Best Arts And Music Of 2011

When he was just five, Actor George Takei was one of some 120,000 Japanese and Japanese-Americans forced to leave their homes on the West Coast after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

Music, drinking and debate combine in “Three Pianos,” about a long party on a dark winter’s night, set to a Franz Schubert song cycle.

In the 1960′s, composer Terry Riley ushered in the minimalist music movement with his revolutionary classic “In C.” Now he’s expanding his repertoire to the Indonesian gamelan.

Longtime classical music fan Jennifer Nissenbaum recently bought a ticket for a “Tweet seat” at the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and settled in for an evening of Tweeting.

In a career that started in the late 1960s, musician Todd Rundgren has done it all, and at the age of 63 he’s still doing it– touring with his reunited progressive rock band Utopia.

Author Anthony Horowitz is the creator of the bestselling “Alex Rider” series of books for young adult readers. Now he delves into the realm of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in a new Sherlock Holmes novel authorized by Doyle’s estate.

We recently sat down with cultural commentator Touré who explained what “post-blackness” means to him. We met him at the Sportsmen’s Tennis and Enrichment Center in Dorchester, Massachusetts, a club founded by African Americans where Touré says he received his “black nutrients.”

Mystery writer Sue Grafton is out with her 22nd book in her alphabet series featuring private eye Kinsey Millhone: “V Is For Vengeance.”

Here & Now’s Kevin Sullivan got the chance to sit down with one of his favorite authors Terry Brooks, who is out with a new book.

The London Philharmonic Orchestra has produced a new album of video game music including themes from “Angry Birds,” “Zelda” and “World of Warcraft.”