Every year I sew together a patchwork of my 10 favorite local arts moments and happenings from the past 12 months. A little bit of this, a little bit of that from the mix of shows, exhibitions and other bright spots from my year in the arts.

Enjoy, disagree, discuss. Chime in with your own faves by emailing me at rwallace (at) paweekly.com or commenting at Palo Alto Online.

Stellar singer: Sasha Cooke, Music@Menlo

Two years ago, I was wide-eyed by Sasha Cooke's performance as Kitty Oppenheimer in the opera "Doctor Atomic" in New York. But as fabulous as the Met is, you do have to sit kind of far away. This summer, I saw Sasha up close at Menlo School, singing the dark and darkly humorous lullabies of Benjamin Britten. The mezzo-soprano (pictured at right) was passionate, angry and tender, with a voice that was simply sublime.

To read the other nine items in this post, go to Ad Libs.