The Center for the Art of Performance at UCLA, formerly UCLA Live, has announced its inaugural season, marking the curatorial debut of its Executive and Artistic Director Kristy Edmunds, and featured among the artists performing as part of its 2012–13 season of events at Royce Hall are several artists familiar to readers of the Nonesuch Journal: Emmylou Harris, Laurie Anderson, Allen Toussaint, Brad Mehldau Trio, and Joshua Redman. The new CAP UCLA season, which marks the 75th season of public performing arts programming from UCLA, also includes events celebrating Kate McGarrigle and Ali Farka Touré.

Emmylou Harris kicks things off in a Royce Hall performance with Her Red Dirt Boys on Tuesday, October 2, featuring songs from her latest album, Hard Bargain, released on Nonesuch last year, as well as favorites from throughout her storied career. (Harris can also be heard on label mate Shawn Colvin's forthcoming album, All Fall Down, due out next week, as can guitarist Bill Frisell, who offers a night of music and film with filmmaker Bill Morrison at Royce Hall on October 13.)

Later that month, Laurie Anderson brings her latest performance piece, Dirtday!, to Royce Hall on October 26. Dirtday! is the third and final element of Anderson’s triptych of solo story works, which also includes Happiness and The End of the Moon. Anderson is currently touring Europe with Dirtday! Nonesuch released her latest album, Homeland, in 2010.

Just in time for the holidays, Rufus and Martha Wainwright give the very first Los Angeles performances of the annual McGarrigle-Wainwright family holiday show with Christmas 101: Rufus and Martha Wainwright Family and Friends’ Holiday Extravaganza Hits the Highway, December 21–22. A special event benefiting the Kate McGarrigle Fund for sarcoma research will be held in Royce Hall in conjunction with the evenings of music, family and nostalgia. Nonesuch Records released The McGarrigle Christmas Hour album in 2005 and, in 2011, Tell My Sister, a three-disc set comprises newly remastered editions of Kate & Anna McGarrigle's first two albums plus a third disc of previously unreleased songs and demos.

Another celebration of family musical ties comes in 2013 with A Tribute to Ali Farka Touré. On February 1, his son Vieux Farka Touré is joined by special guests Fool's Gold to honor the music of the legendary Malian guitarist, who released five albums on World Circuit / Nonesuch Records, culminating in the 2010 Grammy Award–winning pairing with Toumani Diabaté, Ali and Toumani.

The music-making continues with a celebration of Mardi Gras on Tuesday, February 12, All On A Mardi Gras Day, featuring New Orleans legend Allen Toussaint plus special guests The Dirty Dozen Brass Band. There's even a pre-show crawfish boil and party on the Royce terrace. On his 2009 Nonesuch debut album, Toussaint explores for the first time the work of his New Orleans forebears on a soulful, live-in-the-studio jazz set with a host of guests, like Brad Mehldau and Joshua Redman.

And speaking of Mehldau and Redman, the label mates and sometimes duo touring partners help close out the 2012–13 CAP UCLA season with a program of a different sort: a night with the Brad Mehldau Trio and The Bad Plus featuring Joshua Redman on Saturday, May 4. The Trio tours Europe and Asia this summer; Redman is currently in Tokyo for a week's residency with James Farm and joins The Bad Plus for a number of shows this summer.

Subscriptions for the 2012–13 CAP UCLA season are on sale now; individual tickets go on sale August 4. For additional performance and ticket details, go to cap.ucla.edu.