As the man responsible for Mondavi Center programming, Brian McCurdy occasionally hears a suggestion or two from people who would like to see their favorite artists onstage at the UC Davis performing arts center.

"Only about 500 times a day," he laughs.

Most of the time, he's actually grateful. "Believe me, I never mind hearing from people about what they want to see," says McCurdy. "It's just that when they tell me we should get U2 or Ricky Martin, I know they don't really understand the business."

Few people do. To outsiders, it may not be apparent that attempting to book pop music superstars would be both financially impractical and contrary to the educational mission that defines a university presenting program. It may seem that booking a season at Mondavi Center — which announced its 2005-06 schedule on May 4 — is simply a matter of drawing up a list of favorite performers and penciling them into the calendar.

In reality, it is a complicated process that takes years to complete, involving a dizzying network of agents, artists, arts venues and presenting programs, along with the knowledge and talent to balance audience expectations, financial realities, and support for the university's educational mission.

"It's a lot more difficult than most people would probably guess," said McCurdy, "but I do love the work, probably because I do really like everything we present."

After the honeymoon

Last week, McCurdy, whose title is assistant vice chancellor for the Mondavi Center Presenting Program, unveiled Mondavi Center's fourth season — all 71 presentations and 122 performances of it — to media, staff, administrators, Mondavi Center members and subscribers, and the public. As he ran through his presentation, complete with Power Point images of Itzhak Perlman, John Edwards, Sonny Rollins and other stars of the season, it is doubtful that anyone caught a glimpse of how problematic the scheduling was this time around.

"This season was probably the worst ever, in terms of last-minute cancellations," said McCurdy.

The schedule seemed well in place until Wynton Marsalis canceled just as the first mailers advertising the season went out to subscribers. Then, as McCurdy scrambled to find a replacement, he had another cancellation: This time, it was the orchestra that was to perform Beethoven with pianist Leon Fleisher. McCurdy managed to add pianist Chick Corea to the jazz series, but Fleisher's date had to be scratched.

Politics and finances

Cancellations are happening more often now for a variety of reasons, McCurdy said. Political turmoil abroad and the declining value of the American dollar have made international touring more difficult, and many of the presenting programs that Mondavi Center must partner with to bring a given touring artist to Davis have been hurt by the sputtering economy.

Fortunately, Mondavi Center has held its own, despite worries that audience demand might wane after the "honeymoon" first season. Demand has not fallen off at all in 2004-05, McCurdy said, and as usual, world music, orchestras and speakers have been strong money-makers.

Over the years, not everything has worked, McCurdy admits. There was the time he booked a bluesman, only to find out at the performance that he had decided to become a rapper.

("He was a great blues singer, but a terrible hip hop artist," McCurdy says.)

There was the under-rehearsed production of Porgy and Bess in which a hapless sound engineer left the performers' microphones on as they went off stage, leaving the audience to wonder why they were hearing backstage conversations booming through the hall's public address system during the show.

"But for the most part, I think our quality has been very, very high, and I think that's reflected in our ability to sustain our audience over three years," said McCurdy. "In a lot of places where a new venue has opened, they've seen a big drop-off after the first year. We've seen no drop-off at all."

Wait until next year

Last week, as patrons flipped through their shiny new 2005-06 brochures and staff began to process the first subscription requests, McCurdy was hard at work trying to fill in the calendar for 2006-07. As usual, things were shaping up according to a specific sequence. Orchestras come first, along with classical soloists, because their schedules fill up years in advance. Next on the agenda are the dance companies, which McCurdy likes to book for weekends to help ensure a good turnout. Speakers, world music and jazz artists tend to be the last to fall into place.

Throughout the process, McCurdy is contacting agents to find out who is available and when, and consulting with colleagues who book artists for other universities and venues.

Often, a performer will not be able to come to the West Coast unless they have a series of performances to defer the expense, and there is typically a lot of wheeling and dealing to put together package deals.

The networking that goes on during this process often proves an effective means of spreading the news about up-and-coming performers. The upcoming West Coast tour by Inbal Pinto, the innovative Israeli dance company, is one example of this network in action, McCurdy said.

McCurdy said that as Mondavi Center develops, he would like to schedule more cutting-edge contemporary artists, and devote more resources to commissioning new works, as Mondavi Center has done with multitalented singer/actor/composer Rinde Eckert and choreographer Ronald K. Brown.

Investing in contemporary work is part of the center's role in supporting the university's educational mission — a kind of parallel to university research in the sciences, he said — and an investment in the future of the arts. Besides, he said, it is the part of putting together a season he most enjoys.

"At this point in my life, what I'm enjoying most is the challenge of putting together and presenting new work, and finding an audience for it," he said. "You feel like you're making a contribution."

New season unveiled

From Itzhak Perlman to the Blind Boys of Alabama, Sonny Rollins to Richard Florida, and Cecilia Bartoli, the center will present 71 programs in 2005-06. For additional information about Mondavi Center's 2005–06 season of performances, visit their site at www.mondaviarts.org.

Joe Martin is public relations manager for the Mondavi Center Presenting Program.