7:30 pm: Music

Music by American composers is traditional for Fourth of July pops programs, and the offerings this week by the Pasadena Pops Orchestra (at Descanso Gardens) and the California Philharmonic (at the L.A. County Arboretum) follow the model. Rachael [cq?] Worby’s agenda, with her Pops band and the Pasadena Classical Singers, is called “We the People.” Victor Vener’s opening agenda for the Arboretum’s 2000 summer season offers Copland, Grofe and Gershwin, with Annette Bening narrating “A Lincoln Portrait” and Norman Krieger playing “Rhapsody in Blue.” Both orchestras--friendly competitors, Vener insists, even though he founded both--have loyal, ticket-buying audiences.

* “We the People,” Pasadena Pops at Descanso Gardens, 1418 Descanso Drive, La Canada Flintridge. 7:30 p.m. $15 to $45. (626) 792-7677.

* California Philharmonic, Los Angeles County Arboretum, 301 N. Baldwin Ave., Arcadia. 7:30 p.m. $15 to $55. (626) 300-8200.

8 pm: Ice Show

Three-time world champion Michelle Kwan will top the bill at the annual “Star Spangled Ice 2000” figure skating spectacular at the Iceoplex-Ice Castle at Blue Jay in Lake Arrowhead. Also on the bill: Romanian national champion Cornel Gheorghe, Danish national champion Mikkeline Kierkgaard, British national champion Tammy Sear, U.S. national junior champions Sima and Amir Ganaba and Japanese national junior champion and Disney on Ice soloist Atsushi Oshima. This year’s theme is “Legends of the Silver Screen.” Kwan, who has trained in Lake Arrowhead for the last nine years, will also be honored.

* “Star Spangled Ice 2000,” Iceoplex-Ice Castle, 27307 Highway 189, Blue Jay, Lake Arrowhead. 8 p.m. $35. Dinner seating, which includes pre-performance cocktails and dinner beginning at 5:30 p.m., $175. (909) 337-0802.

8 pm: Theater

The Mark Taper Forum’s new and experimental theater series, “Taper Too,” continues with the world premiere of “The Square,” 16 short plays by David Henry Hwang, Chay Yew, Craig Lucas, Mac Wellman, Maria Irene Fornes, Jose Rivera, Han Ong and others, set in and around a town square in Chinatown. Conceived by Yew and Lisa Peterson.

* “The Square,” Taper Too, Actors’ Gang, 6209 Santa Monica Blvd., Hollywood. Saturday, 8 p.m. Regular schedule: Tuesdays-Sundays, 8 p.m.; Saturdays-Sundays, 2 p.m. Ends July 16. $20. (213) 628-2772.

noon: Pop Music

The annual Hootenanny at Oak Canyon Ranch has evolved into a beacon of raw, rootsy American music, and this year’s edition ranges from slick headliner Chris Isaak to the edgy heir Hank Williams III to a couple of notable reunions: the Knitters, with Exene Cervenka, John Doe, Dave Alvin and DJ Bonebrake, and former Stray Cats Lee Rocker and Slim Jim Phantom.

* Hootenanny 2000, Oak Canyon Ranch, 5305 Santiago Canyon Road, Irvine. Noon. $40. (909) 629-0377.

11:30 am: Jazz

Smooth jazz is the perfect outdoor sound, and Redondo Beach New Jazz Festival hosts some of the smoothest performers around: vocalist Rachelle Ferrell, flamenco-jazz guitarist Ottmar Liebert, the big band of vocalist-keyboardist Bobby Caldwell, South African guitarist-vocalist Jonathan Butler, flutist Tim Weisberg and others. Food and drink vendors help make the festivities merry. Bring your beach chair or blanket, and don’t forget the sun block.

* Redondo Beach New Jazz Festival, Aviation Park, 1935 Manhattan Beach Blvd., Redondo Beach. 11:30 a.m.-8:45 p.m. $35 in advance, $40 day of concert; reserved seating, $60. (310) 406-8838.

8:30 pm: World Music

The Brazilian singer and composer Milton Nascimento is a poet of the Portuguese language and a singer with a glassy voice and pure falsetto who can reach into the depths of your soul. He’s joined on this double-bill of rhyme and rhythm by the celebrated Cuban guitarist-vocalist-songwriter Juan-Carlos Formell, a performer who is equally well-versed in the ways of the heart.

* Tropical Serenades with Milton Nascimento and Juan-Carlos Formell, Hollywood Bowl, 2301 N. Highland Ave., Hollywood. 8:30 p.m. $5 to $85. (323) 850-2000.

Freebies:

Danse Celeste Cambodian Classical Dance & Music performs at Gerald Daniel Theater, Cal State Long Beach, 6200 Atherton St. 7 p.m. (562) 433-2490.

“12 Divas,” a group show devoted to L.A.’s finest female artists including Martha Alf, Eleanor Antin, Carole Caroompas, Karen Carson and Alexis Smith, opens at Molly Barnes Gallery, 1414 6th St., Santa Monica. Tuesday-Saturday, 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Ends Sept. 2. (310) 395-4404.