Performing Arts

Would-be ballerinas and dance devotees can get a stage full of inspiration Saturday when the Van Nuys Performing Arts Center puts on its Spring Showcase at Cal State Northridge. Students in the program train with teachers who have extensive performing careers--and Emmys and American Choreographer Awards to boot. Artistic director and center co-founder Joe Malone has performed in more than 100 television shows. "We are a training facility, not a performing facility," said Malone.

With his hands clasped behind his back and his nose inches away from the wall, legendary singer Tony Bennett contemplated the photograph before him. The grayscale image featured a young woman stretching her fingers toward the camera's lens, covering her face. "The beginning of true creativeness comes from the hand," he said. Bennett and his wife, Susan Benedetto, were at Esteban E. Torres High School in East Los Angeles on Friday to launch the expansion of their New York City-based nonprofit organization Exploring the Arts.

It was a happy, sad, frustrating, exhilarating, discouraging, encouraging, soothing, frazzling, stimulating, depressing, uplifting, bracing, painful, provocative, dull, exciting, lackadaisical, exceptional, humdrum year. Just like 1994.

President Obama's budget proposal for the coming fiscal year would boost federal arts spending 10%  above where it stands at the moment, lifting it to $1.58 billion for the 2013-14 budget year that begins Oct. 1 and more than compensating for cuts from the "budget sequestration" bill that went into effect last month. Those reductions sliced 5% across the board from three federal cultural grant-making agencies as well as the Smithsonian Institution, the National Gallery of Art and the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, lowering their combined spending from $1.51 billion to about $1.44 billion for fiscal 2012-13.

The move from England to Los Angeles was less traumatic for David Sefton, new director of UCLA Performing Arts, than it was for his cat, Bob. Bob, traveling in an athletic bag because his familiar pet carrier was not allowed on the plane, would fall asleep occasionally--but after each nap wake up with a howl, reliving the insult of being transported like a pair of Nikes. Sefton, whose tenure began Oct.

President Obama's budget proposal for the coming fiscal year would boost federal arts spending 10%  above where it stands at the moment, lifting it to $1.58 billion for the 2013-14 budget year that begins Oct. 1 and more than compensating for cuts from the "budget sequestration" bill that went into effect last month. Those reductions sliced 5% across the board from three federal cultural grant-making agencies as well as the Smithsonian Institution, the National Gallery of Art and the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, lowering their combined spending from $1.51 billion to about $1.44 billion for fiscal 2012-13.

With his hands clasped behind his back and his nose inches away from the wall, legendary singer Tony Bennett contemplated the photograph before him. The grayscale image featured a young woman stretching her fingers toward the camera's lens, covering her face. "The beginning of true creativeness comes from the hand," he said. Bennett and his wife, Susan Benedetto, were at Esteban E. Torres High School in East Los Angeles on Friday to launch the expansion of their New York City-based nonprofit organization Exploring the Arts.

As a patron of the performing arts, I was flabbergasted beyond belief when I read the Music News item on Russian-born violinist Viktoria Mullova ("Defections & Reflections," by Marc Shulgold, April 7). I have yet to discover the rationale of a U.S. foundation donating a $349,000 Stradavarius violin to a much-acclaimed, well-established, world-renowned violinist who presumingly fled the Soviet Union for artistic freedom. Not only has she gained artistic freedom, but a strong financial backing as well in America.

An arts festival with a name that seems like a typographical error--"pARTy"--will punctuate Saturday's daylong celebration at the Performing Arts Center of Los Angeles County with a theatrical procession. Hundreds of grade-school children will spell out the reason for the festivities. The 12:30 p.m.

ART And They're Off, Slowly: A much-anticipated marathon of New York auctions of Impressionist and Modern art got off to a troubled start Monday night at Sotheby's. A successful sale of 37 works from the Reader's Digest collection racked up a total of $86.6 million--safely within the estimated range of between $71 million to $98.9 million. But in an additional sale of 41 works consigned by a variety of collectors, 22 pieces went begging and the total take of $37.

The Carpenter Performing Arts Center in Long Beach has announced its 2013-14 season, which will include a typically eclectic offering of dance, music, cabaret and more. The center is located on the campus of Cal State Long Beach. The season will feature an appearance by Garrison Keillor (Oct. 17); a performance of Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night" by the Aquila Theatre (March 15); and John Lithgow performing "Stories by Heart" (May 10, 2014), his stage memoir that has toured the country and previously performed at the Mark Taper Forum.

Catch the amazing tap dancer and choreographer Savion Glover in a special performance called "Sole Sanctuary. " Glover made his name thanks to the popular Broadway musical, "Bring in 'da Noise, Bring in 'da Funk. " Additional credits include the Broadway shows "The Tap Dance Kid" and "Black and Blue," and the Hollywood hit, "Happy Feet. " Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts, 12700 Center Court Drive, Cerritos. 8 p.m. Fri. Prices vary. (562) 916-8501; http://www.cerritoscenter.com .

Free-swinging jazz is consistent with Marsalis' New Orleans-based family dynasty. The saxophonist will no doubt keep things at a steady boil here, aided in no small part by a band that includes bassist Eric Revis, pianist Joey Calderazzo and a young force of nature behind the drums, Justin Faulkner. Valley Performing Arts Center, 18111 Nordhoff St., Northridge. 8 p.m. Sat. $45-$75. http://www.valleyperformingartscenter.org .

Attempts at musical crossover pairings aren't always successful, sometimes resulting in more clash than chemistry. In the case of Broadway star Kelli O'Hara and operatic baritone Nathan Gunn, their recent onstage collaborations apparently have proved to contain the latter, in abundance. On Monday, O'Hara and Gunn will appear in a concert of classic Broadway show tunes at the Valley Performing Arts Center in Northridge. The program includes extended scenes from "Carousel" and "Show Boat," as well as songs by Cole Porter, Kurt Weill and Leonard Bernstein.

When David Sefton resigned as the executive and artistic director of UCLA Live at the end of the 2009-10 season, he complained that excessive budget cuts would afford him little opportunity to keep the campus' venturesome performance series relevant. The deciding factor was the university's elimination of the high-profile and hugely valuable International Theatre Festival that Sefton had established. With generic programming in its stead, UCLA overnight got the reputation for provincialism, eclipsed in scope and sophistication by the programs at UC Berkeley, UC Davis and the smaller UC Santa Barbara.

If the Tournament of Roses is anything to go by, marching bands haven't changed all that much since, well, forever. Certainly not from the days when I was a clumsy clarinetist schlepping through the Junior Rose Parade, that is until the bandmaster had had enough and told me to carry the tuba, the instrument having gotten too heavy for the little guy saddled beneath it. I noticed Thursday night that the Asphalt Orchestra, a 3-year-old New York hipster...

They say the TV variety show is dead. In truth, it surfaces once a year, in late December, in the form of the Kennedy Center Honors show. The two-hour "The Kennedy Center Honors: A Celebration of the Performing Arts" might not feature any sequined acrobats or puppeteers, but it tends to deliver an impressively wide assortment of acts. Where else, in our niche-ridden day, could Edward Albee share a spotlight and an admiring audience with Johnny Cash?

This was an active year in classical music, what with all the temptations for millennial merriment and contemplation. But it was also an unsettling time of transition, with new music directors being sought at major orchestras on the East Coast and changes in store at arts administrations all over the world. Here is a sample of the year's notable achievements, mostly but not entirely local--and not necessarily in order of importance. 1. Salonen here and not here.