John Adams's City Noir was given its world premiere last night in the Opening Night performance of the Los Angeles Philharmonic season and the Inaugural Gala of new music director Gustavo Dudamel. It "was an exceptional and exciting concert by any standard," says the New York Times's Anthony Tommasini. "Moment to moment the music [of City Noir] is riveting." The Los Angeles Times's Mark Swed says: "I can’t imagine another orchestra that could sell such a piece so effectively on the first performance."

John Adams's City Noir receives its world premiere tonight in the Opening Night Concert of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Inaugural Gala for its new music director, Gustavo Dudamel, at Walt Disney Concert Hall. "I want to make my music an opportunity to extend myself, and my language," Adams tells the Los Angeles Times. The piece will be performed again this fall for the Philharmonic's Adams-curated West Coast, Left Coast festival.

Wilco is still in the midst of its fall tour through the United States, with a breach of the 49th Parallel for two shows in Toronto next week. Come February 2010, the tables will turn for a TransCanada tour, from British Columbia to Nova Scotia, with a half dozen stops planned for south of the border. The Canadian leg beings with a free concert for the "Live City" Vancouver celebration of the 2010 Winter Olympics.

Christina Courtin begins a three-week tour of the United States with Brooklyn trio Elizabeth & the Catapult in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, tomorrow night. Christina spoke with Glide magazine about self-titled Nonesuch debut album. "The truth is that Courtin’s voice and words often steal the show on her debut album," says Glide, featuring "ten songs that are able to sustain a magical level of wonder for the listener."

Punch Brothers' fall tour is headed to the University of Michigan's Power Center in Ann Arbor tonight. Though the band's 2008 Nonesuch debut, Punch, also marks the band's first as Punch Brothers, "they’ve already made their mark on the newgrass/new-acoustic scene," says AnnArbor.com in an interview with fiddler Gabe Witcher, "as they’ve created their own, unique variation on that ambitious hybrid of bluegrass, jazz and classical-music elements."

Joshua Redman's latest Nonesuch release, Compass, is out now. The recording features both trio and double trio formats, creating tracks that are "harmonically rich, rhythmically vibrant and bristling with creative complexity," says All About Jazz. "Redman's newly discovered easy-going effortlessness makes this the crowning achievement of his career."

Brad Mehldau begins the jazz series he's programmed at London's Wigmore Hall in a duo concert with Joshua Redman next week. NPR's jazz blog A Blog Supreme recently listed the pianist's recordings as the best introduction to the jazz of today, citing his 2002 Jon Brion–produced Largo as chief among them. "This album was a big one for me," said one panelist. "It fuses masterful jazz improvisation with modern rock production."

It was a music festival–filled fall weekend with Austin City Limits and San Francisco's Hardly Strictly Bluegrass featuring a total of six Nonesuch artists: The Low Anthem, Sara Watkins, and Dan Auerbach in Austin; Emmylou Harris, Allen Toussaint, and Amadou & Mariam in San Francisco. And St. Louis welcomed Wilco to the Farm Aid benefit concert for a set Rolling Stone says "brought the crowd to its feet."

Seya, Oumou Sangare's first international release in six years, received its US release on Nonesuch earlier this year to great acclaim. Audiophile Audition adds its own praise with a five-star review. "[T]he album is a delicious stew of exotic sounds and rhythms that tickle the ears and stir the senses," says the review. "'Seya' means 'Joy,' and considering the beauty and exultation it evokes it is aptly named."

Rokia Traoré was the featured artist on this past weekend's Transpacific Sound Paradise on New York independent radio station WFMU. Listen in to hear tracks from Rokia's latest Nonesuch release, Tchamantché, and an interview with the Malian-born singer/songwriter about the new sounds she explores on the album.

Amadou & Mariam, Emmylou Harris, Allen Toussaint hit SF's Hardly Strictly Bluegrass ... Dan Auerbach, The Low Anthem, Sara Watkins are at Austin City Limits Fest ... Laurie Anderson, Bill Frisell join Gavin Friday and friends at Carnegie Hall for (red) ... David Byrne talks bikes in car-centric LA ... Carolina Chocolate Drops drop into Ann Arbor and Chicago ... Christina Courtin plays Boston and Brooklyn ... Kronos performs Crumb's Black Angels in Boulder ... Punch Brothers head South ... Wilco plays Prairie Home Companion and Farm Aid ... and more ...

Wilco kicked off its North American tour last night at the University of Iowa and is at Roy Wilkins Auditorium in St. Paul, Minnesota, tonight. The band stays on in St. Paul for a live broadcast performance of A Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor on Saturday. Wilco plays the annual Farm Aid benefit concert, which will be broadcast live on DIRECTV and online on Sunday. Jeff Tweedy tells the Austin Chronicle about the joy of playing live, connecting with the audience: "I can't find anything better than that. You can feel it when a song means something to people."