Journal
- Monday, October 28, 2024
"There's a kind of dynamism and movement to it that's just exquisite," Ken Burns says of Leonardo da Vinci's work. "He could feel, I think quite rightfully, that he had lived a fuller life than practically anybody I've ever come across in my study in any period." Burns was on CBS Sunday Morning with his co-directors, Sarah Burns and David McMahon, to talk with correspondent David Pogue about their new two-part documentary, LEONARDO da VINCI, which airs on PBS November 18 and 19 and for which Caroline Shaw wrote an original score. You can watch the piece here.
Journal Topics:
- Sunday, February 4, 2024
Congratulations to Julia Bullock, Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway, the Los Angeles Philharmonic & Gustavo Dudamel, and Thomas Adès all of whom won GRAMMY Awards at the Premiere Ceremony today: Bullock for Best Classical Solo Vocal Album for Walking in the Dark; Tuttle & Golden Highway for Best Bluegrass Album for City of Gold; and the LA Phil and Dudamel for Best Orchestral Performance for Thomas Adès' Dante. And congratulations to Laurie Anderson, who was a recipient of the Recording Academy’s 2024 Lifetime Achievement Award in a ceremony on Saturday night.
Journal Topics: Artist NewsSunday, February 4, 2024This GRAMMY Sunday, Rhiannon Giddens shares the story of a previous GRAMMYs, when she was nominated for her first solo record, 2015's Tomorrow Is My Turn. Giddens "was all dolled up in gown and professional hair and makeup and feeling very, very hollow inside" from the red carpet experience, "feeling the disconnect with why I actually play and sing music." She and her longtime friend and colleague Dirk Powell grabbed their fiddle and banjo and set up outside a pizza joint to play some tunes, unnoticed except for a young boy who was selling candy bars and asked: "Hey I used to learn violin, can I see yours?" You can read her story here.
Journal Topics: Artist NewsSaturday, February 3, 2024Chris Thile returned to CBS Saturday Morning to perform for the first time with guitarist Billy Strings in a Saturday Sessions set of three songs: "Wild Bill Jones," "I Am a Pilgrim," and "I've Been All Around This World." You can watch all three performances here.
Journal Topics: Artist News, Television, VideoFriday, February 2, 2024When Molly Tuttle was back home in the Bay Area in December to perform four sold-out shows with her band Golden Highway at the Guild Theatre, she spoke with Anne Makovec of Bay Area CBS station KPIX in celebration of the GRAMMY nomination for Best Bluegrass Album for City of Gold. They stopped by Gryphon String Instruments in Palo Alto, joined by Molly's dad, music teacher and multi-instrumentalist Jack Tuttle, to talk about her formative time there. You can watch it here.
Journal Topics: Artist News, Television, VideoFriday, February 2, 2024This GRAMMY Awards weekend—in which Nonesuch recordings are nominated for eleven GRAMMYs and Laurie Anderson will receive a Lifetime Achievement Award—there’s lots of great live music ahead around the world, including three shows in Cambridge, MA, from Cécile McLorin Salvant, Brad Mehldau, and Mary Halvorson. Salvant then heads to Philadelphia, Mehldau to Georgia. Ambrose Akinmusire tours the Netherlands. Attacca Quartet performs Caroline Shaw in Berkeley. Jeremy Denk plays Bach in St. Louis, Richard Goode in Philadelphia. Jonny Greenwood performs Steve Reich in Manchester. Rachael & Vilray tour Colorado.
Journal Topics: On Tour, Weekend EventsThursday, February 1, 2024Molly Tuttle was on WNYC's All of It with Alison Stewart, as part of the show's GRAMMY nominees series, to talk with Stewart about her new album with Golden Highway, City of Gold, which is up for the GRAMMY for Best Bluegrass Album this weekend, and their debut album, Crooked Tree, which won the award last year. You can hear their conversation here.
