journal.nonesuch.com

BBC Talks with Emmylou Harris, "The Voice of an Angel," About Forthcoming Album

Emmylou Harris appeared on the latest episode of The Ticket, the arts and entertainment program from the BBC World Service, last Saturday, to discuss her storied career, her recent induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame, and her forthcoming album, All I Intended to Be, due out June 10.

The show's host, Mark Coles, introduces Emmylou in the opening segment as possessing "the voice of an angel, not a grievous bone in her body," referencing the seminal Gram Parsons album Grievous Angel, on which she famously duets with Parsons. In the interview, Emmylou credits Parsons with helping her find her true voice and opening her to "the real beauty and finesse and poetry in country music," which ultimately set her on her musical path.

There's much more from on The Ticket from Emmylou, whose segment opens the show. You can listen now at bbc.co.uk.

Nonesuch Events This Weekend

Here is our weekly list of just some of the many events going on across the globe this weekend featuring Nonesuch artists:

John Adams's Short Ride in a Fast Machine receives two very different performances this weekend: first, tonight, at the Frauenthal Center, Muskegan, Michigan, by the West Shore Symphony Orchestra, led by Scott Speck. On Saturday night, the piece will be one of many Adams works included in the Hamburg Ballet's performance of choreographer John Neumeier's Parzifal: Episodes and Echo (pictured at right) at the Staatsoper in Hamburg. Also included are Tromba Lontana, Christian Zeal and Activity, The Wound-Dresser, El Dorado, and The Dharma at Big Sur. Tickets: hamburgballet.de.

The Black Gondola, the composer's orchestration of Liszt's La Lugubre Gondola, will receive two performances this weekend by the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra under Trevor Pinnock, first at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam tonight, and then at de Vereeniging in Nijmegen, Netherlands, tomorrow. Tickets: concertgebouw.nl.

Also receiving two performances is Road Movies, which violinist Midori and pianist Charles Abramovic will play Saturday at Zeche Zollverein, in Essen, Germany, and on Sunday at Zehntscheuer in Rottenburg.
Also on Sunday, Adams's Chamber Symphony will be performed by the Tokyo Sinfonietta, led by Yasuaki Itakura, at Cité de la musique in Paris.

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Laurie Anderson brings her Homeland tour to the sparkling KKL Luzern Concert Hall in Switzerland tonight (tickets: kkl-luzern.ch) and then to Modena, Italy, for a performance at the Teatro Communale on Sunday.

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The European leg of the Raising Sand tour continues with T Bone Burnett joining Robert Plant and Alison Krauss in a sold-out concert at Philipshalle in Dusseldorf, Germany, Saturday night, and the Forest National Arena in Brussels on Sunday. Tonight, BBC Two will air the group's performance on Later ... with Jools Holland. You can watch a video preview of their set, the song "Killing the Blues," at bbc.co.uk/later. Also on Later tonight: Emmylou Harris, with a song from her forthcoming Nonesuch release, All I Intended to Be.

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Kronos Quartet has begun its tour of Europe, heading to Leon, Spain, tonight, for a performance that includes John Adams's Fellow Traveler, written for Kronos in celebration of Peter Sellars's 50th birthday. The Quartet will then bring the piece to Bucharest, Romania, on Sunday for a performance at Sala Radio that also includes Steve Reich's Triple Quartet, which the group premiered in 1999 and recorded for Nonesuch in 2001.

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The Blues Alley in Washington, DC, hosts Nicholas Payton tonight for the second night in a row; there will be an 8 PM and a 10 PM set. Tickets: bluesalley.com.

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Dawn Upshaw celebrates Mother's Day at Carnegie Hall's Zankel Hall on Sunday with Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra in a program including the New York premiere of She Was Here, composer Osvaldo Golijov's arrangement of Schubert Lieder. (Tickets: carnegiehall.org.) Dawn spoke on WNYC's Soundcheck with host John Schaefer earlier this week on being dubbed "The Composers Muse," as she will be honored at a Meet the Composer benefit later this month.

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The next stop on Laura Veirs's solo tour, with opener Liam Finn, is Denver, Colorado, tonight for a show at the Walnut Room presented by Radio 1190. (Tickets: thewalnutroom.com.) On Sunday, they'll head to Omaha, Nebraska, for a set at the Slowdown's Front Room. (Tickets: theslowdown.com.)

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Wilco heads to the Southwest, with openers Retribution Gospel Choir (featuring Alan Sparhawk of Low), for a concert tonight at the University of New Mexico's Pope Joy Hall in Albuquerque (tickets: unmtickets.com), before heading to Austin, Texas, for two sold-out nights at Stubbs BBQ, beginning Sunday.

