Timothy Andres's debut album, Shy and Mighty, has been named among the year's notable recordings according to The New Yorker's Alex Ross. Upon the album's release on Nonesuch in May, Ross said the album achieved "an unhurried grandeur that has rarely been felt in American music since John Adams came on the scene." Andres unveils a new piano piece, It takes a long time to become a good composer, in three concerts in New York City with the Metropolis Ensemble, starting tonight.

“I’m actually really shy,” insists Jessica Lea Mayfield. “Not musically, but personally.” This uncommonly mature 21-year-old singer-songwriter’s Nonesuch debut, Tell Me, due out in February, balances the warm-hearted with the cold-blooded. Here she talks about the making of the new album, working with producer/engineer Dan Auerbach, her early musical influences in bluegrass and '90s rock, and writing songs "about being mean to boys."

When the Philip Glass / Robert Wilson collaboration Einstein on the Beach premiered in 1976, it marked the international breakthrough for its creators and changed what audiences might expect from opera, theater, or performance art. New audiences and an entirely new generation will have the opportunity to see the rarely performed piece during a 2012-2013 international tour of major cities around the world. "For audiences, few of whom have experienced Einstein apart from audio recordings," says the composer, "this tour will be a chance finally to see this seminal work."

Christina Courtin launches a four-city tour with Aoife O'Donovan of the Crooked Still in Boston tonight, followed by stops in New Hampshire and Vermont, before hitting Courtin's home base of New York City with a Saturday night show at Rockwood Music Hall. Courtin's voice has been described by the New York Times as "uniquely otherworldly." Her self-titled Nonesuch debut album, which the Huffington Post called "a wonderful concoction," is now just $10.71 in the Nonesuch Store as part of the store-wide 3rd anniversary sale.

The Sing-Off, NBC's a cappella singing competition, continues tonight, with performances from the remaining eight teams and keen-as-ever insight from judge Ben Folds. He has added six new concerts in the US Midwest next month in support of Lonely Avenue, which the Aquarian Weekly says "is rich and filled with life’s great texture." The newly-added dates go on sale December 10; the Ben Folds Fan Club can access presale tickets now.

In October, Steve Reich, Nonesuch Records, and Indaba Music launched a search for collaborators to remix the third movement of the composer's piece 2x5, which Nonesuch had recently released on the same album as his Pulitzer Prize–winning piece Double Sextet. Reich has now chosen a Grand Prize Winner and two Runners-Up, and fans have chosen 10 Honorable Mentions, all of which can be heard here.

Punch Brothers were recently nominated for two Grammy Awards, including Best Country Instrumental Performance for the song "New Chance Blues," a bonus track off their latest Nonesuch album, Antifogmatic. To celebrate the great news, you can now download a the Grammy-nominated track "New Chance Blues" for free here. The band has added a number of new 2011 tour dates to their schedule, as has Chris Thile, all of which are listed here.

The Black Keys' album Brothers has landed at No. 2 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the Best Albums of 2010. "The duo boil it down on their best record yet: vivid tunes stripped bare and rubbed raw, with hot splashes of color and hooks popping through like compound fractures," raves Rolling Stone. "It's rock minimalism pushed to the max." The magazine also places the album track "Everlasting Light" at No. 11 on the list of the Best Singles of 2010.

Last night marked the season two premiere of NBC's The Sing-Off, with Ben Folds returning as a judge on the hit a cappella competition. "The Sing-Off Proves Ben Folds Needs His Own Television Show," declares MTV. "Though all of the judges are excellent, the show really does belong to Folds ... He has both the chops and the experience to really deliver in the judges' chair." NPR calls him "wonderful." In his blog for the show, Folds writes: "The stars of this show are the groups, and whether they leave the show on the first episode or the last, we want them to stay inspired and keep making people happy."

k.d. lang recorded the modern Christmas classic “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch” for the Glee cast’s holiday album. Tonight on Fox TV at 8 PM, the song will be featured on the show’s special Christmas episode. lang will release a new album of her own, Sing It Loud, in the spring of 2011 on Nonesuch Records; further details will be announced shortly.

Ben Folds returns to NBC tonight as a judge on Season 2 of The Sing-Off, the search for America's best a cappella group, premiering tonight at 8 PM ET. The New York Times calls Folds "one of the better reality-competition judges television has seen: knowledgeable, engaging, constructive rather than cruel." The Washington Post says, unlike other, more cynical TV competitions, the goal here is "the fleeting, ephemeral beauty of a song well sung." Folds tells Spinner: "People singing together is very underrated and very necessary."

Natalie Merchant's Leave Your Sleep has won the 2010 fRoots Critics Poll for Best Packaged Album of the Year. "Artistic skill can produce a must-have artefact of beauty, along with enhancing the listening pleasure by providing ambience and information," says fRoots, calling Leave Your Sleep "a classic example of how to do things well." Merchant also made the poll's list of the Top 20 New Albums of 2010, along with Carolina Chocolate Drops, Ali Farka Touré, Toumani Diabaté, AfroCubism, and Cheikh Lô.