Happy holidays! To add some merry to the mix, we've got Nonesuch for the Holidays, a playlist of holiday tunes both classic and soon-to-be-so from Molly Tuttle, The Staves, Rachael & Vilray, Chris Thile, The Magnetic Fields, David Byrne, Emmylou Harris, Kate & Anna McGarrigle, Joachim Cooder, Mountain Man, John Adams, Julia Bullock, Boston Camerata, The Nutcracker, and more. You can hear it here.

"There have been few people since I started my channel that I really wanted to interview, and one of them is bass icon Flea," Rick Beato says of his guest. "I just love music," Flea says when asked about the diversity of his musical tastes. "The first time I really saw people playing music, was playing bebop in my living room, guys jamming out, ferociously ... It's very cerebrally, spiritually, in every way, a very intense music. And as a little kid, I just couldn't believe it. It was so beautiful ... It was just people making music, and it always affected me in the same way. It was just, like, 'This is beautiful' ... It's all music, and I'm grateful for all of it."

Molly Tuttle is in Fresno and San Francisco. Jeremy Denk is in Florida with Naples Philharmonic. Mary Halvorson tours Japan with the Tomeka Reid Quartet. Emmylou Harris is in DC. Gabriel Kahane and Jeffrey Kahane perform Heirloom and more in San Antonio. Robert Plant and Saving Grace's UK tour heads to Birmingham. Davóne Tines joins Detroit Opera.

Mandolin virtuoso Chris Thile has released a video of him performing Bach's Partita No. 2 in D minor, BWV 1004: I. Allemanda live at Reservoir Studios in New York City. He also performs the piece on his new album, Bach: Sonatas & Partitas, Vol. 2, which debuted at No. 1 on Billboard's Traditional Classical Albums chart on  its release on Nonesuch last month. You can watch the video, directed by Matthew Edginton, here.

Nonesuch Records releases a fifteenth anniversary edition of Carolina Chocolate Drops' 2010 Grammy Award-winning album Genuine Negro Jig on January 23, 2026. The reissue, featuring founding band members Dom Flemons, Rhiannon Giddens, and Justin Robinson, includes the original Joe Henry–produced album and nine bonus tracks: seven previously unreleased tracks plus a 2025 remaster of “City of Refuge” and a 2025 mix of “Memphis Shakedown.” This release marks the album’s first time on vinyl since its original pressing in 2010. You can hear the bonus track "Here Rattler" now.

Robert Plant with Saving Grace and Suzi Dian announce a spring tour in the US from March 14-April 7, 2026, in celebration of their critically acclaimed recent album, Saving Grace. The band, who completed a sold-out US tour just before Thanksgiving, performs in the country’s south and southwest before heading to the northeast, with stops in Austin, at Nashville’s legendary Ryman Auditorium, in Knoxville for the Big Ears Festival, and in Philadelphia, before ending at New York City’s iconic Cathedral of St. John the Divine. Spring Fever 2026 artist presales begin Wednesday, December 10, at noon ET with general sales beginning Friday, December 12.

Congratulations to composer Jonny Greenwood, whose score for Paul Thomas Anderson's film One Battle After Another has earned Best Score nominations from the Golden Globes and Critics Choice Awards. The film has been nominated for a total of nine Golden Globes and fourteen Critics Choice Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director for both. One Battle After Another has won Best Film from the National Board of Review Awards, Gotham Awards, and the New York and Atlanta Film Critics Circle Awards, and was named the year's best film in the Sight and Sound critics poll.

Robert Plant is on the latest episode of NPR's World Cafe to talk with host Raina Douris about his new band, Saving Grace, and their new album, Saving Grace. He and the band also perform three songs from the album live: "It's a Beautiful Day Today," "As I Roved Out," and "Everybody's Song." You can hear it here.

Ambrose Akinmusire joins choreographer Aszure Barton in Toronto. Julia Bullock sings with Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Mary Halvorson is at Roulette in Brooklyn. Gabriel Kahane and Jeffrey Kahane perform in Pasadena. Rob Mazurek and Exploding Star Orchestra are in Minneapolis. Cécile McLorin Salvant is in Ithaca. Molly Tuttle tours Southern California. Yasmin Williams tours the West Coast.

Composer Sarah Kirkland Snider’s fifth full-length LP, a new, all-orchestral album Forward Into Light, produced by Silas Brown and recorded by Metropolis Ensemble led by artistic director/conductor Andrew Cyr, is due February 27 on New Amsterdam / Nonesuch Records. It features Forward Into Light, inspired by the American women’s suffrage movement; the string orchestra and harp (Noël Wan) version of Drink the Wild Ayre; Eye of Mnemosyne, a work on memory, innovation, and culture; and Something for the Dark, a meditation on resilience. Snider says: “I chose to create an album of these four works because they share themes of perseverance, alliance, and evolution through dark and light—concepts that have been at the forefront of my mind in recent years."

Laurie Anderson has announced a series of 2026 European tour dates with the band Sexmob. The Republic of Love tour starts April 5 in Copenhagen, with shows in Helsinki, Brussels, Paris, Zagreb, Harleen, and Munich. This follows performances at Big Ears Festival in Knoxville, TN, in March, and a January show in Reykjavik.

After a nearly five-decade career as one of his generation’s defining rock bassists, time and space have finally allowed Flea to work with a dream band of modern jazz visionaries, returning to his first instrument and musical love, the trumpet, for a new album to be released in 2026 on Nonesuch. A preview, Flea’s original song “A Plea,” is out now. Written and performed by Flea, “A Plea” urges listeners to “build a bridge, shine a light, make something beautiful and see somebody, give it to somebody.” Featuring Flea on electric bass, vocals, and trumpet, the ensemble also includes double bassist Anna Butterss and guitarist Jeff Parker, as well as drummer Deantoni Parks, percussionist Mauro Refosco, alto flutist Rickey Washington, and trombonist Vikram Devasthali. Chris Warren joins on vocals, as does the song’s producer Josh Johnson, who also plays alto saxophone. Also out today: a music video, directed by Clara Balzary and featuring choreography by Sadie Wilking.