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PK %u2122 fIX'For Arts Center Gathering Talented Performers Is As Easy As A BCBCBY SHARON CUCINOTTACultural seasons come and go but this lineup of talent is impressive: Soprano Aprile Millo in her only New York recital, the National Symphony Orchestra conducted by Mstislav Rostropovich, the only New York appearance of the Atlanta Ballet, Metropolitan Opera star Simon Estes,Lukas Foss and Jose Greco. Before you start wondering which national performing arts organization will be presenting such varied talents bring your mind back to Brooklyn and, more specifically %u2014 to Flatbush.The Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts at Brooklyn College (more widely known as BCBC), holds performances at the College%u2019s Whitman Hall, Gershwin Hall and the new Sam Levenson Theatre, keeping these spaces blazing with world-class talent throughout each season.BCBC is a separate entity from Brooklyn College, essentially renting space as a nonprofit organization since its inception 32 years ago in 1954. The arts center%u2019s first exclusive director, Brooklyn College professor Dante Negro, developed BCBC%u2019s first concert programs, the music series which has remained the core of BCBC%u2019s presentations.BCBC had an auspicious start with its first recital in the George Gershwin Theatre with the appearance of Leontyne Price, a new Juilliard graduate who was still getting started. A young Yehudi Menuhin gave BCBC%u2019s first solo recital in Whitman Hall. Since then, a myriad of truly important international stars has performed, including Nicolai Gedda, Marilyn Horn, Luciano Pavarotti, Itzhak Perlman, Arthur Rubinstein and Joan Sutherland. Orchestras such as the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Boston Symphony have played under the auspices of BCBC.BCBC has a history of booking artists who are just at the brink of stardom in this country such as Price and Pavarotti. %u201cWe are good at spotting artists at the time when they are starting to percolate,%u201d says Marian Skokan, director of communications at BCBC.In order to engage such rising stars as Aprile Millo, Robert Cole, an executive director at the time of Millo%u2019s performance, has needed all his resources%u201cHe had to have a million ears, using his contacts in the field and ultimately his intuition in order to know who will become important,%u201d Skokan says.BEFORE MET DEBUTOne artist who has a %u201cbrilliant career in Europe%u201d but is relatively unknown here, giving very few stateside appearances, is soprano Ghena Dimitrova. Dimitrova, who will not have a Met debut for at least a year, was wisely engaged by BCBC for the 1986-87 season. The Dimitrova appearance with the EVe Queller Opera Company is a coup for BCBC and is typical of its programming style.Martha Richards, current acting executive director, says that BCBC%u2019s increasing artistic prominence has been %u201ca steady push upward.%u201d Rather than a slow and uneventful climb, however, BCBC became dramatically more important as an international artistic center with the incorporation of dance in its programming when SirRudolph Bing resigned from the Met and briefly took over the directorship. Bing designed the 1976-77 season with diverse dance programming in mind, and BCBC has been known for its dance programming ever since.Publicity escalated rapidly for BCBC under the subsequent directorship of Joel Garrick, an arts administrator who, according to Skokan, %u201creally built the dance program.%u201d Garrick brought in American regional dance companies whose works had never been seen in New York.CRITICAL ATTENTION, RAVESUnder him, the debut of the Tulsa Ballet was a success bringing BCBC critical attention and popular raves. BCBC also presented widely reviewed New York debut appearances of the Washington, Ohio, Cincinatti and Oakland Ballets.Next season, the Atlarfta Ballet will begin the fourth of a five year residency. This ballet company, founded in 1929, is the oldest in America and has found itself revitalized in its partnership with BCBC.