Steve Reich was born in New York, raised there and California, and has spent much of his life in the City. He has also been spending time in Vermont for more than three decades. Vermont Public Radio spoke with the composer about his career and how the quiet of Vermont has influenced his writing. He was in Massachusetts this weekend for MASS MoCA's Bang on a Can Festival, which culminated in a performance of Music for 18 Musicians. Says the Boston Globe: "Reich’s towering 1976 epic rang out like a renewed statement of purpose: a postmodern hoedown of joyfully interlocking parts."

Musicologist-conductor-pianist Joshua Rifkin’s The Baroque Beatles Book, featuring Baroque-era arrangements of the Fab Four’s Top 40 hits, was among the earliest releases on the then year-old Nonesuch label in 1965 and remained a cult favorite in the catalog over the decades. Now, for the first time, it has been reissued on CD, and, all these years later, says the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, "It’s still a lot of fun ... Give it a listen."

Christina Courtin, whose self-titled Nonesuch debut was released last month, recently spoke with Blurt magazine about the album and her many musical inspirations, from the classical music she studied at Juilliard to classic pop and rock. Altsounds says she's "one of a kind" and "would have fitted in perfectly in the New York Jazz scene of the thirties and forties," suggesting that "she could have easily shared the stage with Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald."

David Drew, the British writer, editor, recording producer, and music publisher, has died at the age of 78. As a board member and the head of the contemporary music department at Boosey & Hawkes Music Publishers, Drew was instrumental in developing the relationship between Nonesuch and Polish composer Henryk Górecki, a close friend of his, and was involved in the now-famous Nonesuch recording of Górecki's Third Symphony, for which he wrote the liner note. Nonesuch President Bob Hurwitz shares a page from his personal diary on the day of the recording session.

Wilco has made the NPR listeners' list, both for Best Album, Wilco (the album), and twice again for Best Song with "Wilco (the song)" and "One Wing." "One thing was clear," says Bob Boilen, host of NPR's All Songs Considered, "that 2009 has been one of the strongest years for new music in recent memory." Fresh on the heels of their successful summer tour of the US, the band has announced a number of new dates in the country for this October.

Gidon Kremer and the Kremerata Baltica's latest Nonesuch release, a two-disc recording of the complete Mozart violin concertos, is out now. The Times (UK) gives it a perfect five stars, writing of Kremer: "His musical intelligence is so probing, his touch so light, his tone so bird-like, that I feel I’m hearing these five concertos for the first time ... His mind is as quicksilver as Mozart’s pen, excitedly darting from phrase to phrase in an intoxicating journey of discovery." The San Jose Mercury News says, "While listening, the world is right."

John Adams's Doctor Atomic Symphony, an all-instrumental work based on his 2005 opera, Doctor Atomic, is out now. Conductor David Robertson leads the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra in first recordings of both Doctor Atomic Symphony and 2001's Guide to Strange Places. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch calls it "a pair of brilliant performances." The Guardian says the title piece has "captured in furious brass explosions and Adams's vivid orchestration," and the album "rewards repeated listening."

Bill Frisell's new album, Disfarmer, which sets to music the haunting, mid-century photo portraits of the late Arkansas photographer Michael Disfarmer, is "extraordinary" and "an absolutely beguiling listen," says the Lexington Herald-Leader. "The effect is like sifting through old photographs with black-and-white imagery that convey all manner of figurative color upon each viewing." 100 Greatest Jazz Albums calls the album "evocative in terms that are all its own ... an outstanding further chapter in Bill Frisell's growth as a major American artist in his own right."

Michael Steinberg, the music critic, author, frequent contributor of essays to Nonesuch recordings, and greatly respected colleague, died on Sunday, July 26, at hospice in Edina, Minnesota, at the age of 80. The Boston Globe, where Steinberg was classical music critic from 1964 to 1976, quotes composer John Adams's recent memoir: "Michael’s ability to render, in beautiful and uncluttered English prose, complex and subtle musical issues set the gold standard for how one communicates about music in words."

Oumou Sangare was among the performers at this past weekend's WOMAD in the UK. BBC Radio 3 has coverage from the festival, and the Daily Telegraph says Oumou's set found her "wreathing her airy voice around her band’s funky harp-based rhythms," building "to a rapturous finale." Pitchfork gives her new album, Seya, an 8.1, praising "its seamless mix of old and new sounds." Dusted says the album's title, which means "Joy," is an apt one, as that's "a sentiment that rings true every time the songbird of Wassoulou opens her mouth."

Rokia Traoré was "one of the biggest draws" at this past weekend's WOMAD festival in Wiltshire, England, says the BBC. From backstage, BBC spoke with the Malian-born singer-songwriter, described as "one of Africa's most innovative and acclaimed musicians." The Independent gives four star's to the festival's first night, at which "the day's star-making performance comes from Mali's Rokia Traoré ... It is when she dances, hips swinging half-way to Somerset, and straps on an electric guitar to lead her band in hard, dramatic rock, that she becomes potent with pride."

Rokia Traoré, Oumou Sangare, Youssou N'Dour take the WOMAD UK stage ... Youssou plays the Nice Jazz Fest too, as the film about his album Egypt opens in Montreal ... Amadou & Mariam close Coldplay tour, feature on CNN ... David Byrne's Italian tour continues at Locus Fest ... Bill Frisell concludes European tour with McCoy Tyner Quintet ... The Low Anthem plays Philly's XPoNential Music Fest ... Punch Brothers play up in Maine ... Joshua Redman Trio makes music at Mendocino Fest ... Steve Reich participates in Bang on a Can Music Fest at MASS MoCA... Dawn Upshaw performs Golijov and more at Aspen Music Fest ... and much more ...