Tigran Hamasyan has announced a seven-city North American tour for this fall, featuring music from StandArt, his new album of American standards. The tour, with Hamasyan's StandArt band mates, bassist Matt Brewer and drummer Justin Brown, kicks off at The Opera House in Brooklyn on November 9, with stops in Bentonville, Los Angeles, Boston, Philadelphia, and Ottawa, culminating at Koerner Hall in Toronto on November 19. The shows follow Hamasyan’s summer tour of Europe.

Punch Brothers and Cécile McLorin Salvant perform at the Ottawa Jazz Festival this weekend; Punch Brothers play Blue Ox Music Festival in Eau Claire, WI, as well ... Joachim Cooder hits Hawaii ... Sam Gendel is at Festival Fruezinho in Tokyo ... Rhiannon Giddens is at ROMP Fest in Kentucky ... Hurray for the Riff Raff joins Bright Eyes in San Diego and Phoenix ... Lake Street Dive tours the East Coast, as do Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway ... Brad Mehldau Trio plays Barbican Hall in London ... Vagabon is at Storm King Art Center in upstate NY ... Wilco tours Spain ...

Telluride Bluegrass Festival celebrates the summer solstice with Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway, Punch Brothers, and Rhiannon Giddens & Francesco Turrisi ... Emmylou Harris performs at the Azkena Rock Festival in Spain ... Hurray for the Riff Raff tours Pacific Northwest with Bright Eyes ... Rachael & Vilray and a full band swing outdoors at Lincoln Center in NYC ... Rhiannon Giddens & Francesco Turrisi play SFJAZZ ... Wilco is in Belgium and the UK ... 

The Royal Conservatory of Music’s Koerner Hall in Toronto has announced its 2022–23 concert season, including performances from Nonesuch artists Tigran Hamasyan, Kronos Quartet, Punch Brothers, Jeremy Denk, Cécile McLorin Salvant, and Joshua Redman.

Laurie Anderson gives a free presentation of Lou Reed's Drones at the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, DC, this afternoon ... Devendra Banhart and LA Phil celebrate Latin American protest songs ... Jeremy Denk, Steven Isserlis perform Mendelssohn in NYC ... Richard Goode performs at Wigmore Hall in London ... Lake Street Dive tours Northeast ... The Magnetic Fields do Denmark ... Cécile McLorin Salvant sings at Chicago's Symphony Center ... Molly Tuttle is at North Carolina Guitar Celebration ...

Molly Tuttle and Golden Highway performed three songs from their new album, Crooked Tree, in a live Paste Studio on the Road session from DelFest in Cumberland, MD. They were joined by special guest Jerry Douglas, who co-produced the album with Tuttle, to perform “Over the Line,” “Dooley’s Farm,” and “Crooked Tree” and talk about the making of the album. You can watch the set here.

Rhiannon Giddens has been named the Music Director for the 77th Ojai Music Festival, to be held June 8–11, 2023, in Ojai, CA. The initial list of guest artists includes Francesco Turrisi, Attacca Quartet, Wu Man, and Kayhan Kalhor. “I am so thrilled that Rhiannon Giddens accepted my invitation to become Music Director of the 2023 Ojai Music Festival,” says the Festival’s Artistic and Executive Director Ara Guzelimian. “I have boundless admiration for Rhiannon as both a compelling musician and as an extraordinary artistic catalyst bringing together musical worlds towards important philosophical, cultural, and social goals." Julia Bullock performs at the 2022 Festival, which takes place June 9–12. Past Artist Directors include John Adams, Jeremy Denk, and Dawn Upshaw.

Mary Halvorson performs songs from her just-released Nonesuch debut albums, Amaryllis and Belladonna, with the musicians on the albums in New Hampshire and Quebec this weekend ... Jeremy Denk brings Bach to Bath ... Rhiannon Giddens gives a lecture in Richmond ... Tigran Hamasyan brings StandArt to Budapest ... Emmylou Harris is at FreshGrass in Arkansas ... Hurray for the Riff Raff tours Texas with Bright Eyes ... Gabriel Kahane is in Chicago and Ann Arbor ... Kronos Quartet is in Germany ... Lake Street Dive plays Pittsburgh ... Jeff Parker, Lee Ranaldo are at LPR in NYC ... Caroline Shaw, Attacca Quartet are in Austria ... 

Ahead of the long-awaited world premiere of Omar, the opera composed by Rhiannon Giddens and Michael Abels, at the Spoleto Festival USA in Charleston, SC, next Friday, Giddens has released her own recording of the song “Julie’s Aria” from the opera. The recording was made by Giddens with guitarist Bill Frisell and her frequent collaborator Francesco Turrisi. Omar is based on the life and autobiography of enslaved Muslim scholar Omar Ibn Said, who was forcefully brought to Charleston from Africa in 1807. “My work as a whole is about excavating and shining a light on pieces of history that not only need to be seen and heard," Giddens says, "but that can also add to the conversation about what’s going on now. This is a story that hasn’t been represented in the operatic world—or in any world.” Omar will also be performed by LA Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Boston Lyric Opera, San Francisco Opera, and Carolina Performing Arts at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill.

The Black Keys have announced two high-profile events to celebrate their new album, Dropout Boogie, out next week. On May 11, the duo of Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney will perform at Los Angeles’ famed Troubadour and offer a global livestream of the intimate show in this 500-capacity venue exclusively via Flymachine. Livestream tickets are on sale now; in-person tickets go on sale on May 9. The band will also participate in an album release party with iHeart stations across the country at 7pm PT on May 13.

Carnegie Hall has announced its 2022–23 concert season, and featured among the performers taking the esteemed hall's stages are Rhiannon Giddens, who has been named a Perspectives artist for the season and will lead four concerts, and Kronos Quartet. Also included in the season is an all–Steve Reich program performed by Colin Currie Group and Synergy Vocals.

Sam Amidon kicks off a tour of North America in a performance of Nico Muhly’s The Only Tune with members of the Oregon Symphony, led by Jeffrey Kahane, in Beaverton, Oregon, on Friday. Timo Andres performs on the program as well, which is hosted by Gabriel Kahane. Amidon then continues through the Pacific Northwest with shows in Seattle, Vancouver (with special guest Joachim Cooder), and Portland, before heading to the East Coast in support of The Weather Station in Philadelphia, DC, Brooklyn, and Boston.