South Bay Arts Center Broadens Appeal

Looking at El Camino College on the map, one can easily understand why it has grown into such a viable venue for the arts. For inhabitants of the several densely populated municipalities that make up the South Bay area, the three auditoriums on the El Camino campus--now called South Bay Center for the Arts--serve as a convenient cultural center, an alternative to driving into the city.

Yet, with the advent last year of a season of 211 events--almost twice the number of events of the previous season--South Bay Center has become more than just a convenience. This year, the 21st season again offers 211 events, with a budget of about $2.14 million ($2,135,222 to be exact).

According to Philip Westin, executive director of the center and dean of fine arts at El Camino College, the size of the season is overwhelming at times. “Once it begins, it’s like a steamroller: It just keeps going and going,” says Westin, who has been the center’s chief administrator since 1985.

“The change last year was very direct,” Westin says.

“The overhead on Marsee Auditorium was expensive, and it was important to broaden the appeal of our season from events that were strictly ‘classical’--to use that awful, often misused term--to jazz, big band, country and more commercial events.”

Certainly, the appeal has broadened, and a performance Saturday by the Everly Brothers will be the first major concert of the season. It will also be the opening of the Celebrity Pops series, the series with the most subscribers.

Second largest is the Speakers Forum series, which offers lecturers Walter Cronkite, Helen Hayes, John Houseman, Norman Cousins and several others. By including these more popular events, the season is funded almost entirely by box office sales. “Knock on wood,” Westin adds, when boasting this.

The long-running Masters of Music series--one of the original concert series at El Camino--opens Sept. 30, when Leonard Slatkin conducts the St. Louis Symphony in a program of Weber, Hanson and Tchaikovsky.

Other major events of the 1988-89 season include the first Los Angeles recital by the Northern Irish pianist Barry Douglas, the return after a long hiatus of Soviet pianist Alexander Slobodyanik and concerts by the Royal Philharmonic, conducted by Vladimir Ashkenazy, and the London Philharmonic, conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas.

In addition, there will be an artist-residency program, to include master classes for students by visiting artists. Among these is a rare master class by Rudolf Nureyev and members of his Paris Opera Ballet, as well as master classes by Ashkenazy, Tilson Thomas, Slatkin, Peter Maxwell Davies, Billy Taylor, Robert Merrill, the King’s Singers and members of the Count Basie Orchestra.

Also coming to the center this year will be Leontyne Price, Peter Schickele, Ella Fitzgerald, I Musici, the Kingston Trio, Victor Borge, Gene Kelly, Hal Holbrook, Minoru Nojima, Mel Tillis, Waylon Jennings, Ronnie Milsap and George Burns.

Dance events include the American Indian Dance Theatre, the Repertory Dance Theatre of Los Angeles, Lula Washington’s L.A. Contemporary Dance Theater and a production of “The Nutcracker” by the Palos Verdes Ballet.

DANCING AT THE BEACH: The 1988 Santa Barbara Dance Festival will return next weekend with modern dance, beach installations by local artists and live-music accompaniment. The second annual installment of this two-day event promises dancing up and down the warm shores of the ocean and in the water. Visitors are encouraged to bring comfortable clothing, suntan oil, beach chairs and the makings for a picnic.

AND IN SEATTLE: In addition to promoting five dancers from apprentices to full company members, the Pacific Northwest Ballet has added two new company dancers and five new apprentices to their ranks, bringing their total number of dancers to 40. The two new full members are Theresa Goetz from the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre and Reid Olson, who returns after an absence.

NEW AMERICAN MUSIC: Organist Marilyn Mason performs today at the First Presbyterian Church of Monrovia. The 4 p.m. recital will include works by American composers William Bolcom and Michael McCabe as well as Bach, Franck and others. . . . Composer Charles Wuorinen will attend the opening of the Arnold Schoenberg Institute season tomorrow at USC. The premiere of the expanded version of his Horn Trio will be performed by the Southwest Chamber Music Ensemble. Also to be performed are Schoenberg’s Wind Quintet and “Esprit rude/esprit doux” by Elliott Carter. . . . Friday, computer music wizard Carl Stone collaborates with composer Ushio Torikei in a performance at the Newport Harbor Art Museum. . . . Marc Neikrug’s three-act opera “Los Alamos” is scheduled for its premiere in West Berlin on Oct. 1.