Singer Julia Bullock, who will release her Nonesuch debut solo album later this year (details to come), is starring in the title role in director Katie Mitchell's production of Handel's Theodora at the Royal Opera House in London, with Joyce DiDonato and Jakub Józef Orliński, through February 16. The production—the first of the oratorio at Covent Garden since its 1750 premiere—has earned five stars from the Financial Times, and the Times raves of the "spirited freedom fighter, powerfully depicted with fervent voice and gesture by Julia Bullock.” The Guardian describes the cast as "one of the finest ever assembled for the work," which "means that musically this is breathtaking ... one of the most beautiful things you will ever hear."

Cécile McLorin Salvant has released her take on the Sting song "Until," from her Nonesuch debut album Ghost Song, due March 4; you can watch the video here. "This is the weirdest, moodiest set of lyrics," she says. "I feel like lyrics can morph into what you want them to be depending on when you listen. Of course it’s about love and romance, but there are these weird turns it takes, the dance at the center of the song. And that idea of catching the world in an hourglass is so great to me. I’m obsessed with hourglasses; I draw a lot of them in my visual art. It’s one of my favorite memento mori moments—the beauty of it and also the finality of it."

Lake Street Dive has announced a new batch of North American spring and summer tour dates. Following its previously announced shows in upstate New York in May, the band will head to Toronto on June 1 and continue through the US East and Midwest, making stops in Pennsylvania, Vermont, Connecticut, New Jersey, Michigan, Ohio, Missouri, Wisconsin, and more, including a return to NYC's Radio City Music Hall on September 10. Lake Street Dive has partnered with PLUS1 so that $1 per ticket goes to supporting the Climate Justice Alliance and their work uniting frontline communities and organizations into a formidable force in the climate movement.

Rhiannon Giddens has revealed the cover for her debut picture book, Build a House, ahead of its October 11 publication on Candlewick Press; you can pre-order the book now. "I released this song on Juneteenth in 2020 with the great Yo-Yo Ma," Giddens says. "We made a socially distanced recording (very—there was an ocean between us!) and put it out on socials and that was that. A few days later, someone said the lyrics would make for a great children’s book. Fast forward two years and that children’s book is almost here! It has been an absolute honor and pleasure to work with my fantastic publisher Candlewick on this book, and a revelation to see what gifted artist Monica Mikai has done with this story." Build a House is the first of four children’s books that Giddens has planned with Candlewick Press. 

The Black Keys have announced their Dropout Boogie tour, a 32-date North American run beginning July 9 in Las Vegas. This is the band’s first string of shows since touring in support of their 2019 Nonesuch album “Let’s Rock." Band of Horses will support on all dates; Ceramic Animal (July 9–30), Early James (August 24–September 9), and the Velveteers (October 2–18) will open at select performances. The Black Keys are holding an exclusive fan club presale February 1–3. A limited number of VIP packages will also be available. General on-sale begins Friday, February 4.

Pianist and composer Tigran Hamasyan has released "Ara Resurrected (Dawatile Remix)." The new track, a remix of a song originally released on Hamasyan’s 2020 album, The Call Within, was recorded by Dawatile—producer, composer, and multi-instrumentalist David Kiledjian—in France, and co-produced with Hamasyan, with Dawatile adding electronic elements to Hamasyan’s piano playing from the original recording.

Nonesuch Records releases Brad Mehldau’s Jacob’s Ladder on March 18 on CD; a vinyl LP version is due later in the year (date TBD). The album features new music that reflects on scripture and the search for God through music inspired by the prog rock he loved as a young adolescent—his gateway to the fusion that eventually led to his discovery of jazz. Featured musicians on the album include label mates Chris Thile and Cécile McLorin Salvant, as well as Mark Guiliana, Becca Stevens, Joel Frahm, and others. Nonesuch Store pre-orders include an exclusive signed, limited-edition print while they last. You can watch a video for ‘maybe as his skies are wide’—a song that builds off an interpolation of one portion of Rush’s classic "Tom Sawyer"—here.

Nearly sixty years after they first played together, Ry Cooder and Taj Mahal, longtime friends and collaborators, reunite with an album of music from two Piedmont blues masters who have inspired them all their lives: GET ON BOARD: THE SONGS OF SONNY TERRY & BROWNIE MCGHEE, out April 22 on Nonesuch Records. With Taj Mahal on vocals, harmonica, guitar, and piano and Cooder on vocals, guitar, mandolin, and banjo—joined by Joachim Cooder on drums and bass—the duo recorded eleven songs drawn from recordings and live performances by Terry and McGhee. A video for the track “Hooray Hooray” may be seen here, as well as an interview with Ry Cooder and Taj Mahal about the record. 

Punch Brothers guitarist Chris "Critter" Eldridge is on the Fretboard Journal Guitar Podcast to talk with host Jason Verlinde about the band's new album, Hell on Church Street, a reimagining of, and homage to, the late bluegrass great Tony Rice’s landmark solo album Church Street Blues. You can hear their conversation here. Rice was a hero to all the Punch Brothers, but perhaps to no one more than Eldridge, who, as a college student, had worked out a deal where he could study one-on-one with the notoriously reclusive guitarist in exchange for school credit. 

Congratulations to guitarist/composer Jeff Parker, who has been named a recipient of the United States Artists' 2022 USA Fellowship. Parker is one of sixty-three artists across ten creative disciplines, including eight in the field of music, who will receive unrestricted $50,000 cash awards this year. The award honors their creative accomplishments and supports their ongoing artistic and professional development. The 2022 USA Fellows class is the largest in the organization’s sixteen-year history. USA Fellowships are awarded to artists at all stages of their careers and from all areas of the country through a rigorous nomination and panel selection process. Fellowships are given in the following disciplines: Architecture & Design, Craft, Dance, Film, Media, Music, Theater & Performance, Traditional Arts, Visual Art, and Writing.

Composer/singer/songwriter Gabriel Kahane releases Magnificent Bird on March 25. On the album, Kahane chronicles the final month of a year spent off the internet, reveling in the tension between quiet, domestic concerns, and the roiling chaos of a nation and planet in crisis. “Sit Shiva,” the album’s first single, out now, finds Kahane skirting the rules of his digital hiatus in order to mourn, online, the death of his maternal grandmother; in typical fashion, he mines not just pathos, but humor and grace amidst his family’s grief. You can watch the video here. Pre-orders of Magnificent Bird from Bandcamp and Nonesuch Store include an exclusive, limited-edition print autographed by Kahane, while they last.

Hurray for the Riff Raff (aka Alynda Segarra) has announced a tour of the UK and Europe this summer. The tour, which features songs from their upcoming album, LIFE ON EARTH, starts at Whelan's in Dublin on August 31 and includes shows in Glasgow, Manchester, London, Paris, Amsterdam, Berlin, and more. The concerts follow Hurray for the Riff Raff's spring tour of North America.