New York City is host to lots of great live music this weekend, not least from Rhiannon Giddens & Silkroad Ensemble, Yasmin Williams, and Mary Halvorson at NYC Winter Jazzfest, and Sarah Kirkland Snider for the area premiere of her new opera.

Rhiannon Giddens joins Silkroad Ensemble to perform at Music Hall of Williamsburg in Brooklyn on Saturday night as part of NYC Winter Jazzfest's Brooklyn Marathon. Giddens described American Railroad, the album she and the group released in late 2024, as "a tapestry of stories, traditions, and music that have shaped our multifaceted cultural identity, and that must be heard and recognized."

Just before that set, guitarist/composer Yasmin Williams is at the venue performing for Jazzfest with fellow guitarist William Tyler. She then plays a solo show at the Museum of Arts and Design in Manhattan on Sunday morning for GatherNYC. Williams, whose Nonesuch debut album, Acadia, was also released in late 2024, recently won the International Folk Music Awards' Rising Tide Award, which "celebrates emerging artists who inspire others by embodying the values and ideals of the folk community through their work."

Guitarist/composer Mary Halvorson is at a different venue for the Winter Jazzfest's Brooklyn Marathon, performing with Tomeika Reid Quartet in a late-night set at Baby’s All Right on Saturday. That follows her performance with Ches Smith as part of a residency at The Stone tonight and Saturday. Halvorson rejoins Smith at Tonal Park in Takoma Park, Maryland, on Sunday; they resume their residency at The Stone on Wednesday and Thursday. “Thrilling; no matter how many times I return, this album feels like a fresh expedition," Nate Chinen writes of her latest album with her sextet Amaryllis, About Ghosts, naming it the No. 1 Jazz Album of the Year in his Substack, The Gig. About Ghosts was recognized on many year-end lists including The Quietus, Jazzwise, Mojo, PopMatters, Slate, Guardian, NPR, and more.

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Elsewhere in New York City, composer Sarah Kirkland Snider’s new opera HILDEGARD receives its area premiere at John Jay College’s Gerald W Lynch Theater in Manhattan with performances tonight, Saturday, and Sunday. The opera explores the life of the 12th-century German Benedictine abbess Hildegard von Bingen and fellow nun Richardis von Stade. After Hildegard begins seeing visions of God, the two women quickly develop a transformative partnership that awakens them creatively, spiritually, and romantically. Snider’s new album Forward Into Light, performed by Metropolis Ensemble and artistic director/conductor Andrew Cyr, is due February 27. You can hear the opening and closing tracks from the album, Forward Into Light, and “Of Rise and Renewal” from Something for the Dark here.

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Across the Atlantic, Cécile McLorin Salvant joins DR Big Band and pianist Sullivan Fortner, conducted by Miho Hazama at DK Koncerthuset in Copenhagen on Saturday and Sunday for DR Big Band's New Year's Concert. Salvant’s new album, Oh Snap, was among the year’s best, per Jazzwise, Slate, JazzTimes, Guardian, and more.