The Bang on a Can All-Stars, right, will honor musician Ryuichi Sakamoto and his work “1996.” (photo courtesy of the Wallis)

On Saturday, May 16, at 7:30 p.m., the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts presents Bang on a Can All-Stars in a powerful live tribute, “Ryuichi Sakamoto, 1996.”

Sakamoto was a composer of breathtaking range – an artist who scored the emotions of entire generations. From the Oscar-winning grandeur of “The Last Emperor” to the aching intimacy of “Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence,” his music was both personal and cinematic.

The musicians of Bang on a Can All-Stars have long adored Sakamoto’s work and in the “1996” project, they carefully transcribe and recreate the same-named original recording for live performance, much of it for the first time, as they did previously with Brian Eno’s “Music for Airports.” The album “1996” includes an incredible selection of tracks, many of Sakamoto’s most well-known.

Ryuichi Sakamoto has lived many musical lives in his nearly 70 years. As a keyboardist and songwriter in Haruomi Hosono’s Yellow Magic Orchestra, he helped set the stage for synthpop. His solo experiments in fusing global genres and close studies of classical impressionism led to him scoring more than 30 films in as many years, including Nagisa Oshima’s “Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence,” Bernardo Bertolucci’s “The Last Emperor” and “The Sheltering Sky,” and Alejandro González Iñárritu’s “The Revenant.”

To purchase single tickets, subscriptions and for more information, call (310)746-4000 (Monday-Friday, 10 a.m.-6 p.m.) or visit thewallis.org.

The Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts is located at 9390 N. Santa Monica Blvd.