Cerritos Center to Host Eclectic New Season

The Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts will launch its 1996-97 season in August with Vegas favorite Wayne Newton kicking off a season that includes a wide range of music, dance and theater.

Newton’s Aug. 16-18 dates will be followed by Bobby McFerrin conducting the St. Paul Symphony Orchestra Aug. 23-24 and disco queen Donna Summer on Aug. 30-31.

Highlights of the center’s fourth season also include an exclusive Southern California performance of Kathleen Battle’s “Night of So Many Stars,” a collection of ballads, spirituals and lullabies featuring accompaniment by young jazz lions Cyrus Chestnut, James Carter and Christian McBride (Dec. 4); the center’s annual “Colors of Christmas,” which this year adds Aaron Neville to a roster that includes returning artists Melissa Manchester, Peabo Bryson and Roberta Flack (Dec. 21-23); a special New Years Eve engagement with the Righteous Brothers; and “Gospel at Colonus” with Roscoe Lee Brown and the Five Blind Boys of Alabama (March 4-9).

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Dance events include the first U.S. tours of Poland’s Mazowse State Folk Song and Dance Ensemble (March 20-22) and China’s Song and Dance Ensemble of Tibet (Nov. 15-16). Other dance companies on the schedule include the Paris Opera Ballet Ensemble (Jan. 8-9) and the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre (Feb. 12-16).

The classical music schedule includes Esa-Pekka Salonen conducting the Los Angeles Philharmonic (Nov. 2), the New York City Opera National Company’s production of “La Boheme” (April 23-27) and the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields conducted by Sir Neville Marriner (May 2-3).

Country music performers include the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band (Oct. 11-13) and a Christmas show with Kathy Mattea entitled “The Songs of the Season” (Dec. 13-14).

Jazz events include Grover Washington Jr. and Dianne Reeves (Oct. 4-5) and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band (Feb. 18-19).

Big-band fans can anticipate the return of “Battle of the Big Bands,” featuring the music of Glenn Miller, Jimmy Dorsey and Kay Kyser (Jan. 14) and Rosemary Clooney with the Count Basie Orchestra (April 4-5).

Tickets will be available to current-season subscribers, Friends of the Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts and Cerritos residents on June 11. Others can purchase tickets beginning June 18.