The Barbican Centre in London has announced a year-long festival to celebrate the music of composers Steve Reich and Philip Glass, as they turn 80, and John Adams, as he turns 70, during its 2016–17 season. The series, Reich, Glass, Adams: the Sounds that Changed America, begins with a weekend of Reich's music on November 5, 2016; Adams is celebrated in a series of concerts of some of his major works from December 2016 to April 2017, featuring the composer also as a conductor; and Glass is celebrated January 27–29, 2017. Tickets go on sale online to Barbican Members Plus starting Monday, February 1 and the general public on February 10. 

The Arcs have announced the next leg of their North American tour, starting in Vancouver on April 11, with shows in Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego, Pomona, Denver, Lawrence, St. Louis, Austin, New Orleans, and two sets at Coachella. The Arcs' NPR Tiny Desk Concert—the show's 500th!—featuring three songs from their debut album, Yours, Dreamily, is now available. The band is "a bundle of talent," says host Boilen. Watch it here.

Today marks the release of the late Henryk Górecki’s final composition, Symphony No. 4, Tansman Episodes, recorded during the 2014 world premiere performance at Royal Festival Hall with London Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Andrey Boreyko. The piece, incomplete at the time of Górecki’s death, had precise indications for orchestration, which Górecki’s son Mikolaj, also a composer, used to complete it. NPR calls it "an intriguing summation of the sounds of a singular career." Symphony No. 4 is out individually and as part of Henryk Górecki: A Nonesuch Retrospective, a seven-disc box set containing all Nonesuch recordings of Górecki works. Also out now: the first vinyl LP of the beloved 1992 Nonesuch recording of Górecki’s Symphony No. 3.

Guitarist and singer Michael Daves celebrates the February 26 release of his double album Orchids and Violence with a series of live performances in NYC at Rockwood Music Hall, Knitting Factory Brooklyn, and The Bell House, March 3–5. The album comprises bluegrass and electric versions of mostly old-time material. In the first set each show, Daves will present the bluegrass material with Noam Pikelny on banjo, Brittany Haas on fiddle, Jake Jolliff on mandolin, Larry Cook on bass, and Jen Larson on harmony vocals. The second set will feature the electric material with Daves joined by experimental rock drummer Kid Millions and electric bassist Jessi Carter.

Rhiannon Giddens kicks off her 2016 tour with three weeks in Europe, starting at Handelsbeurs in Gent, Belgium, tonight. The tour continues with stops in Cologne, Berlin, Amsterdam, and Paris, before heading to the UK for Celtic Connections in Glasgow. She then joins artists from both sides of the Atlantic for the Transatlantic Sessions tour across the UK, including a sold-out show at London's Royal Festival Hall. Giddens returns to the US in February to perform Swimming in Dark Waters: Other Voices of the American Experience with Leyla McCalla and Bhi Bhiman in several cities, and takes her solo tour to Japan and Australia in March.

Audra McDonald will bring her Tony Award-winning portrayal of Billie Holiday in Lanie Robertson's musical play Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill to London, making her West End Debut with a nine-week run at Wyndham's Theatre starting June 25, 2016. "London is my second favourite city in the world, and I've always wanted to perform in the West End," McDonald tells the Daily Mail. "I'm just so tickled that it’s finally coming together; and I'm especially thrilled that it’s this particular project." HBO's own presentation of Audra McDonald in Lady Day will premiere on March 12. She performs two concerts in London this Sunday and returns to Broadway this spring in Shuffle Along.

The first recording of composer Henryk Górecki's final work, Symphony No. 4, Tansman Episodes, is out next Friday, January 22, on Nonesuch Records. But you don't need to wait till then to hear it: the album is streaming in full here as an NPR First Listen. "It's an intriguing summation of the sounds of a singular career," says NPR.

Composer Louis Andriessen's six decades of music-making will be celebrated at the Barbican Centre in London with Andriessen: M is for Man, Music & Mystery, a series of concerts, held in Barbican Hall and at Milton Court Concert Hall, February 9–13, 2016. The series features performances of works by Andriessen, including La Commedia, De Stijl, and Rosa's Horses, as well as a conversation with the composer about his life and music.

Shye Ben Tzur, Jonny Greenwood, and the Rajasthan Express, who came together in Jodhpur, India, last year to record the album Junun, will reunite to perform the album in its entirety in the UK for the first time, at Barbican Hall in London on March 11, 2016. Tickets go on sale to Barbican members on Thursday, January 14, and to the general public on Friday, January 15.

Natalie Merchant recently stopped by the NPR studios in Washington, DC, to perform a Tiny Desk Concert for Bob Boilen and the staff at NPR and NPR Music. The intimate set included "Cowboy Romance," from her recent album Paradise Is There: The New Tigerlily Recordings; "Texas," from her 2014 self-titled record; the title song to her album Motherland; and "Weeping Pilgrim," a Protestant hymn covered on The House Carpenter’s Daughter. For that last song, Merchant led the NPR staff in a sing-along for which Boilen suggests viewers "have a tissue handy." See why in the Tiny Desk Concert here. Merchant will join Rolling Stone's Anthony DeCurtis in conversation at NYC's 92nd Street Y on February 10 and tours the US and Europe in March.

The New Orleans City Council has passed a resolution officially declaring Allen Toussaint's birthday, January 14, as Allen Toussaint Day in the City of New Orleans. The resolution was signed by all councilmembers and presented before Toussaint's family and friends. "Our artists and musicians are our ambassadors, as their talents, hard work, and genius creates the culture for which we are internationally known," said New Orleans Councilmember Susan G. Guidry. "Allen served our city as one of our finest ambassadors."

Rhiannon Giddens was the subject of a feature profile on CBS Sunday Morning, looking at her life in music, as a founding member of the Carolina Chocolate Drops; following her show-stopping performance at the Another Day, Another Time concert; and since the release of her Grammy-nominated solo debut album, Tomorrow Is My Turn. "How often can you witness a moment that changes a career?" says Sunday Morning's Martha Teichner of the concert. "Giddens was like a musical explosion onstage. What happened next was like an explosion in her life." Watch it here.