Philip Glass is one of five recipients of the Opera News Awards, announced last week. He is the only composer to be recognized this year; fellow honoree Gerald Finley originated the role of Robert Oppenheimer in John Adams's Doctor Atomic. Original music by Glass will be featured in the Shakespeare in the Park production of The Bacchae, which opens in previews tonight in New York's Central Park. The composer will receive his first-ever BBC Prom at London's Royal Albert Hall tomorrow night, with Gidon Kremer performing his Violin Concerto.

David Byrne is the subject of a recent profile in the The Times in anticipation of this weekend’s UK performances at the Edinburgh Playhouse and the Big Chill Festival, the last on his year-long world tour. The article also discusses Byrne’s new book, Bicycle Diaries, describing it as “a disconnected travelogue recording his cycle journeys around various cities," and his Playing the Building installation at London’s Roundhouse.

"You Never Know," off Wilco's latest release, Wilco (the album), has made its way to No. 1 on the Triple-A radio chart, a career first for the band. Wilco first appeared on the chart with "Outtasite (Outta Mind)" off 1996's Being There. That album, along with the band's two other '90s releases, Summerteeth and A.M., are now being reissued on vinyl, for the first time, by Nonesuch.

To mark the release of Shawn Colvin's new Live album earlier this summer, Nonesuch Records teamed up with Martin Guitar to give away a brand-new X-Series guitar, signed by Shawn. The winner: Ms. Megan Crotty, who says of her connection with Shawn's music, "It was love at first listen. I love her unique voice. That, combined with the music and lyrics makes her one of my favorites." Three runners-up were awarded a signed copy of the new Live CD.

Youssou N'Dour spoke with Al Jazeera about the many facet of his life and career, as musician, actor, activist, and UNICEF ambassador. The interview looks at his latest efforts, to combat malaria in Africa through the distribution of mosquito nets, and using the power of his music to spread that message and the one in Egypt, his 2004 album dedicated to Sufi Islam. I Bring What I Love, the film that documents the making of that album, opens in six more cities today.

Wilco has made the NPR listeners' list, both for Best Album, Wilco (the album), and twice again for Best Song with "Wilco (the song)" and "One Wing." "One thing was clear," says Bob Boilen, host of NPR's All Songs Considered, "that 2009 has been one of the strongest years for new music in recent memory." Fresh on the heels of their successful summer tour of the US, the band has announced a number of new dates in the country for this October.

Amadou & Mariam bring their US tour with Coldplay to a close tonight in St. Louis. Welcome to Mali, the couple's latest release, comes in at number six on SPIN's list of The 20 Best Albums of 2009 ... So Far. After tonight's final tour performance, the music keeps playing, as CNN's African Voices, airing Saturday, takes a closer look at the husband-and-wife musical team. With their "positive and mesmeric vocals and [Amadou] Bagayoko's guitar playing," says CNN, "the duo have been feted by musicians across the world." Learn why by watching this weekend.

Wilco front man Jeff Tweedy is front and center on the cover of SPIN magazine's August issue, out on newsstands this week. The issue's cover story aims to answer the question: "So why are they now on top of the world?" Says SPIN: "Since forming in 1995, Wilco have slowly risen to become the greatest small-scale success story in American rock, following the sounds they like wherever they go while deepening and expanding their audience." The magazine names the band's latest release, Wilco (the album), among the year's best so far. Why? It's "the rare rock album about acceptance. And it's fantastic."

Shawn Colvin's Live album was released late last month on Nonesuch, and, says MusicOMH in its four-star review, "a live album is long overdue ... [T]his career-spanning selection of songs could easily be a wish list for any fan," he states, "but also serves as fine introduction to a singer-songwriter who is frequently mentioned in the same breath as James Taylor, Lucinda Williams and Joni Mitchell." Shawn is set to begin a run of solo dates this week, opening for Jackson Browne on Thursday. She spoke with Popdose, which calls her "one of the leading lights of 'Americana' music and perhaps the most important singer/songwriter—male or female—of the last 20 years."

Malian songstress Oumou Sangare’s Sunday performance at the Central Park SummerStage concert series in New York City is the subject of a review in Tuesday’s New York Times, in which critic Ben Ratliff writes that “the ancient lived with the new” in her set, which “started at a run and yanked you in.”

Jeff Tweedy is the subject of a feature article in this Sunday's New York Times, about the making of the new record, the band's story, life as a family man, and the much healthier, more content place in which he now finds himself. The Times calls Wilco (the album) a "splendid" record from "one of alternative rock’s most consistent and respected bands." It's a sign that, "unlike the rock trope that only chronic agony produces important music, the absence of mayhem has been good for the work." To that end, the record serves as "a kind of compilation of a band at the height of its powers." Jeff also answers a very eclectic set of questions in the Times Magazine.

Steve Reich's latest creation, 2x5, premieres tonight on a double bill with pioneering electronic music group Kraftwerk, in a sold-out concert to open the Manchester International Festival. Bang On A Can performs the piece with the composer in the sound booth. The piece builds on the framework of Reich's 2009 Pulitzer Prize-winning work, Double Sextet. The Star-Ledger writes of a recent performance of Double Sextet that "both the piece itself and the sense of lifetime achievement came through in full glory." The Guardian, in a feature on the composer, writes, "Reich has been composing for more than 40 years. In that time, he has seen the music he is most closely associated with ... seemingly emerge from nowhere to become one of the dominant musical forms of the age."