel Hall. Thile heads to Europe in November. 

Today marks the North American release of pianist—and newly minted MacArthur Fellow—Jeremy Denk’s recording of J.S. Bach’s Goldberg Variations, with the international release to follow on October 21. A companion DVD accompanies the album and contains video “liner notes,” with Denk demonstrating passages on the piano as he explains certain details of the iconic piece. Denk is currently touring the US and will perform the piece in Washington, DC, and Chicago later this month.

The one-night only benefit concert inspired by music from the upcoming Coen Brothers’ film, Inside Llewyn Davis, takes place at The Town Hall in New York City Sunday; Showtime will air the concert December 13 ... Sam Amidon tours Northeast with Josh Ritter ... Laurie Anderson exhibition opens in Austin ... Orquesta Buena Vista Social Club tour Midwest ... Jeremy Denk joins Colorado University Symphony in Boulder ... Emmylou Harris, Rodney Crowell kick off California leg of US tour ... Iron and Wine hits Chicago and Toronto ... Gidon Kremer, Kremerata Baltica join Slava's Snow Show in Russia ... Audra McDonald opens Koerner Hall season in Toronto ... Punch Brothers play Wide Open Bluegrass in Raleigh ... Joshua Redman is in Iowa ... Rokia Traoré plays the Düsseldorf fest ... and more ...

Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell's first performance together on the Austin City Limits stage will premiere on PBS stations across the US on Saturday, November 2, 2013. The duo's performance was recorded at The Moody Theater in downtown Austin this past June as part of a world tour supporting their new album, Old Yellow Moon. Harris and Crowell will also appear on a special ACL show November 23 featuring the best music performances from this year’s Americana Music Association Honors and Awards ceremony, at which they took home awards for Duo of the Year and Album of the Year.

Ry Cooder's new album, Live in San Francisco, his first live album in more than 35 years, was released earlier this month. He spoke about the new album on the 4 O'Clock Report with Jon Wiener on Pacifica Radio's KPFK 90.7FM Los Angeles yesterday afternoon; the show also includes four tracks from the new album: “Crazy ‘bout an Automobile,” “Do Re Mi,” “Lord Tell Me Why,” and “School Is Out." The Morton Report says of Cooder's new album: "Once this man hits the high beams and races into it, there is A+ action guaranteed ... It's called live music and there is nothing better."

Rokia Traoré spoke with NPR's All Things Considered about her new album, Beautiful Africa, and the inspiration behind its songs, not least her fellow Malian and African women. "These women are simply amazing because when I feel tired, I imagine them in their life of every day. They never show that they are tired. They are like iron women: all the time working, but working and smiling and taking care of everything with nothing to support them," she explains. "I wanted to ... say thank you for being my source of inspiration."

Congratulations to pianist and writer Jeremy Denk, who has been named a MacArthur Fellow. Denk was among the 24 new MacArthur Fellows for 2013, selected by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. The annual fellowship, often referred to as the "Genius" grant, offers an unrestricted award of $625,000, paid out over five years, to individuals working in diverse fields and often across multiple disciplines. Watch Denk discuss his work and the fellowship in a MacArthur Foundation video here.

Showtime announced today that the network has just acquired exclusive television rights to film and air the one-night only benefit concert Another Day, Another Time: Celebrating the Music of “Inside Llewyn Davis,” inspired by music from the upcoming Coen Brothers’ film, Inside Llewyn Davis, which is set in the 1960’s Greenwich Village folk music scene. Produced by the film’s writer and directors Joel and Ethan Coen, the film’s executive music producer T Bone Burnett and producer Scott Rudin, the star-studded concert reunites the trio behind O Brother, Where Art Thou? and the highly successful concert events launched in conjunction with that film. Another Day, Another Time: Celebrating the Music of “Inside Llewyn Davis” will feature live performances of the film’s music, as well as songs from the early 1960s that inspired the film. A portion of the proceeds from the concert will benefit the National Recording Preservation Foundation. The concert will take place at The Town Hall in New York City on Sunday, September 29, 2013, and Showtime will air it nationally on Friday, December 13, at 9 PM ET/PT.

Today marks the release of Rokia Traoré’s new album, Beautiful Africa, in the US. The record, which was released internationally earlier this year to critical acclaim, was produced by English musician John Parish. "The Malian singer Rokia Traoré has a gentle voice with a steely core, one that’s revealed more clearly than ever on Beautiful Africa," says the New York Times. NPR concludes: "Beautiful Africa is just as smart and lovely as its creator." Following its UK release, the album earned five stars from the Observer, Guardian, and Songlines, which raves: "It really doesn’t get better than this in today’s African music ... Rokia’s work is exciting, surprising, and always perfectly executed."

Pianist Jeremy Denk's recording of J.S. Bach's Goldberg Variations, is due out in the US September 30 (October 21 internationally). But no need to wait till then to hear it. The album is streaming in full all this week as an NPR First Listen. "Whether this is your first encounter with this epic work or the 30th (40th? 50th?) version you've heard," says NPR Music's Anastasia Tsioulcas, "once you've entered the Denkian dimension, you won't want to leave."

John Adams’s Saxophone Concerto received its US premiere over the weekend, with Marin Alsop conducting the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and saxophonist Timothy McAllister, for whom the "virtuosic piece" (Washington Post) was written. The Baltimore Sun says "the score deftly fuses classical and jazz elements to create a cohesive, arresting experience ... Adams, whose style has evolved over the decades from pristine minimalism to a kind of post-Mahler richness of thematic ideas and orchestral textures, has created here a kinetic, ecstatic ride that achieves giddy heights along the way." McAllister performs the Saxophone Concerto with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra on October 5 and 6.