Chris Thile: The Song of the Week Show

Chris Thile’s outstanding songwriting skills are given the spotlight on his weekly radio show, Live from Here. For this performance, he is joined by frequent duet partners Sarah Jarosz and Aoife O’Donovan in favorite installments from the program’s popular “Song of the Week” segment, bringing these songs of “gentle humor and musical imagination” (Uncut) from the airwaves to the stage.

Julia Wolfe: Anthracite Fields

“The music compels without overstatement,” wrote the Los Angeles Times of Julia Wolfe’s Pulitzer Prize–winning Anthracite Fields. “This is a major, profound work.” Inspired by miners living in the Pennsylvania coal region, Wolfe uses oral histories, interviews with miners and their families, speeches, children’s rhymes, and other sources to create a powerful cantata that speaks of the American worker’s experience. With music that is at times elegiac, hard-driving, and tender, Wolfe creates a soundscape that is deeply moving.

Kronos Quartet

Kronos Quartet spotlights music from Syria, Iraq, Iran, Yemen, Somalia, Sudan, and Libya—seven predominantly Muslim nations that have figured prominently in current events. Joining Kronos will be Mahsa Vahdat, Iranian vocalist and advocate for freedom of expression. “My goal for Kronos has always been to be a revolutionary force,” says Kronos Artistic Director David Harrington, “not just in making music, but in exploring the ways that music can increase our understanding of our times and our connection to people around the world.”