Robert Ashley, the American composer, has died at the age of 83. Ashley, whose piece Improvement: An Opera for Television was released on Nonesuch Records in 1992, died at his home in New York from complications of cirrhosis of the liver on March 3, 2014. "Before there was Spalding Gray or Laurie Anderson or the 1980s," wrote the critic Josef Woodard, "there was Robert Ashley, the composer who dissected speech, envisioned television opera, and concocted a new kind of musical-theatrical experience." Ashley finished his last opera, Crash, in December 2013; it will premiere at the 2014 Whitney Museum Biennial, April 10–13, 2014.

Carolina Chocolate Drops continue the Southern leg of their US tour in Birmingham and Atlanta ... Shawn Colvin joins Mary Chapin Carpenter, New York Philharmonic at Lincoln Center ... Jeremy Denk plays Ravel in Madrid ... Fatoumata Diawara is in Santa Monica ... Dr. John previews Mardi Gras in Florida, where Iron and Wine rounds out six-city tour ... Kronos Quartet performs Terry Riley’s Sun Rings at Notre Dame ... Audra McDonald returns to California’s Central Valley ... Brad Mehldau Trio tours France, Italy ... Pat Metheny Unity Group plays out West ... Chris Thile, Mike Marshall play duo shows in Pacific Northwest ... and more ...

John Adams has teamed up with Toronto Symphony Orchestra Music Director Peter Oundjian for the tenth-annual New Creations Festival, running Saturday, March 1, through Friday, March 7. Following his TSO debut in the 2011 New Creations Festival, Adams returns with his music as a focus in the 2014 Festival, with Oundjian leading the TSO in his Doctor Atomic Symphony and the composer leading the orchestra in the Canadian premieres of his Slonimsky’s Earbox and Absolute Jest.

Mehliana: Taming the Dragon, the debut album from the electric duo of Brad Mehldau and Mark Guiliana, is out now on Nonesuch Records (March 18 on vinyl). The album is "astonishing," exclaims Jazzwise magazine, "one of the best albums of 2014." Mehliana earns four stars from the Guardian and from MusicOMH, which calls it "wholly absorbing ... an intuitive, compelling dialogue between the two musicians." Tune in to BBC Radio 2's Jamie Cullum tonight to hear an interview with Mehldau. Watch a performance of the album track "Sleeping Giant" here.

Five-time Tony Award-winner Audra McDonald returns to Broadway this spring to take on the role of legendary jazz singer Billie Holiday in the Broadway premiere of Lanie Robertson’s Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill, which recounts Holiday’s life story through the songs that made her famous. Directed by Lonny Price (110 in the Shade, A Class Act), the musical begins previews March 25, 2014, at the Circle in the Square Theatre for a limited ten-week engagement with only 70 performances; opening night is set for April 13. Tickets go on sale to the general public March 6.

The Kate McGarrigle Foundation—a non-profit organization dedicated to raising money in the fight against sarcoma, a rare form of cancer from which Canadian singer/songwriter Kate McGarrigle died in 2010, and to preserving her artistic legacy—has been presented with an initial contribution of $50,000 from sales of the album Sing Me the Songs: Celebrating the Works of Kate McGarrigle. Released in 2013 on Nonesuch Records, Sing Me the Songs features highlights from three concerts held in honor of McGarrigle led by her children—the acclaimed musicians Rufus and Martha Wainwright—and her sister and musical partner Anna McGarrigle in London, Toronto, and New York.

Jonny Greenwood and the London Contemporary Orchestra perform music from his film scores in London ... John Adams leads Orquesta Nacional de España in Beethoven and Adams ... Bombino concludes Europe tour in Benelux ... Shawn Colvin sings in Connecticut ... Jeremy Denk joins Spokane Symphony Orchestra ... Fatoumata Diawara tours Vermont and Montréal ... Richard Goode gives recital in Gent ... Iron and Wine heads South ... Kronos Quartet celebrates music of Mali in Maryland ... Audra McDonald is in Massachusetts ... Pat Metheny Unity Group plays Texas ... Sara Watkins sets sail on a Caribbean cruise ...

Rhiannon Giddens, co-founding member of the Carolina Chocolate Drops, receives the 2014 Sam Ragan Fine Arts Award from St. Andrews University in Laurinburg, NC, today. The Sam Ragan Fine Arts Award is presented annually to recognize outstanding contributions to the Fine Arts of North Carolina. "Honorees are persons who have, over a long period, been outstanding practitioners of their art," says Ron Bayes, distinguished professor of creative writing Emeritus, "and who have selflessly shared their talent with other creators, working in their primary genre and beyond."

Emmylou Harris and Shawn Colvin will join fellow Grammy Award-winning and/or -nominated women in music for Grammy Festival at Sea: Women Who Rock, a four-day cruise aboard the Norwegian Pearl, departing from Miami and headed to the Bahamas, November 4-8, 2014. Harris and Colvin join Heart, Indigo Girls, Estelle, Skylar Grey, and others for performances, Q&As, and other activities hosted by the performers. There also will be one-of-a-kind opportunities to interact with the artists on board.

To coincide with the release of her new self-titled album, Natalie Merchant will perform two concerts at Milton Court Concert Hall in London on May 10 & 11, showcasing new songs as well as material drawn from her catalogue as a solo artist and with 10,000 Maniacs. These two concerts are part of a wider celebration at the Barbican to mark Nonesuch Records’ 50th anniversary, including a marathon weekend entitled Explorations: The Sound of Nonesuch Records (May 17-18), during which Merchant will join fellow Nonesuch artists Kronos Quartet, Rhiannon Giddens, Sam Amidon, and Olivia Chaney, and others for a unique concert of traditional and contemporary music collaborations. Tickets are on sale now.

Composer John Adams kicks off an extensive residency with the Orquesta y Coro Nacionales de España in Madrid. The residency, titled Carta Blanca a John Adams, features performances of his Absolute Jest, Harmonielehre, American Berserk, China Gates, Phrygian Gates, Shaker Loops, John’s Book of Alleged Dances, String Quartet, Slonimsky’s Earbox, and Doctor Atomic Symphony; talks with the composer; a guest appearance by Jeremy Denk; film screenings of The Death of Klinghoffer and I Am Love; and a collaborative session with area students.

Nickel Creek—Chris Thile (mandolin/vocals), Sara Watkins (fiddle/vocals), and Sean Watkins (guitar/vocals)—officially reunites for the first time since its 2007 self-described “indefinite hiatus” with a new album, A Dotted Line, on April 1, 2014, with vinyl to follow on April 29. Nonesuch Store preorders include an instant download of the album tracks “Destination” and “Love of Mine,” which you can stream here. The band tours the US this spring and summer; for all newly added dates, presales begin Wednesday, February 19, at 10 AM local time.