%u201cBCBC decided to make a commitment in a big way in inviting a resident dance company,%u201d Skokan says. rThe selection process was rigorous, the intense scouting for companies paying off with the successful run of the Atlanta Ballet each season of its residency.Though BCBC is deeply involved with its local audiences, people from Manhattan, Queens, Staten Island and downtown Brooklyn are being drawn to Flatbush in larger numbers because, as Skokan remarks, %u201cAudiences can%u2019t go to Lincoln Center to see these performances or even to BAM. They must go to BCBC.%u201d A sign of BCBC%u2019s prestige is the large critical response to performances. %u201cAs many as 20 critics have come to one performance,%u201d adds Skokan.SOME TELLING STATISTICS BCBC%u2019s impressive record as a presenter of important dance programming is illustrated by a few telling statistics: since the inception of dance programming here,25 companies have made their New Yorkdebuts; there have been 100 New York premieres of dance works and 32 world premieres.This is a local arts institution?The only thing provincial about BCBC is the price of its tickets, which are kept ridiculously low thanks to grant money from various government entities, such as the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, and corporate contributions.The Metropolitan Life Insurance Company has been one of the most important underwriters, starting with its support of the Tulsa Ballet%u2019s appearance and its sponsorship of the attention-getting presentation of the Dance Canada Festival during the 1985-86 season. This festival featured five inThe o n ly th in g p ro v in c ia la b o u t BCBC is th e p ric e o fits tic k e ts w h ic h are k e p trid ic u lo u s ly lo w th a n k s tog ra n t m o n e y fro m v a rio u sg o v e rn m e n t e n titie s .novative companies from Toronto, Montreal and other areas in Canada, and again proved BCBC%u2019s uniqueness in presentation. NEA CHALLENGE GRANTBCBC just received a $100,000 challenge grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and has embarked on its first real fund-raising campaign in order to raise the $300,000 necessary to match it. So far the effort has brought BCBC more than halfway towards its goal.Martha Richards says an addititional strength of BCBC lies in its pop series. In the past, Roberta Flack, The Chieftains and Marcel Marceau were a few featured artists. This season, Chita Rivera, Vic Damone, Milton Berle and The Temptations will appear.Ethnic and foreign dance companies complete a panoply of presentations. Jose Greco will make a guest appearance with the Maria Benitez Spanish Dance Company and a number of pop dance companies such as the African/Jazz Sweet Saturday Night and Peter Maxwell%u2019s Ballroom Theater will also be seen.Dear to the heart of acting director Richards is the children%u2019s programming which includes school programs during the week in Whitman Hall where children are bused in from all over the city to hear music and see dance. Artists who perform at an evening concert, for example, the Alvin Ailey Dance Company, may also perform during the day for kids. Some 60,000 children have been exposed to unique cultural events at BCBC this year.GO INTO THE SCHOOLSAnother innovation is an arts and education program in which selected artists go to individual Brooklyn schools to give classroom lecture/performances for theContinued on Page 12Boerum Hill Cafe %u00a3Since 1868Fine Cuisine in one of the oldest and most beautifully preserved restaurants in New York.H o u rs: W ednesday th ru S unday 5 to 11 p.m2148 Hoyl Street Corner ol Bergen StreetR eservatio n s: 8 7 5 -9 3 9 1Old\Hungaryj=E %u201cAn authentic H ungarian reatanrantrig h t here in Brooklyn%u201dLunch from s3.95 D inner from s6.95COCKTAILS* WINES* LIQUORS__ OPEN 7 DAYS~ Major Credit Cards AcceptedH 6 2 5 - 1 6 4 9 1 4 2 M o a t a g u e S t .iiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiyiiiiiiiuuiiiiiiuuiyniiiiCocktails %u2022 Steaks %u2022 ChopsSeafood %u2022 Catering %u2022All BakingDone on PremisesO n ly 2 blocks from the B rooklyn A cadem y of M usicO p en 7 d a y s %u2014 5 :3 0 a m -M id n ig h t: F ri., S at. till 2am5 1 5 A tla n tic A ve. (at 3 rd A ve.) %u2022 6 2 5 -0 8 8 3 /0 9 8 4All the Noujk n f Finwntnwfi RrnnlrlynAnd Its Historic NeighborhoodsReported Every Week in The PhoenixJuly 3,1986, THE PHOENIX, Pag* 11