Rachael & Vilray begin a fifteen-city US tour at the Old Town School of Folk Music in Chicago tonight. The tour, featuring music from their self-titled debut album, includes stops in Boston, Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, DC, Brooklyn, and more.

Rhiannon Giddens is the guest on a special bonus episode of Following Harriet, a podcast series that takes a look at the life of Harriet Tubman and the broader context of the nineteenth-century experience of African Americans. She discusses Tubman's life and legacy, and Giddens's song "At the Purchaser's Option," from her album Freedom Highway. She was inspired to write the song by an 1830s advertisement for a young enslaved woman whose nine-month-old baby was "at the purchaser's option." You can listen to the conversation here.

Acclaimed Portuguese fado singer Carminho begins a two-week, seven-city tour of North America, featuring music from her new album, Maria, at Carnegie Hall's Zankel Hall in NYC on Sunday. The tour continues with performances in Boston, Toronto, Montreal, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Alexandria, VA. PopMatters calls Maria “a testament to the power of fado as well as a stunning examination of her musical prowess.”

Happy Halloween! When darkness falls from a phantom thread of holy dread, panic, and primal anxiety, as dark angels and dead things descend and zombie boys, sinister kids, and ghosts come howlin' for you in the final hour of these strange times when nothing is taboo, may you find an epiphany—some strange asylum and eternal light in the dark matter of this Nonesuch playlist, featuring music from Kronos Quartet, Clint Mansell, Jonny Greenwood, William Brittelle, Daniel Wohl, Laurie Anderson, John Adams, Philip Glass, Tigran Hamasyan, Jeremy Denk, Björk, The Black Keys, The Magnetic Fields, Michael Daves, The Staves, Lianne La Havas, and more.

Congratulations to Kronos Quartet, which has won the prestigious Ouevreprijs—career achievement prize—at the Edison Klassiek Awards. "Kronos Quartet has recorded more than fifty albums, invariably filled with new notes for the string quartet," says the jury. "It is high time to crown this unique achievement with an Edison Klassiek Ouevreprijs." The annual Dutch music prize will be presented in a ceremony and concert in Amsterdam during NPO 2's Podium Witteman on NPO 2 on November 24.

Mandy Patinkin, whose first album in seventeen years, Children and Art, was released on Nonesuch last week, launches a thirty-city concert tour, accompanied by pianist Adam Ben-David, in Philadelphia tonight. The tour, which features songs from the new album, made with pianist/producer Thomas Bartlett, and their digital Diary series, continues through February 2020. Stops include San Francisco, DC, Toronto, Chicago, Nashville, Detroit, Ft. Lauderdale, and more. 

Kronos Quartet has shared a video for "One Earth, One People, One Love," from Sun Rings, the group's 2002 collaboration with composer Terry Riley of which Nonesuch released the first full recording earlier this year. (This week also marks the 30th anniversary of Kronos Quartet's first full-length Riley album for Nonesuch, Salome Dances for Peace.) Directed by Willie Williams, the new video was made by Treatment Studios for the Sun Rings multimedia live show, which Kronos has performed nearly fifty times in eleven countries and will do so again this concert season.

"My music is my healing source," Vagabon tells Qobuz. "I'm a stickler for tones. I just have an exact idea of what I want. I do everything I can to chase down that feeling, so that leads to a lot of nerding out on tone and trying a lot of different things." You can watch the interview here. Vagabon begins a twenty-eight-concert North American tour as special guest of Angel Olsen in Asbury Park on Wednesday.

Natalie Merchant will receive the ASCAP Foundation Champion Award at The ASCAP Foundation Honors in NYC on December 11. The Champion Award celebrates ASCAP members whose contributions extend beyond music to significant charitable and humanitarian efforts. Also being honored at the event is Francisco Núñez, the founder and artistic director of the Young People's Chorus of New York City, who will receive The ASCAP Foundation Life in Music Award. "Their passion and commitment to philanthropy are sterling examples of how the creative community can step forward to improve the human condition," said ASCAP Foundation President Paul Williams. "They 'walk the walk' and are inspirations for all of us."

Chris Thile was on WNYC's All of It to chat with host Alison Stewart about his public radio show Live From Here and perform a couple of songs. "As well as being the host of Live From Here, Chris Thile is an excellent mandolin player, a multiple Grammy winner, a 2012 MacArthur Fellow, and he wrapped up a residency at Carnegie Hall earlier this year," says Stewart. "Are you getting a theme here? He is really good at what he does." He performs "Elephant in the Room," from his 2017 solo album, Thanks for Listening, and the traditional tune "House Carpenter," which he had recorded with his band Nickel Creek. You can hear the session here.

Chris Thile hosted his public radio show Live From Here from The Town Hall in NYC on Saturday with musical guests Rachael & Vilray, Rachael Price, and Gabriel Kahane, plus fellow guests Mavis Staples and Janeane Garofalo. You can watch Rachael & Vilray perform three songs, Price sing the musicians birthdays medley and cover Atoms for Peace, and Kahane play one of his own here.

Mandy Patinkin's Children and Art, his first new album since 2002, is out now. The songs were recorded in New York with pianist/producer Thomas Bartlett (aka Doveman); several have been previewed over the last two years as part of the digital Diary series. Composers on the record include Randy Newman, Laurie Anderson, Lyle Lovett, Taylor Mac, Stephen Sondheim, Tom Waits, Rufus Wainwright, Teitur, and Patinkin himself. Mandy Patinkin will tour North America, accompanied by pianist Adam Ben-David, from October 30 through February 2020.