Emmylou Harris, Honored by Country Music Hall of Fame & WFUV, Gives Back

It's been a momentous few weeks for Emmylou Harris, to say the least. She was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in a ceremony held on April 27 at the organization's Ford Theater, at which musicians including Patty Griffin, Buddy Miller, Lucinda Williams, Guy Clark, Sam Bush, and Vince Gill all paid tribute to the singer-songwriter.

  Griffin and Miller's performance of "Love Hurts," Emmylou's unforgettable duet with Gram Parsons, was followed by Williams's emotional take on "Boulder to Birmingham," and Clark's rendition of "Bang the Drum Slowly," which he co-wrote with Harris for her Grammy-winning Nonesuch debut, Red Dirt Girl (2000), in memory of her father. Listen to the album version of "Bang the Drum Slowly" here:

In accepting the honor, Emmylou credited Johnny Cash's 1964 album Bitter Tears (Ballads of the American Indian) with opening her eyes to the power of folk and country music to address social concerns. For complete coverage of the Hall of Fame induction ceremony, visit countrymusichalloffame.com.

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In that vein, Emmylou hosted a special event in Nashville, Tennessee, last month in support of the Natural Resources Defense Council's efforts to educate that city's creative community about alternative energy sources to mountaintop coal mining.

The NRDC "Eco Salon" featured a keynote address by Robert Kennedy, Jr., who heads the Waterkeeper Alliance, and was sponsored by Gibson Foundation, the philanthropic division of Gibson Guitar. NRDC and Gibson were joined by Emmylou's manager, Ken Levitan, and Warner executives John Esposito and Bill Bennett in organizing the event to bring awareness to the substantial environmental impact of mountaintop coal-derived energy, of which Nashville is the sixth-largest consumer.

"We look forward to working with Emmylou Harris and the Gibson Foundation to raise awareness and to put an end to this devastating practice," said NRDC's president, Frances Beinecke. "One of the most important investments our country can make today is to purchase clean, renewable energy."

For more information, visit gibson.com or nrdc.org.

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Capping the eventful month, Emmylou was awarded the Sound & Vision Award at the inaugural Spring Gala benefitting WFUV, Fordham University's listener-supported public radio station. The event, held April 29 at Sotheby’s in New York City, raised $700,000 for the station's programming efforts. Academy Award-winning director Jonathan Demme presented the award to Emmylou, who then performed an intimate six-song acoustic set, including a cover of John Lennon's "Imagine," that drew a standing ovation from the 400 guests, including Les Paul, Joan Osborne, and Phoebe Snow. Emmylou is pictured, at right, with WFUV's music director, Rita Houston.

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This month will bring further undoubtedly rewarding engagements, with Emmylou performing May 14 at the 20th-annual Lifesavers Dinner to benefit the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, hosted by Olympic gold medalist Greg Louganis. For more information, visit AFSP.org.

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The following month, on June 10, Nonesuch Records is proud to release Emmylou Harris's latest album, All I Intended to Be. You'll be able to pre-order the album from the Nonesuch Store on May 20.

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Click here to add Emmylou Harris's Red Dirt Girl CD directly to your Shopping Cart for $16, along with the album MP3s at no additional cost. For Emmylou's complete Nonesuch catalog, click here.

Emmylou Harris, T Bone Burnett to Perform Tonight on BBC Two's "Later ... with Jools Holland"

UK audiences can tune in to BBC Two tonight at 10 PM GMT to catch Emmylou Harris on Later ... with Jools Holland. She'll perform a song from her forthcoming Nonesuch release, All I Intended to Be, due out June 10. Also on the program will be T Bone Burnett, fronting the band behind Robert Plant and Alison Krauss before they all head to Manchester to play the Apollo tomorrow night.

If you miss tonight's broadcast, you can catch an encore presentation Later on Friday night at 11:35 PM.

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Click here to pre-order T Bone's Tooth of Crime CD for $16 and download the album MP3s, at no extra charge, on release day, May 13.

Emmylou Harris to Receive WFUV's Sound & Vision Award Tonight at Gala Event

Emmylou Harris will take part in WFUV public radio's first-ever Gala event tonight at Sotheby's in New York City tonight. As part of the celebration, Emmylou will receive the station's Sound & Vision Award and a give a special intimate performance, along with special guests, for Gala attendees.

Also being honored at the event are journalist Charles Osgood, host of CBS Sunday Morning, and Vin Scully, the voice of the Los Angeles Dodgers for nearly 60 years. The Gala will raise funds for WFUV, a non-commercial, listener-supported public radio station in New York.

For more information, visit wfuv.org/gala.

