Caroline Shaw, So Percussion, Tony Awards, Black Keys, Hurray for the Riff Raff, John Adams, Staves News and More
New Caroline Shaw & So Percussion album, video * Tony Awards tune-in * 'Rolling Stone' Best * Hurray for the Riff Raff on 'Acoustic Guitar' * John Adams, Staves on their new albums * and more
New This Week
Caroline Shaw & So Percussion: Rectangles and Circumstance
Rectangles and Circumstance comprises ten songs co-written and performed by Caroline Shaw and So Percussion. Shaw and So's Eric Cha-Beach and Adam Sliwinski "sourced a group of nineteenth-century poems that shaped its expressive mode [and] ended up using verses by Christina Rosetti, Emily Brontë, Emily Dickinson, Gertrude Stein, and William Blake," says Sliwinski. "The lyrics on this album by members of the band contain wordplay that explores the same profound feelings explored by Blake and Dickinson." Shaw and So co-produced the album with Grammy-winning engineer Jonathan Low (The National, Taylor Swift).
News from the Nonesuch Journal
Watch: Caroline Shaw, So Percussion Share "Sing On" Video
Caroline Shaw and So Percussion released a video for "Sing On," a song from their new album, Rectangles and Circumstance, directed by Evan Chapman and Kevin Eikenberg for Four/Ten Media.
Tune in to the Tony Awards
The Tony Awards will be broadcast live from Lincoln Center in NYC this Sunday at 8pm ET on CBS. Illinoise—the cast of which will perform at the ceremony—is nominated for Best Musical, Best Orchestrations for Timo Andres, Best Choreography, and Best Lighting Design. Days of Wine and Roses is up for Best Original Score for Adam Guettel, Best Leading Actress in a Musical for Kelli O'Hara, and Best Leading Actor in a Musical for Brian d'Arcy James. Here Lies Love is up for Best Original Score for David Byrne and Fatboy Slim, Best Sound Design, Best Scenic Design, and Best Choreography.
Listen: Best Tony-Nominated Show Tracks per NY Times
The New York Times' chief theater critic Jesse Green has made a list of the Best Tracks from 8 Tony-Nominated Shows, including Here Lies Love, Days of Wine and Roses, and Illinoise.
A Note by So Percussion's Adam Sliwinski
"When So Percussion started working with Caroline, we noticed that her first creative step, before writing any music, was to suggest sounds. Then, she would step back and listen," So's Adam Sliwinski writes in his liner note to Caroline Shaw and So's new album, Rectangles and Circumstance.
The Black Keys, Hurray for the Riff Raff in Rolling Stone
"The Black Keys’ Ohio Players is their most collaborative album yet ... It all flows together like a beautifully paced DJ set," says Rolling Stone's list of The Best Albums of 2024 So Far, which continues: "On The Past Is Still Alive, Hurray for the Riff Raff has honed their craft into a cohesive, astonishingly realized singer-songwriter record, featuring the best batch of songs they've ever written."
Hurray for the Riff Raff Covers Acoustic Guitar
"I've gotten a grasp on my own language and my own version of storytelling," Hurray for the Riff Raff (aka Alynda Segarra) says of audiences' connecting to their new album, The Past Is Still Alive, in the latest Acoustic Guitar cover story. "But I also think we're going through a very interesting time collectively, and the topics of grief and memory and time passing are really touching people right now."
Watch: John Adams on Girls of the Golden West
"All of that comes together in this opera in a way that I think only opera can actually address, because it addresses you on an intellectual level, but it also fundamentally touches you on an emotional level," composer John Adams says of his opera Girls of the Golden West, in a new video about the recently released first recording. BBC Music Magazine gives the album five stars, exclaiming: "What a rush! John Adams strikes gold."
Watch: The Staves Talk All Now on New Podcast
"I think wanting things to be really good can make you very afraid to try, because you're worried about failing, about falling short of that, which is such a trap—it keeps you kind of frozen," The Staves' Camilla Stavely-Taylor says in the group's new video podcast about their new album, All Now. "Ultimately it doesn't matter, you have to just do things, keep those muscles moving, making things and being imperfect and imperfections are what life is about. That's human."
Adam Guettel's Floyd Collins Goes to Broadway
Adam Guettel's 1996 musical Floyd Collins—for which Nonesuch released the original cast recording—will be given its Broadway premiere at Lincoln Center Theater next spring; previews begin March 27, opening night April 21. Cast and ticket on-sale details to be announced.
Listen: Lorraine Hunt Lieberson on ABC Classical's Legends
"Lorraine Hunt Lieberson was the antithesis of the operatic diva," Mairi Nicolson says of the subject of ABC Classic's Legends. "She was uncompromising, direct, honest, and intense. She gave of herself totally." The episode includes a number of her recordings, culminating in "Ich habe genug" from her 2003 Nonesuch album of Bach cantatas.
Nonesuch Events for the Weekend
The Tony Awards air live on CBS—with multiple nominations for Illinoise, Days of Wine and Roses, and Here Lies Love—from Lincoln Center on Sunday, where Kronos Quartet live-scores Sam Green film Saturday. Yasmin Williams performs at NY and VA guitar festivals. Ringdown is in Brooklyn. Natalie Merchant leads a sing-along at Library of Congress. Jeremy Denk gives a master class in Santa Barbara. Chris Thile joins Virginia Symphony Orchestra. Davóne Tines is in a new opera at MOCA in LA. Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway join Old Crow Medicine Show in Oakland and Oregon.