Cerritos Lines Up an Eclectic 4th Season

The Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts will present its first commissioned work--a jazz piece by Anthony Davis of New York--along with the New York City Opera National Company’s “La Traviata,” the Central Ballet of China, Hal Holbrook in “Death of a Salesman,” Tom Jones and Gordon Lightfoot during its eclectic fourth season, announced today.

The season, being kicked off by the Beach Boys on Aug. 17, also will include among 49 attractions:

* Cellist Yo-Yo Ma on a bill with pianist Jeffrey Kahane.

* The Kronos Quartet.

* The Boston Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Seiji Ozawa.

* Soprano Kathleen Battle.

* The Boys Choir of Harlem.

To commission “Sounds Without Nouns” by Davis, who composed the music for Tony Kushner’s play “Angels in America,” the center joined with five other presenters around the country, after being approached by the String Trio of New York. The trio will perform the 20-minute piece with Davis on piano.

Each presenter is contributing $2,500 to the project, according to Victor Gotesman, the Cerritos Center’s general manager.

“We wanted to get into the business of commissioning, and [this was a way to] start off slowly,” Gotesman said. “I have an artistic commitment to people like Davis creating new work, and it felt like a good project . . . affordable and artistically complementary to what we are doing elsewhere in the season.

“I can’t say we’ll do it each year,” he added, “but we’d like to continue commissioning work, and it’s something we’ll seek out.”

Gotesman said that, since the center opened in 1993, it has been trying to present the New York City Opera National Company, a touring group distinct from, and slightly smaller than, the New York City Opera, which appeared at the Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa in 1987 and ’88.

The Cerritos Center’s dance offerings are especially diverse, with the Veryovka Ukrainian National Dance Company (in its U.S. premiere), the Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan (in its only West Coast appearance) and the American Indian Dance Theatre. The Central Ballet of China, returning to the United States after nine years, will make its only Los Angeles-Orange County area stop at Cerritos.

Though Cerritos is ranked by the Assn. of American Geographers as one of the most ethnically diverse cities in the United States, Gotesman said multiculturalism is not a guiding philosophy at the center.

“We don’t say we have to have a Chinese group, a Russian group, a Taiwanese group. When a project is right and artistically merits our presentation, we’ll do it. We’re an artistic organization, not a political entity.”

Gotesman said that financial results of the center’s current season are not available but that “projections are right on target.” A budget of $8.9 million for the coming fiscal year has been submitted to the Cerritos City Council, which is expected to contribute $2 million for programming, as it does annually, Gotesman said.