If you can't make it to the Gala, WFUV is running an encore presentation of Emmylou's 2003 visit to their studios for Words & Music from Studio A, for a conversation with the station's music director, Rita Houston. Tune in at 9 PM ET tonight at 90.7 FM in New York or online at wfuv.org.

Check back in with the Journal over the coming weeks for more information on Emmylou's forthcoming Nonesuch release, All I Intended to Be, due out June 10.

Nonesuch Events This Weekend

Below is information on just some of the many events going on this weekend across the globe featuring Nonesuch artists. Enjoy!

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Violinist Leila Josefowicz will join the Saint Louis Symphony, led by conductor Marin Alsop, for three performances of John Adams's The Dharma at Big Sur this weekend at Powell Hall in St. Louis. Also tonight, the Bilbao Symphony Orchestra led by Raymond Leppard will perform Adams's Violin Concerto at the Euskalduna Palace in Bilbao, Spain, featuring violinist Chlöe Hanslip, and the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale RAI led by Trevor Pinnock will perform the composer's 1990 orchestration of Liszt's The Black Gondola, in Turin, Italy.

Saturday night, the San Francisco Ballet presents the Mark Morris Dance Group's Joyride, featuring Adams's Son of Chamber Symphony, at the War Memorial Opera House in San Francisco, as part of the continuing New Works Festival.

Adams's Short Ride in a Fast Machine gets three playings this weekend: Saturday night at the Saenger Theater in Mobile, Alabama, by Scott Speck and the Mobile Symphony, and Bloomington High School in Bloomington, Indiana, by Jose Valencia and the Musical Arts Youth Orchestra; and Sunday night at Royal Albert Hall, London, by Mark Gooding and the Harrow Young Musicians Philharmonic.

More information: boosey.com.

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Kronos Quartet plays the last of three performances at the Mondavi Center at the University of California, Davis, tonight: John Cage's Thirty Pieces for String Quartet with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company. Tickets: mondaviarts.org.

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Laurie Anderson will bring Homeland to the Moscow International Performing Arts Center in Russia on Saturday. On Sunday night, Laurie will join the weekend-long Symposium on Sound, a gathering of scientists, performers, and artists, at Leiden University in the Netherlands, for a discussion of the event's theme of mutual influence between art and science, especially as it relates to sound. Info: veenfabriek.nl.

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T Bone Burnett continues his tour with Robert Plant and Alison Krauss at New Orleans' famed Jazz & Heritage Festival, aka Jazz Fest. The three are scheduled to take the Acura Stage this afternoon at 3:30 PM. Next, they'll head to Birmingham, Alabama, where they'll play the BJCC Arena Saturday night. Tickets: nojazzfest.com (4/25); bjcc.org (4/26).

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Bill Frisell closes out his two week residency at New York's Village Vanguard with performances all weekend. Playing with Bill are Chris Cheek on sax, Ron Miles on trumpet, Tony Scherr on bass, and Rudy Royston on drums. Tickets: villagevanguard.com.

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Satyagraha, Philip Glass's 1980 opera centered around Mahatma Gandhi's early years in South Africa, continues tonight at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. The performance is sold out. More information: metoperafamily.org.

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Richard Goode will perform a free concert in New York City as part of the annual Free for All at Town Hall concert series. See the post in today's Nonesuch Journal for more information.

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Emmylou Harris takes the stage at the Tennessee Performing Arts Center in downtown Nashville tonight for Premiere Evening, an annual fund-raising event to benefit the Center's educational and cultural programming. Tickets: tpac.org.

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k.d. lang's continues the Australian leg of her Watershed tour at the Entertainment Center in Adelaide Saturday night. Tickets: theaec.net.

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Brad Mehldau is in Quebec, Canada, tonight for a solo show at the Palais Montcalm. He returns to the States on Saturday for a performance with the trio with whom he recorded the new album Live at the Hopkins Center at Dartmouth College in Hanover, NH, and a Sunday night show at the Annenberg Center's Zellerbach Theater in Philadelphia. Tickets: palaismontcalm.ca (4/25); hop.dartmouth.edu (4/26); pennpresents.org (4/27).

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Youssou N'Dour will perform a special benefit concert tonight at New York's intimate venue Joe's Pub as part of a fund-raising effort for the Youssou N'Dour Foundation and his worldwide advocacy efforts. The acoustic set will be modeled on the smaller sets he leads at his club in Dakar. Tickets: joespub.com.

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Randy Newman will play a solo date tonight at the Riley Center at Mississippi State University's Meridian Campus. Tickets: msurileycenter.com.

