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 classical season. The series, titled Reich, Glass, Adams: the Sounds that Changed America, includes premiere performances, seminal earlier works, films, and more. The composers will be present at the Centre during the celebrations.

"In postwar America, one generation of composers transformed music in the here and now—and opened a path to its future," says the Barbican. "From world cinema to the New York underground, in concert hall, opera house and nightclub, the music of Philip Glass, Steve Reich and John Adams has shaped the trajectory of American music and renewed the way we listen to the world."

A weekend of Steve Reich's music kicks off the series on November 5, 2016, just over a month after Reich's 80th birthday on October. That evening, Britten Sinfonia gives the European premiere of Reich's Pulse at Barbican Hall on a program also includes his WTC 9/11, Nagoya Guitars, Electric Counterpoint, and his collaboration with video artist Beryl Korot, Three Tales. Earlier in the evening, Guildhall Musicians perform two classic Steve Reich works, Drumming and City Life, at Milton Court concert Hall, after receiving coaching from the composer. Sunday begins with an LSO Discovery Day on Steve Reich and concludes with a concert where the LSO, conducted by Kristjan Järvi, performs Reich's You Are (Variations), Daniel Variations, and The Desert Music. As part of the birthday celebration, filmmaker and video artist Tal Rosner has a created a two-channel video installation in response to Steve Reich's 1981 work Tehillim.

John 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. On December 4, in the lead-up to Christmas, the composer himself conducts the LSO in El Niño, his Barbican co-commissioned nativity oratorio with texts drawn from English, Spanish, and Latin sources ranging from the pre-Christian prophets to mid-20th century Hispanic women writers. Adams again conducts the LSO on December 8, when violinist Leila Josefowicz joins the orchestra for Scheherazade.2, Adams's symphony for violin and orchestra. On February 25, just ten days after his 70th birthday on February 15, 2017, the next generation of American composers pays homage to Adams in a special birthday tribute featuring pianos and pianola music: Timo Andres and fellow pianist David Kaplan join Britten Sinfonia and conductor Joana Carneiro for Adams's Grand Pianola Music and for the world premiere of a new work for two pianos and orchestra by Andres. The new work is co-commissioned by the Barbican and Britten Sinfonia, and is a tribute to John Adams, one of Andres's major musical influences and mentors. During their Barbican residency in early April, the New York Philharmonic, conducted by Alan Gilbert, performs Adams's Absolute Jest and Harmonielehre, and on April 25, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, conducted by the composer himself, gives a concert performance of his opera Doctor Atomic, concerning the events leading up to the first atomic bomb explosion at the Alamagordo test site in New Mexico in July of 1945.

Philip Glass is celebrated over a long weekend January 27–29, 2017, just before his 80th birthday on January 31. The Royal Ballet brings his dance opera Les Enfants Terribles to the Barbican for three performances, featuring choreography by Javier de Frutos. Saturday centers around a Philip Glass BBC SO Total Immersion Day which features the UK premiere of Glass's Concerto for Two Pianos and his symphonic portrait Itaipú. The weekend finishes with a screening of Godfrey Reggio's 2013 film Visitors, a wordless portrait of modern life and humanity's relationship with technology; it is the fourth collaboration between Glass and Reggio, following the legendary Qatsi trilogy. The original score by Glass is performed live by the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Michael Riesman.

Tickets go on sale online to Barbican Members Plus starting Monday, February 1; Barbican Members on Wednesday, February 3; and the general public on Wednesday, February 10. For all the details, visit barbican.org.uk.