Journal Topics: Artist News, RadioWednesday, January 31, 2024Composer/pianist Timo Andres has made his NPR Tiny Desk Concert debut with a performance of two Philip Glass Piano Etudes—Nos. 6 and 5—that premiered today, on Glass's eighty-seventh birthday. You can watch it here. Andres performs Glass's Evening Song No. 2 on the 2020 Nonesuch album I Still Play. Andres's new album, The Blind Banister, is due March 22.
Journal Topics: Artist News, VideoTuesday, January 30, 2024Timo Andres’ new album, The Blind Banister, is due March 22 on Nonesuch. The album comprises three works by the composer/pianist: the piano concerto The Blind Banister (a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2016), with Andres as soloist, and Upstate Obscura for chamber orchestra and cello, with soloist Inbal Segev—both of which feature Metropolis Ensemble and conductor Andrew Cyr—and the solo piano piece Colorful History, also performed by Andres. You can hear the third movement of Upstate Obscura, “Vanishing Point,” now.
Journal Topics: Album Release, Artist NewsMonday, January 29, 2024Days of Wine and Roses, which opened on Broadway last night to rave reviews, was featured on NPR's Morning Edition today. NPR contributor Jeff Lunden talks with composer Adam Guettel, script writer Craig Lucas, stars Kelli O'Hara and Brian d'Arcy James, and director Matthew Greif about the creation of the musical. You can the piece here. All of the artists were also in a New York Times feature over the weekend. "I come off the stage feeling emotional, but elated and proud and breathless—literally breathless—from the freedom to be given a challenge like this and to be trusted with it … I’ve never been so passionate about anything in my life," O'Hara tells the Times. "Astonishing … superb," exclaims the New York Times Critic's Pick review. "Guettel’s anxious, spiky, sumptuous score … grabs hold of us and doesn’t let go."
Journal Topics: Artist News, RadioFriday, January 26, 2024Grammy and Academy Award winner Gustavo Santaolalla releases his acclaimed 1998 album Ronroco on vinyl for the first time in a newly remastered edition from Nonesuch, out now. The singer, composer, and producer’s classic album—which takes its name from a South American stringed instrument—comprises twelve original tunes inspired by traditional Argentinean music and influenced by music of Japan, Africa, and Eastern Europe. “Ronroco conjures bucolic images and feelings for me,” filmmaker Alejandro Gonzalez Iñarritu writes in the new liner note. “There’s always a note that surprises, breaks the pattern of the rainstorm, turning into silence, a gentle drizzle, or escalating into a tempest.”
Journal Topics: Album Release, Artist NewsFriday, January 26, 2024The Yussef Dayes Experience: Live From Malibu, featuring music from Dayes' critically acclaimed debut solo album, Black Classical Music, and more, is now available on vinyl and digitally. Dayes—who has just been nominated for BRIT Awards for Best New Artist and Best Alternative/Rock Act—is joined by his longtime collaborators Rocco Palladino, Venna, Elijah Fox, and Alexander Bourt on Live From Malibu, which was originally released as a live-performance video filmed in the Malibu mountains last year; you can watch that here.
Journal Topics: Album Release, Artist NewsFriday, January 26, 2024Jeff Parker and the New Breed, including Makaya McCraven, perform in Chicago and Iowa City. Ambrose Akinmusire, Bil Frisell, and Gregory Hutchinson bring Owl Song to Budapest and Helsinki. Jeremy Denk is in Utah. Mary Halvorson's sextet takes Cloudward to Germany and Austria. Emmylou Harris headlines Ann Arbor Folk Fest. Gabriel Kahane, Attacca Quartet, and Roomful of Teeth premiere his new work in San Francisco. Kronos Quartet celebrates 50 in Stanford. Brad Mehldau is in Canada and Connecticut. Natalie Merchant leads Fondazione Prada workshop/concert in Milan. Punch Brothers host Kacey Musgraves and Tiny Habits at their NYC variety hour. Cécile McLorin Salvant is in Milwaukee and Minneapolis. Molly Tuttle concludes UK tour with Tommy Emmanuel in New Brighton and Harrogate.
Journal Topics: On Tour, Weekend Events