BEST BETS: Sunday 9/12 : 3 pm: Jazz

Dave Brubeck, the dean of jazz pianists, has been awarded the National Medal of Arts, a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Grammy foundation and, just this year, the National Endowment for the Arts’ Jazz Masters Award. The 78-year-old keyboardist known for such hits as “Take Five” and “Blue Rondo a la Turk,” leads his quartet-- with bassist Alec Dankworth, saxophonist Bobby Militello and drummer--Andy Jones in this afternoon concert.

* Dave Brubeck Quartet, Smothers Theatre, Pepperdine University, 24255 Pacific Coast Highway, Malibu, 3 p.m. $40. (310) 456-4522.

8 pm: Music

Opera Pacific will return to its 1960s outdoor roots with a “Festa Italiana” program at the Irvine Bowl, home of the Pageant of the Masters, in Laguna Beach. Artistic director John DeMain will conduct an evening of arias and choruses by Verdi, Puccini, Mascagni and other Italian masters. The soloists will include sopranos Paula Delligatti and Robin Follman, tenor Carlo Ventre, and baritone Mark Delavan.

* Opera Pacific presents “Festa Italiana,” Irvine Bowl, 650 Laguna Canyon Road, Laguna Beach, 8 p.m. $20 to $75. (800) 346-7372.

8:15 pm: Pop Music

It was 20 years ago that the streets and parks of the Bronx first came alive with the sound of scratching records and rhythmic, spoken vocals. With rap and hip-hop now an immense musical and cultural force, Run-DMC and other pioneers in the field are gathering for an anniversary celebration.

* Run-DMC, Sugarhill Gang, Whodini, Grandmaster Melle Mel and Kurtis Blow, Universal Amphitheatre, 100 Universal City Plaza, Universal City, 8:15 p.m. $20 to $45. (818) 622-4440.

3 pm: Dance

One of the Southland’s few contemporary Latino ensembles, Francisco Martinez Dancetheatre opens its 19th season with the acclaimed “Dark Corner” (set to Ginastera’s second cello concerto) and the brand new “Colorado,” inspired by the river of the same name and accompanied by Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s Symphony in F sharp. Born in Monterrey, Mexico, Martinez heads the ballet department at Plaza de la Raza. Particularly in recent seasons, his projects have attracted some of the finest local dancers--among them the Lester Horton Dance Award-winning Michael Mizerany and Bogar Martinez, firebrand of the late Dance Theatre of East L.A.

* Francisco Martinez Dancetheatre, New Performing Arts Center, Student Union, Cal State Northridge, 18111 Nordhoff St., Northridge, 3 p.m. $15; $12 for students and seniors. (818) 988-2192.

7:30 pm: Pop Music

Brazilian renaissance man Gilberto Gil headlines “Tropical Heat,” the finale of the Hollywood Bowl’s World Festival ’99 series.

* “Tropical Heat,” with Gilberto Gil, Waldemar Bastos and Fantcha, Hollywood Bowl, 2301 N. Highland Ave., Hollywood, 7:30 p.m. $3 to $75. (323) 850-2000.

7 pm: Theater

Veteran stage and screen actress Beverly Sanders reprises her successful solo show, “Yes Sir, That’s My Baby!,” about love, family, heartbreak and happy endings.

* “Yes Sir, That’s My Baby!,” Fremont Theatre, 1000 Fremont Ave., South Pasadena. Sundays, 7 p.m., except dark Oct. 3 and Oct. 24. Ends Nov. 28. $15. (626) 441-5977.

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FREEBIES: Artist Glenna Avila explores the paintings of Franz Kline, Mark Rothko and Antoni Tapies in a Sunday drop-in workshop, 1:30-3:30 p.m., at the Museum of Contemporary Art, 250 S. Grand Ave., downtown L.A. (213) 626-6222.

Symphony in the Glen presents its fourth annual “Peter and the Wolf” family concert at Griffith Park near the merry-go-round, 4800 Crystal Springs Drive, Los Angeles, 3 p.m.; children’s activities, 1:30 p.m. (213) 955-6976.