Christina Courtin, the New York City–based singer/songwriter/violinist, is due to make her Nonesuch album debut this year. She starts the year off with a performance in the city this Thursday night at Le Poisson Rouge, with singer/pianist/composer Gabriel Kahane opening. The New York Times says Courtin's voice "feels uniquely otherworldly, as if it couldn’t possibly be entirely human born." Time Out New York lists her among the people to watch in 2009, praising "her commanding, undulating voice" and finding in her songs "an exquisiteness that extends beyond any genre ghetto."

The Black Keys are getting set to head south for the summer in a two-week tour of Australia, starting December 29 just outside Perth. You can catch some of that in-concert Black Keys energy with their recently released Nonesuch DVD, Live at the Crystal Ballroom, which the Boston Herald recommends it the perfect last-minute gift suggestion and "the next-best thing to seeing this dynamic rock duo in-person," with bonus features behind the scenes "of the awesome Attack & Release."

The Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra performs the seasonally appropriate Adams nativity oratorio, El Niño ... David Byrne brings his "spectacular show" (Charleston Post & Courier) to Florida ... Elliott Carter's 100th birthday celebration continues at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and around the world ... Emmylou Harris considers Kitty Wells on NPR's All Things Considered ... Mandy Patinkin performs Mamaloshen and Broadway's finest at New York's Public Theater ... Chris Thile and Edgar Meyer join Garrison Keillor, Yo-Yo Ma, and Renée Fleming for A Prairie Home Companion ... Wilco plays on with Neil Young then headlines in Baltimore ... and more ...

Elliott Carter celebrated his 100th birthday last night with a concert at Carnegie Hall that featured the New York premiere of Interventions, his piece for piano and orchestra, performed by the Boston Symphony Orchestra, led by James Levine, with Daniel Barenboim at the piano. The New York Times calls the occasion "a milestone in music history. And the 17-minute piece—though brainy and complex, like all of Mr. Carter’s scores—was somehow celebratory: lucidly textured, wonderfully inventive, even impish. This was the work of a living master in full command." The celebration continues this weekend with Making Music: Elliott Carter at Carnegie Hall, Day of Carter at Lincoln Center, and concerts in Chicago, Paris, Hamburg, Amsterdam, Vienna, Cologne, Munich, Basel, and Porto, Portugal.

With the holiday season bringing with it so many family traditions, one of the more welcome over the past few years has been The McGarrigle Christmas Hour, a concert at Carnegie Hall inspired by the repertoire of Kate and Anna McGarrigle's 2005 Nonesuch album of the same name. The album is a collection of traditional and contemporary holiday songs and a celebration of family and friends, featuring Emmylou Harris, Anna’s daughter Lilly Lanken, and Kate’s children Martha and Rufus Wainwright, all of whom will perform at tonight's show. Also included among the concert's special guests are Laurie Anderson, Lou Reed, Teddy Thompson, Linda Thompson, Jimmy Fallon, and Justin Bond.

Mandy Patinkin begins a two-week residency at Manhattan's Public Theater tonight in honor of the 20th anniversary of his first concert at the esteemed New York City venue. Accompanied by pianist Paul Ford, Mandy will alternate among three different programs, beginning tonight with Dress Casual, featuring music by Rodgers and Hammerstein, Stephen Sondheim, Harry Chapin, and others; Celebrating Sondheim, a journey through the music and lyrics of the legendary composer; and Mamaloshen, an exploration of traditional, classic, and contemporary songs sung entirely in Yiddish.

Following his sold-out concert at Carnegie Hall with Kronos Quartet on Friday night, Glenn Kotche joined his Wilco bandmates for a sold-out show of their own at the Auditorium Theater in Rochester, New York. It was their first-ever performance in the city, leading Rochester Democrat and Chronicle to exclaim: "It was worth the wait ... as spectacular a show as we've seen this year."

Glenn Kotche and Kronos Quartet premiere Kotche piece at Carnegie Hall; Kronos continues with a Family Concert ... Dawn Upshaw is at Carnegie to perform Golijov's Ainadamar with Orchestra of St. Luke's ... Adams's A Flowering Tree gets its Japanese premiere ... David Byrne continues his musical "outpouring of joy" (Hartford Courant) in Connecticut and Tennessee ... Brad Mehldau plays two nights in Paris ... Mandy Patinkin keynotes SightLife's fall fundraiser and preps for two-week residency at New York's Public Theater ... Reich's Electric Counterpoint gets a xylosynth perfromance in England ... Wilco is on the road with Neil Young ... and more ...

Tonight marks the start of New York City–based singer/songwriter Christina Courtin's December residency at Pete's Candy Store in Brooklyn. She'll perform tonight and each of the following two Tuesdays at the Williamsburg venue. The sets are free and begin at 9 PM. Christina was recently signed to Nonesuch Records, and her label debut is set for release some time next year.
 

"Exuberance and wisdom find equal expression in the music of Youssou N'Dour, the Senegalese singer, songwriter and ambassador," writes the New York Times in its recommendation of the Great African Ball, Youssou's all-night musical celebration in New York City. It runs tonight and tomorrow night and, says the Times, "is likely to be one of the year’s great musical events." The Village Voice also recommends this "mbalax marathon" for the ecstatic live set from "the continent's most inventive and internationally renowned musician."

Punch Brothers' US tour took them to the Walton Arts Center in Arkansas on Saturday, leading the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette to state: "No matter what music they touched, the Punch Brothers were quite amazing." The review calls The Blind Leaving the Blind, from the band's Nonesuch debut, Punch, "the most impressive piece of the night." An examination of that piece in The Gospel & Culture Project concludes: "[Chris] Thile has made music that shakes fans out of genre-bound identities, challenges attention spans, and undermines pre-conceptions of where great music is to be found. TBLTB can teach listeners new ways to experience music."

Fresh off yesterday's five-star review in The Guardian, Bill Frisell's tour-closing concert at the Barbican earns another five stars, from the Financial Times. For the show, the Frisell Trio performed Bill's "spot-on score" that gave "a zesty sheen" to the films of Buster Keaton, Jim Woodring, and Bill Morrison, with the Trio's musical efforts "equal partner in the audiovisual experience." The paper sums up Bill's works as "a soundscape pregnant with humour, menace and the struggle to survive."