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Nicholas Payton stays close to home for New Orleans' Jazz Fest. He and his quintet will take the stage in the WWOZ Jazz Tent at 4:05 PM on Sunday. Among the other performers at this year's festival are Stevie Wonder and Al Green, as well as Robert Plant and Alison Krauss with T Bone Burnett (see above). Tickets: nojazzfest.com.

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Steve Reich's Eight Lines will be performed by Ensemble Intercontemporain led by Ludovic Morlot tonight at Cité de la musique, Salle des concerts, in Paris.

Reich's Desert Music, will presented at the University of California, Berkeley, Saturday, as Drumming will be performed by percussionist Colin Currie at the Concert Hall in Perth, Scotland. Currie earned four stars in the Herald (UK) for his performance there earlier this week of Reich's Music for Pieces of Wood that "mesmerised." Also Saturday, the Smith Quartet brings the Triple Quartet to the Jacqueline du Pre Music Building in Oxford, England.

On Sunday, Reich's Cello Counterpoint will be performed at the Purcell Room in London by Endymion and his Vermont Counterpoint can be heard at Ford Hall at Ithaca College, with Melissa Wertheimer on flute.

More information: boosey.com

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The national tour of Stephen Sondheim's Sweeney Todd, based on the 2005 Broadway production helmed by John Doyle, began its run at Chicago's Cadillac Palace Theatre early this week. Performances continue there through May 4. Tickets: sweeneytoddtour.com

Happy Birthday to Emmylou Harris

Nonesuch Records wishes Emmylou Harris a very happy birthday today. To celebrate, here's the track "One Big Love" off her Nonesuch debut, Red Dirt Girl, winner of the 2000 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album:

Emmylou Harris to Be Inducted into Country Music Hall of Fame

Congratulations to Emmylou Harris, who joins the Statler Brothers, Tom T. Hall, and the late Ernest "Pop" Stoneman as the newest inductees into the Country Music Hall of Fame. At today's press conference in Nashville announcing the inductees, reports CMT.com, Emmylou credited Gram Parsons with teaching her to truly appreciate country music; she told the crowd, "It's the music that gave me my true voice."

The official Hall of Fame induction ceremony is set to take place on April 27.

For further details, visit cmt.com. For more on the Hall of Fame, visit the official site here.

Nonesuch Artists Take Manhattan (and Brooklyn, Too) This Sunday

With the Brad Mehldau Trio's weeklong residency at New York's Village Vanguard well under way and running through Sunday, the city will also be playing host to performances by a number of Nonesuch artists this weekend.

Sérgio and Odair Assad will perform in both sessions of Sunday's Brazilian Guitar Marathon concert, a two-part, multi-artist event they co-curated. The Marathon begins at 2 PM at the 92nd Street Y and will be hosted by John Schaefer of WNYC radio. The event is part of the nearly monthlong New York Guitar Festival, which has presented more than 200 of the world's greatest guitarist since 1999, including Bill Frisell (who'll be performing upstate instead this Sunday at Peekskill's Paramount Center for the Arts) and Emmylou Harris (who'll be at Michigan's Folk Fest finishing up her tour with Patty Griffin, Shawn Colvin, and Buddy Miller). For more information on the Brazilian Guitar Marathon, visit newyorkguitarfestival.org.

Playing later Sunday afternoon on the west side of town is Richard Goode, who performs works by Bach, Chopin, Beethoven, Debussy, and Fauré at the Rose Theater as part of Lincoln Center's Great Performers events and its Virtuoso Recitals series. For further program and ticket information, visit lincolncenter.org.

Even with subway trains running on a weekend schedule, that should leave enough time for folks to head down to Brooklyn's Union Hall in Park Slope for Laura Veirs's set at 9:30 PM. Advance tickets are sold out, but a limited number of tickets will be available at show time. For more information, visit unionhallny.com.

And as always, you can find the dates and locations of Nonesuch artists' tours throughout the world on nonesuch.com by clicking the Tours button at the right.

Emmylou Harris, Shawn Colvin Kick Off Tour with Patty Griffin, Buddy Miller

Emmylou Harris, Shawn Colvin, Patty Griffin, and Buddy Miller kicked off the "Three Girls and Their Buddy" tour last week and take the show to Virginia tonight for a stop at the Roanoke Performing Arts Center. This special quartet will be on the road all month, taking to the stage together and taking turns playing.

Colvin spoke with the Cleveland Plain Dealer music critic John Soeder, in advance of the show’s upcoming January 24 stop in that city, about touring with such good friends. "We all have great respect for each other," she said. "I'm just looking forward to this more than I can say." Colvin's set will feature songs from her latest record, These Four Walls.

To read the interview, visit cleveland.com. For tour information, click here.