Stephen Sondheim celebrates his 80th birthday today. Nonesuch Records wishes the composer a very happy birthday and is celebrating all week, taking 30% off every Sondheim CD in the Nonesuch Store, from the forthcoming cast recording of the current Broadway revival of A Little Night Music all the way back to Mandy Patinkin's 1995 album Oscar & Steve; from the first musical Sondheim ever wrote, Saturday Night, to his very latest, Road Show.

When Steve Reich turned 70 in 2006, the world's major concert halls celebrated with retrospectives of the composer's work. Included among them was the Barbican in London, which has just announced plans to celebrate Reich's 75th birthday next year with Reverberations: The Influence of Steve Reich, pairing four London premieres of new Reich compositions with music written by composers who have followed in his footsteps.

The Black Keys, due to release their sixth full-length album, Brothers, May 18 on Nonesuch, have added the album track "Tighten Up" to their MySpace page. The band reunited with producer Danger Mouse for this track and wrote, performed, and produced the rest of the album. Pitchfork notes "the soulful bounce of organ and guitar interplay" on the new tune. BBC Radio 1 says the song "adds a little sweet soul to their dynamic blues."

Brad Mehldau's latest Nonesuch album, Highway Rider, has been released to critical acclaim. The pianist/composer and his album are the subject of an extensive profile on NPR's All Things Considered. Jon Brion, the album's producer, says of Mehldau, "I just like the fact that he keeps changing it up, and I think that this is just another example of that." Saxophonist Joshua Redman explains: "He has the best groove on the planet."

The 2010 South by Southwest Music and Media Conference (SXSW) gets under way in Austin, Texas, today, with several performances by Nonesuch artists slated during the festival's run through the weekend from The Low Anthem, Carolina Chocolate Drops, and Christina Courtin, who kicks things off with a set at St. David's Sanctuary tonight. Also at SXSW this week are world premiere screenings of The Magnetic Fields documentary Strange Powers and the David Byrne tour film Ride, Rise, Roar.

Here Lies Love, David Byrne's musical collaboration with Fatboy Slim on the life of Imelda Marcos, is due out from Todomundo and Nonesuch Records in just three weeks and is currently available for pre-order in the Nonesuch Store. The song cycle features a who's who of guest vocalists like Santigold; the video for her track, "Please Don't," is now on Boing Boing. Ride, Rise, Roar, a documentary look at Byrne's 2008-09 tour, premiered yesterday at SXSW.

Bill Frisell has won the award for Best International Guitar Player at the inaugural ECHO Jazz Awards. The award is being given for Frisell's latest Nonesuch release, Disfarmer. The ECHO gala awards ceremony will take place in Centennial Hall in Bochum, Germany, on May 5, and will be broadcast on German television on May 8.

John Adams led the LSO in the European premiere of his City Noir at London's Barbican Hall last week, to which the Times (UK) gives four stars and calls "brilliant." Adams and the LSO bring to Salle Pleyel in Paris to launch Domain privé John Adams, an 11-day celebration of the composer's music there and at Cité de la musique, with six concerts, three premieres, and a forum with the composer. The Vancouver Sun describes last weekend's Canadian premiere of Adams's Nixon in China as “brilliantly effective.”

Stephen Sondheim celebrates his 80th birthday next Monday, March 22. The New York Philharmonic celebrates with two sold-out concerts at Lincoln Center tonight and tomorrow night, hosted by David Hyde Pierce and starring Audra McDonald, Mandy Patinkin, Michael Cerveris, Patti LuPone, Victoria Clark, Bernadette Peters, Elaine Stritch, and many others. Sondheim's A Little Night Music, due out April 6, is available for pre-order now from the Nonesuch Store.

John Adams led the LSO in the European premiere of his City Noir at London's Barbican Hall last night. The Evening Standard gives it four stars, calling the new piece "a dazzling showpiece." Adams's first opera, Nixon in China, receives its Canadian premiere at the Vancouver Opera tomorrow for the 2010 Cultural Olympiad. Next week, Long Beach Opera presents the first LA staging in two decades. Los Angeles Times' Mark Swed reflects on the opera's history, calling it a "classic" and "a marvelous, ever interesting" work.

Louis Andriessen will be the featured composer of the 2010 Frontiers+ festival at the Birmingham Conservatoire in Birmingham, England, which runs all next week, March 15 through 19. Performances for Frontiers+Andriessen come from an array of musicians and student performers. The composer will be in residence as well, attending performances, working with student performers, giving master classes to composition students, and receiving an Honorary Doctorate from Birmingham City University.