Recollection, k.d. lang's most recent Nonesuch release, remains at No. 1 on the charts in Australia and in the Top 5 in her home country of Canada, where she wowed audiences at the Vancouver Winter Olympics last month. The Vancouver Sun, in one of two new articles on lang, says her "electrifying rendition of Leonard Cohen's 'Hallelujah' ...  is widely regarded as the highlight of the opening ceremonies." The Irish Times says: "The distinctive sound of k.d. lang’s rich voice transcends every divide she has crossed," with Recollection showcasing "most of her many fine moments in song."

Laurie Anderson and Lou Reed will curate Vivid LIVE, a two-week festival at Sydney Opera House celebrating the world’s best contemporary artists and cultural interpreters, from May 27 to June 11. The primary focus of the festival will be on exploration through improvisation and collaboration. “For me," says Anderson, "the point is to present a lot of things that you wouldn’t normally go to but gives people the chance to jump off their street."

Kronos Quartet was credited, in a recent profile in the New York Times, with "reinventing the string quartet as a vehicle of limitless stylistic breadth." This week, Kronos proves yet again how true that is as it concludes its season-long Carnegie Hall Perspectives series, collaborating with numerous artists from around the globe in four concerts on four consecutive nights from Thursday to Sunday in Zankel Hall. Tune in to WNYC's Soundcheck today to hear Kronos and composer Terry Riley discuss the events and perform live.

Brad Mehldau's Highway Rider is out now, with an exclusive bonus demo track included at the Nonesuch Store. Brad's official site, bradmehldau.com, has been relaunched with a new look and lots of new material. All About Jazz describes the new album, with "its almost perfect mix of form and freedom," as "the most fully realized original music the pianist has written to date ... Mehldau the composer has clearly arrived."

John Adams and the London Symphony Orchestra gave the UK premiere of his Doctor Atomic Symphony at Barbican Hall Sunday; they perform the European premiere of his City Noir Thursday. The Times (UK) gives Sunday's "extraordinarily compelling" performance four stars, exclaiming that, with Doctor Atomic Symphony, Adams "has created a truly explosive 25-minute piece in which the listener is rocked by a sense of the compacted moral and physical turbulence of the original opera." The Evening Standard gives it four stars as well, calling it "Adams at his heart-on-sleeve best."

John Adams returns to the Barbican in London this weekend for John Adams Focus. He introduces a screening of the film Wonders Are Many: The Making of Doctor Atomic, followed by the UK premiere of Doctor Atomic Symphony, with the composer leading the London Symphony Orchestra. Next week, Adams will lead the LSO in the European premiere of City Noir, which, he writes in the Times, is "an imaginary film score, a musical study in cinematic colours and jazz-inflected energy."

Emmylou Harris will join Dave Matthews and a host of guest performers at Nashville's Ryman Auditorium on May 19 for the Music Saves Mountains  concert, presented by the Natural Resources Defense Council. The concert aims to raise awareness about mountaintop removal coal mining and its consequences for Appalachia. Also performing will be two of Harris's frequent touring partners, Patty Griffin and Buddy Miller.

To coincide with the Nonesuch release of Natalie Merchant’s new album, Leave Your Sleep, on April 13, Merchant has announced a European tour in May—her first in eight years—including seven previously announced dates in the UK and now an additional seven dates in Brussels, Amsterdam, Cologne, Hamburg, Berlin, Munich, and Paris. The limited-edition, signed print of Merchant available exclusively with Nonesuch Store orders has now been extended to an additional 500 prints. [Update: These, too, are now sold out.]

The San Francisco Symphony has announced its 2010-11 season, which will feature the return of composer John Adams as a featured composer. Adams will conduct the SFS in multiple performances of El Niño starring Dawn Upshaw this December. Also part of the focus on Adams: an SFS performance of Harmonielehre, led by Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas, and an all-Adams chamber music concert featuring members of the orchestra.

The Black Keys are set to release their sixth full-length album, Brothers, May 18 on Nonesuch Records. The band recorded the bulk of the album at Alabama's legendary Muscle Shoals Sound Studio with additional sessions at Dan Auerbach’s Easy Eye Sound System in Akron and The Bunker in Brooklyn. The Black Keys will support Brothers with a tour that includes a sold out performance at Central Park’s SummerStage in New York in July.

Leave Your Sleep, Natalie Merchant's first studio album since 2003, is due out April 13 on Nonesuch Records and is now available for pre-order. This release is the culmination of six years of research and collaboration and is, in her words, “The most elaborate project I have ever completed or even imagined.” In a Nonesuch Store exclusive, the first 500 orders are available with a limited-edition, signed print of Merchant. [Update: These prints are no longer available.]

As the world's Olympic athletes bid farewell to Canada, Wilco too will soon say adieu as the band's TransCanada Tour concludes this week. The next leg of the tour begins soon, and new dates have just been added to the European tour in September. Before then, Glenn Kotche will join Mario Batali for an event to benefit eighth blackbird. And a song from Wilco's 2009 tour stop at Bonnaroo is available for free with your support of the current climate change bill.