During the Cultural Revolution in China, Liu Shi Kun was placed in prison for playing piano (a Western instrument). After seven years without touching a piano, Liu Shi Kun still played like a master, because he practiced in his head if not with his fingers. Read more...

Sometimes it’s good to live in Los Angeles. Forget the traffic on the 405 Freeway, forget the air perpetually brown with smog, and follow the music. Read more...

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Joy Harjo’s right hand is more than just a body part. It’s the instrument she’s used to write volumes of poetry, the tool she uses to play the saxophone, and the canvas she’s used for exotic tattoo art. Read more...

The Carl Wilson Foundation, founded by Beach Boy member Wilson’s sons Jonah and Justin after their father died of cancer, is having its annual benefit this weekend. Read more...

What do you do when you’re a prisoner of war? Well, if you were French composer Olivier Messaien in a concentration camp during World War II, you’d write “Quartet for the End of Time,” a piece for piano, clarinet, violin and cello that sounds as important and ethereal as its title suggests. Read more...

The dead and the living unite in Royce Hall tomorrow at 2 p.m. as UCLA Live presents Buster Keaton’s “The Navigator” accompanied by organist Chris Elliott. Read more...