Alarm Will Sound will be the Artists-in-Residence at the third annual Mizzou New Music Summer Music Festival, held in July at the University of Missouri. Eight composers from around the world will be selected through a portfolio application process to compose a work to be performed by Alarm Will Sound. The application deadline is November 1. Donnacha Dennehy will be a guest composer, participating in discussions and master classes.

Alan Pierson, the Artistic Director and conductor of Alarm Will Sound, has been named the new Artistic Director of the Brooklyn Philharmonic. Pierson's debut 2011-2012 season will be announced later this spring. "My goal is for the Brooklyn Philharmonic to connect with the Borough’s vast, unique population through events that celebrate and reflect its incredibly diverse communities," says Pierson, "and to do so in a way that involves original music-making which will be of interest beyond Brooklyn as well. We will become ‘Brooklyn’s Orchestra’ like never before.”

Following the Barbican and Carnegie Hall celebrations of Steve Reich's latest works early next year, some of his most iconic works will be featured in the weeklong Sacrum Profanum festival taking place in Kraków, Poland, on the 10th anniversary of 9/11. In an introductory video seen here, Reich describes Sacrum Profanum as "one of the best new-music festivals in the world." Among the festival performers are Jonny Greenwood, Alarm Will Sound, Ensemble Modern, London Sinfonietta, and Bang on a Can.

Alarm Will Sound is the resident ensemble of the inaugural Mizzou New Music Summer Festival, taking place all this week at the University of Missouri in Columbia, Missouri. The school’s Mizzou New Music Institute selected eight composers from around the world to participate in workshops and master classes and have their work premiered by Alarm Will Sound in the festival's culminating concert this Sunday.

Alarm Will Sound, which released its Nonesuch debut album, a/rhythmia, last September, makes its London debut at Wilton's Music Hall tonight, performing works by Aphex Twin, Autechre, and the Beatles. The ensemble joins Dirty Projectors to perform the latter group's Getty Address at the Barbican tomorrow. The events are part of the Barbican's London Blaze festival, which also includes performances by Caetano Veloso, Youssou N'Dour, Kronos Quartet, and Philip Glass.

Alarm Will Sound will be joining Dirty Projectors for two special shows later this month, performing the latter band's The Getty Address at Lincoln Center's Allen Room in NYC and at Walt Disney Concert Hall in LA. In between these shows, Alarm Will Sound will perform music by Caleb Burhans at NYC's Poisson Rouge. This summer, the group will be featured in the first-ever Mizzou New Music Summer Festival.

Two New York Times music critics have Nonesuch albums on their Top Ten lists: Rokia Traoré's Tchamantché and Oumou Sangare's Seya. The Washington Post has Alarm Will Sound's a/rhythmia in its Top Ten classical albums; the Denver Post has Richard Goode and John Adams. Two Boston Globe critics have Wilco (the album) on their lists, while others there add BlakRoc and Seya. MTV includes Wilco plus Amadou & Mariam's Welcome to Mali. PopMatters and American Songwriter cite Wilco as well, while the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle lists Allen Toussaint's The Bright Mississippi.

The Boston Herald's list of the Top Ten classical albums of the year is out, and four of the ten are from Nonesuch: Kronos Quartet's Floodplain, John Adams's Doctor Atomic Symphony, Alarm Will Sound's a/rhythmia, and Gidon Kremer and Kremerata Baltica's recording of Mozart's Complete Violin Concertos. The Herald had named The Low Anthem's Oh My God, Charlie Darwin and Wilco's Wilco (the album) among the year's best in pop/rock.

The latest in NPR's compendium of the year's best music is a list of the Top Ten "New Music" albums, as chosen by WNYC's Nadia Sirota. On it is Alarm Will Sound's Nonesuch debut, a/rhythmia, which offers a diverse repertoire unified by the works' play on conventional notions of rhythm and pulse. "The idea sounds complex," says Sirota, "but the group makes its crystal-clear point joyfully through engaging programming and performances."

Alarm Will Sound's recently released Nonesuch debut, a/rhythmia, has received a perfect five-star review from Audiophile Audition. "Have no fear," reads the review. "There are no boring or skipable pieces on this CD ... It could shock and throw your friends off, possibly prompting them to say 'What the hell was that?' Then they’ll ask to hear more."

Alarm Will Sound's Nonesuch debut, a/rhythmia, is out now. The Times gives the new album four stars: "The rhythms here will trip you up as they collide in an eclectic programme of complex music ... All is joyous and raucous."

Alarm Will Sound celebrated the recent release of its Nonesuch debut, a/rhythmia, with an album release and listening party at New York's (Le) Poisson Rouge last night. Alan Pierson, the group's artistic director, and Gavin Chuck, its managing director, spoke with BBC's The Strand about the new album, which, says the BBC, "even includes a few tracks that it was thought impossible for human beings to play."