DEMAND, SUPPLY BOTH UP FOR SOUTH BAY SEASON

The box office opens Tuesday at El Camino College for the 20th season of the South Bay Center for the Arts, a celebratory year, indeed--201 performances of 153 events, packaged in 23 series, 13 of them new. Already it has been necessary to keep personnel on overtime handling mail and telephone ticket orders, according to Dean of Community and Cultural Services Robert Haag.

The South Bay Center has long had distinguished, if not heavily attended, classically oriented programs. But last year the center ended in the black for the first time, with 18 sold-out performances versus only four the year before. Executive Director Philip Westin attributes the turnaround primarily to increased advertising and community visibility.

The $1.25-million budget for the coming season is almost double that of last year, Westin reports, with the number of performances up 38%. Average ticket prices have been raised less than 10%, however, to just over $12 for a top ticket. On average, that is: Expect to pay twice that and more for the best seats at performances by the more celebrated attractions, ranging from the Pittsburgh Symphony to Ray Charles.

The nuts and bolts of ticket sales are very important to Westin--a year’s study preceded the acquisition of a new, computerized box-office system--because the center expects ticket revenue to provide the entire $1.25 million. Not surprisingly then, many of the new programs are pop oriented.

“Branching out into country and pop is a new venture for us,” Westin said. “A Tony Bennett will cover the bills for, say, an Orchestre de la Suisse Romande or a Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra.”

Students from various courses at the college help fill the 2,054-seat Marsee Auditorium (and the smaller Campus Theatre and Recital Hall, where some events are presented), although funding for this program does not contribute to the general center budget. Linking course curricula to various arts series “has been highly successful instructionally,” stated Westin (who is also dean of fine arts), leading to increased enrollment and higher test scores in music appreciation classes.

For students not enrolled in such classes and for seniors, $5 rush tickets will be available 30 minutes before events. But Westin says he hopes for even more sold-out events this season. For a schedule, call (800) 832-ARTS.

SWAN DIVES IN BLACK AND WHITE: When last seen here with American Ballet Theatre in March, 1985, Fernando Bujones danced the “Black Swan” pas de deux with Cynthia Gregory. Since then, he has parted ways with ABT after an acrimonious contract dispute. However, his cygnine pursuits have broadened tremendously. In addition to “Swan Lakes” with regional companies, this past week he danced in London with the Brazilian group Cisne Negro (Black Swan) in his own ballet “Hyperboreans.”

Turning the other feather, in July Bujones was filmed for his television debut as an actor in an Argentine novela , or soap, called “El Cisne Blanco” (“The White Swan”). He is cast, or perhaps typecast, as an internationally known dancer, one of three male leads. Playing opposite him, as his dancing partner, is Deborah Carthy-Deu, who won Miss Universe honors representing Puerto Rico in 1985. The TV series is scheduled to begin in late September in many Latin American countries, to run for four to five months.

VIDEO PREVIEW: Fans of the Bolshoi Ballet’s “Raymonda” production, seen here during the current engagement, will want to know that Kultur Video is anticipating a winter release of the complete Bolshoi “Raymonda,” with Ludmila Semenyaka and Irek Mukhamedov in the principal roles. Information: (800) 458-5887.

PEOPLE: Thirty-year-old American pianist David Wehr has won the top prize of the ninth Paloma O’Shea International Piano Competition in Santander, Spain. The prize was worth 1.6 million pesetas (roughly $12,800 at current exchange rates), and includes a tour of more than 100 concerts worldwide and a Decca recording deal.

Gerard Schwarz, former conductor of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, has renewed his contract with the Seattle Symphony for another three years.

Pianist Jeffrey Kahane has won the first Andrew Wolf Memorial Award of $10,000. The prize will be awarded biennially to a pianist under the age of 40 and seriously involved in chamber music, in memory of pianist Andrew Wolf, who died at the age of 42 in 1985. The prize includes appearances in Maine at Bay Chamber Concerts, for which Wolf was a co-founder and artistic director for 23 years.