Kronos Quartet kicks off Kronos: Under 30 / #5 World Premiere, four concerts at Z Space in San Francisco tonight through Sunday, featuring the world premiere of Bombs of Beirut, a new work written for the Quartet by Mary Kouyoumdjian. The young composer was selected from among nearly 400 applicants for this year’s Kronos: Under 30 Project, a commissioning and residency program founded a decade ago to support the creation of new music and develop lasting artistic relationships with the next creative generation. 

Kin (←→), the first album from Pat Metheny Unity Group—Chris Potter, Antonio Sanchez, Ben Williams, and Giulio Carmassi—is out now on Nonesuch Records. The album was released in the UK yesterday to critical acclaim, earning four-star reviews across the board from Jazzwise, Mojo, Evening Standard, Q, BBC Music, Financial Times, Record Collector, and Hi-Fi News. "Like the best of Metheny's oeuvre," says Mojo, "it takes guitar-led improvisation to new aesthetic levels," with his "eloquent guitar etching a kaleidoscope of sonic hues."

Inside Llewyn Davis, the new film written and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen and starring Oscar Isaac, Carey Mulligan, John Goodman, Garrett Hedlund, and Justin Timberlake, will be released on Blu-ray and DVD on March 11, 2014, from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. Both will include "Inside Inside Llewyn Davis," a 40-minute making-of documentary offering insights from the filmmakers, cast, crew, and musicians, and are available to pre-order now in the Nonesuch Store.

Emmylou Harris’s groundbreaking album Wrecking Ball will be reissued April 8 on Nonesuch Records. Produced by Daniel Lanois, Wrecking Ball won the 1996 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album and was highly praised by critics worldwide. The new three-disc set features the remastered original album, a bonus CD of previously unreleased material, and a DVD of the behind-the-scenes documentary Building the Wrecking Ball. The album is available to pre-order in the Nonesuch Store. Harris and Lanois will embark on an international tour this spring, including shows at The Wiltern in Los Angeles, The Vic in Chicago, and the Lincoln Theatre in Washington, DC. 

The Grammy Award–winning, multi-platinum selling trio 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 US tour this spring and summer, with shows in Nashville, New York, Boston, Washington, Chicago, and Oakland, as well as at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival. A limited ticket pre-sale will begin Tuesday, February 4, at 10 AM local time at nickelcreek.com. Tickets will go on sale to the general public beginning Friday, February 7. Further information about a forthcoming Nickel Creek album and more on the tour will be announced shortly. You can hear a sneak peak of the album track “Destination” here.

Pat Metheny Unity Group, featuring woodwind player Chris Potter, longtime collaborator Antonio Sanchez on drums, Ben Williams on bass, and multi-instrumentalist Giulio Carmassi, kicks off a world tour at Jackson Academy Performing Arts Center in Jackson, Mississippi, tonight; its debut album, Kin (←→), is out this week. The tour continues in North America for the next two months, followed by a two-month European tour in the spring. 

The Black Keys help kick off Super Bowl weekend with a sold-out show at the Roseland Ballroom in NYC ... John Adams leads Houston Symphony Orchestra in his City Noir ... Shawn Colvin launches UK Transatlantic Sessions tour at Celtic Connections ... Fatoumata Diawara tours Ontario ... Carolina Chocolate Drops take tour to Tampa ... Emmylou Harris, Rodney Crowell play two shows in North Carolina ... Iron and Wine plays benefit shows in Ann Arbor, Chicago ... Gidon Kremer, Kremerata Baltica perform in San Francisco ... Audra McDonald is at the Library of Congress ... and more ...

New York's Azart Gallery presents its inaugural show, "The Many Faces of Kin (←→)," an exhibition that celebrates the release of Pat Metheny’s newest recording on Nonesuch Records, due out next week, and offers a glimpse into the evolution and execution of the album cover art by its designers at Doyle Partners. The exhibition opens with a reception for the artists tonight and continues through February 15. 

Carolina Chocolate Drops kick off a months-long US tour at the Charleston Music Hall tonight, with a new lineup: co-founder Rhiannon Giddens, multi-instrumentalist Hubby Jenkins, and two new members, cellist Malcolm Parson and multi-instrumentalist Rowan Corbett. The tour makes stops across the Southeast through March, up into the Northeast starting in the spring, then back South for MerleFest and more. Giddens recently gave a show-stopping performance at a star-studded Everly Brothers tribute in LA, where she "mesmerized the crowd" (LA Times) and "delivered a knockout punch" (Hollywood Reporter).

Gidon Kremer and his Kremerata Baltica chamber orchestra begin a rare, six-city US tour at the 92nd Street Y's Kaufmann Concert Hall in NYC tonight, followed by performances at Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco, Stude Concert Hall in Houston, Hill Auditorium in Ann Arbor, Harris Theater in Chicago, and Ordway Center in St. Paul. The tour program features works by Weinberg, Pärt, Britten, and Shostakovich, including his satiric comic opera Antiformal Rayok, with bass Alexei Mochalov.

Carnegie Hall has announced its 2014–15 concert season, and featured among the performers taking the esteemed hall's stages are a number of artists familiar to readers of the Nonesuch Journal, including Jeremy Denk, Richard Goode, Gidon Kremer, Kronos Quartet, and Audra McDonald, as well as an all–Steve Reich program and the New York premiere of a work by Jonny Greenwood.

Fatoumata Diawara returns to North America for a month-long winter tour of Canada and the US. This leg opens with a six-city tour through Canada, starting in Alberta tonight, followed by stops in Ontario and Quebec. The US run begins February 7 with shows in Michigan, Indiana, Kentucky, North Carolina, Virginia, Vermont, and California. Diawara will be joined by fellow Malian musician Bassekou Kouyaté for several shows. She returns to the States to perform at the Savannah Music Festival in April on a double bill with Bombino.