Nonesuch Records wishes to congratulate Kronos Quartet, which has been named the recipient of two internationally renowned awards: in the United States, the prestigious Avery Fisher Prize, awarded for outstanding achievement and excellence in music, and in Sweden, the Polar Music Prize, an international music prize awarded to individuals, groups, or institutions in recognition of exceptional achievements. No other musician or ensemble has ever won both prizes, let alone in a single year. Also receiving the 2011 Polar Music Prize is singer/songwriter/poet Patti Smith.

The Low Anthem performs live on KUT in Austin, Texas, today at 2 PM CT, prior to tonight's concert in Austin. The band "frequently dazzles on both recordings and in live performance," says KUT. Their recent performances at Philadelphia's Kimmel Center for WXPN and on Mountain Stage are both available at npr.org. The Low Anthem's Hear Ya Live Session is also up now and includes the song "Boeing 737," which Hear Ya calls "triumphant, almost prophetic." Watch it here.

Carolina Chocolate Drops are performing on the Grand Ole Opry tonight, broadcast live from the Grand Ole Opry House in Nashville, Tennessee. Tonight's special star-packed show, dubbed Play On, Nashville!, marks the first anniversary of the flood that devastated much of Nashville. Among tonight's other performers are Alabama, Brad Paisley, Dierks Bentley, and Charlie Daniels Band. The band has chosen the top five finalists in the search for a new logo. Now's your chance to vote on the winner.

Steve Reich's 75th was celebrated in style at Carnegie Hall Saturday night with an all-Reich concert that included the NY premieres of WTC 9/11, Mallet Quartet, and 2x5 and a performance of Double Sextet. Carnegie Hall "assembled a starry roster of new-music ensembles," says the New York Times, "and the results will be hard to top." NPR says the concert showed that Reich "continues to make innovative music and is still one of the most important and influential voices of our era." The pieces "were individually marvelous," says SPIN, "and collectively provided a terrific summing up of what Reich is all about ... [E]very piece of the evening was a small miracle." The composer and performers head next to London for Reverberations, the Barbican's two-day celebration of Reich's work and influences.

Donnacha Dennehy's Grá agus Bás is due out tomorrow. The album—which includes the title piece, inspired by sean-nós "old style" Irish vocal music, as well as the composer’s song cycle That the Night Come, comprising six settings of poems by W.B. Yeats—was featured on NPR's Weekend Edition Saturday. "The singer's plaintive cries sound very much like phrases from Irish folk music," says NPR of the title piece, "while the accompaniment features a kind of pulsating minimalist shimmer." Hear the inspirations behind the album pieces and writing for singers Iarla O’Lionáird and Dawn Upshaw.

k.d. lang and the Siss Boom Bang are musical guests on Jimmy Kimmel Live! tonight on ABC and will perform a song off their new album, Sing it Loud. Tonight's performance comes one night after lang and the band closed out the Stagecoach festival at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California. They launch their summer tour at the end of this month, starting in the UK, then return home for a North American tour in June. The Ottawa Citizen gives the new album four stars, saying: "Rarely has lang sounded more engaged and been more engaging than on this collection of pop and country-inflected tunes."

Carnegie Hall celebrates Steve Reich's 75th with an all-Reich concert featuring the NY premiere of WTC 9/11 performed by Kronos Quartet ... Laurie Anderson emcees Poetry: The Second Skin at NY's PEN World Voices Festival ... Timothy Andres plays from Shy and Mighty in NYC ... Carolina Chocolate Drops have two shows in Virginia ... Emmylou Harris heads to Norway ...  Wanda Jackson, k.d. lang, Punch Brothers play the Stagecoach Festival ... The Low Anthem, Sara Watkins play New Orleans Jazz Fest ... Jessica Lea Mayfield is in California ... Dawn Upshaw sings in Boston ... and more ...

Emmylou Harris is featured on today's edition of NPR's All Things Considered. She spoke with host Melissa Block about her new album, Hard Bargain, and what Block calls a "strain of wistfulness" in the songs she wrote for it, including "The Road," about her relationship with Gram Parsons. Harris joins Steve Earle on his Hardcore Troubadour Radio show on Sirius XM Outlaw Country this weekend, featuring solo performances of songs from Hard Bargain and a very special duet.

Chris Thile and Michael Daves, whose debut duo album, Sleep with One Eye Open, is due out on Nonesuch on May 10, have premiered the third in a series of performance videos captured live at New York's Rockwood Music Hall: "You're Running Wild," made famous by the Louvin Brothers. Watch it here. The duo will be releasing a 7" single through Third Man Records on May 24. A limited-edition tri-color version will be available at Newbury Comics at Faneuil Hall in Boston that day; Thile and Daves will give a free in-store performance.

Jessica Lea Mayfield will perform songs from her new album, Tell Me, on KCRW's Morning Becomes Eclectic in LA this morning, in advance of her show at the Troubador tonight. "Jessica Lea Mayfield knocked our socks off at KCRW's SXSW showcase last month," says the station, "and we're excited to feature a live performance with this talented new artist." Mayfield was recently interviewed by Playboy magazine for its annual "Rock the Rabbit" feature and designed a t-shirt for the occasion.

Steve Reich and his latest piece, WTC 9/11, are featured in the Wall Street Journal. Kronos Quartet will give the piece its NYC premiere at Carnegie Hall this Saturday as part of an all-Reich, multi-artist concert celebrating the composer's 75th birth year. Time Out New York calls it "a program suited to its festive occasion." The Barbican in London celebrates the following weekend with Reverberations: The Influence of Steve Reich; enter to win tickets and more.

Emmylou Harris performed "Six White Cadillacs," off her new album, Hard Bargain, on the Late Show with David Letterman last night. Letterman called her "an icon, one of the greats, if not the best in country music and, just generally, popular music as far as a composer and a singer and an artist." She performed the album's title track on the Today show this morning. Yahoo! Music's Ram Country series features a video interview with Harris and performances of three songs off the album: "Six White Cadillacs," "Home Sweet Home," and "Darlin' Kate." Watch all of these videos here.