BOCA RATON — The board members sat up straight against their chairs and leaned their heads forward.

Out came the arias from Madame Butterfly and a host of famous names.

Itzhak Perlman, Arturo Sandoval, Edward Albee, Anna Quindlen, the Russian National Orchestra, the Yellow Jackets, Tiempo Libre.

These are the artists who have committed to the city's new signature event, the Festival of the Arts.

"Through a lot of arm twisting and mud wrestling, we were able to get extraordinary people to come here," said Barrett Wissman, chairman of IMG Artists.

"This should develop Boca Raton as a destination," he said.

Wissman's cultural arts management company is recruiting the festival's talent. It has created similar festivals in Tuscany, Italy, and California's Napa Valley.

Even so, members of the Community Redevelopment Agency could not quite believe the news Monday. They sat quietly, listening to snippets of music while representatives from the Centre for the Arts spoke about an outpouring of culture that would come to Boca Raton next year, from March 1 to 11.

There will be orchestra concerts, chamber music events, author events, theater performances, master classes, art exhibits and food and music from Boca Bacchanal.

More than 200 artists and managers would come for the festival and occupy 4,000 or more hotel rooms in less than two weeks, organizers said.

The festival will run on a $1.5 million budget with local organizations such as the Boca Raton Philharmonic Symphonia, the Boca Raton Museum of Arts, the Boca Raton Historical Society and the Caldwell Theater hosting events.

The event grew out of the city council's envy of events like Fort Lauderdale's annual Air and Sea Show and West Palm Beach's SunFest. For the past year, the festival evolved from discussions among city leaders, Centre of the Arts principals Charles Siemon and Wendy Larsen and Wissman.

Wissman's relationships with well-known artists like Perlman will bring them to Boca Raton during the height of the season.

Artists are coming because they believe in fostering people's appreciation of the arts in this wealthy city better known for its beaches, rolling golf courses and multimillion-dollar homes.

The desire to find a way to set the city apart culturally from its neighbors was so strong that members of the community redevelopment agency did not even complain when organizers asked them for $150,000.

Instead, they replied in a chorus of "thank you's," all of the members affirming their support for the festival.