LOS ANGELES, March 29, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- At a time when school districts are aggressively cutting art and music programs from their budgets, the Music Center will continue its longest-running educational program as The Blue Ribbon Children's Festival brings the experience of live performing arts for free to more than 18,000 fifth grade students on April 5, 6 and 7, 2011. Now in its 41st year, the festival welcomes students from 245 public, private and charter schools in Los Angeles County to a special performance by Diavolo Dance Theater, a compelling Los Angeles-based company that redefines dance through trust, teamwork and individual expression.

The Largest Single Gift in Los Angeles Dance History Will Sustain and Revitalize the Center's World-Class Program and Introduce 'Glorya Kaufman Presents Dance at the Music Center' LOS ANGELES, March 17 /PRNewswire/ -- Local officials and leaders of Los Angeles' arts community today joined to celebrate the $20 million gift to the Music Center of Los Angeles County by the Glorya Kaufman Dance Foundation.

By Jerry Johnston Deseret News "THE FLY," Los Angeles Opera, Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Los Angeles, Calif., through Sept.

By Jim Farber When Oscar-winning composer Howard Shore told Placido Domingo that he wanted to compose an opera based on the 1986 film version of "The Fly," the artistic director of the Los Angeles Opera should have heeded the warning of the movie's heroine, "Be afraid.

By Jim Farber Los Angeles Opera's long and ardent courtship of Hollywood produced the perfect match for Saturday's gala opening of the company's 2008-2009 season with Academy Award-winning film directors William Friedkin and Woody Allen dividing the task of staging Giacomo Puccini's tragic, sentimental, comic trilogy, "Il Trittico." The red-carpet event at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion featured Hollywood glitterati in the audience and at least one film veteran (Friedkin) on stage taking bows (in tennis shoes) for his adept direction of "Il Tabarro" and "Suor Angelica." In typical fashion, Allen avoided the limelight when his moment for a curtain call came, which was too bad because the audience was dying to show its appreciation for the clever direction he brought to part three of the triptych, the dysfunctional family comedy, "Gianni Schicchi." Productions of "Il Trittico" (which had its world premiere at the Metropolitan Opera in New York on Dec.