COMPOSERS’ GLOBAL PLAN FOR WORK

It’s a unique idea: have a troika of avant-garde composers collaborate on a new piece mainly by mail from their homes in La Jolla, Tokyo and New York. Can it work? The National Endowment for the Arts is betting that it will, and has awarded an Inter-Arts grant for the project to UC San Diego’s resident musical-theatrical duo, Edwin Harkins and Philip Larson (known professionally as (THE)), Japanese composer Toru Takemitsu, and premier avant-gardist John Cage.

The piece, to be premiered in the spring of 1986 at UCSD’s Mandeville Auditorium, has neither a title nor particular thrust at this point--but there is a game plan. Harkins and Larson, who proposed the work, are hopeful that the differences among the composers will spark a fresh chemistry.

“We’re all different aesthetically, as are the routes we’ve taken in the musical world,” Ed Harkins said from his office at UCSD. “But we all respect each other, we’ve all met at various concerts, and Phil and I are sort of taken with (Takemitsu and Cage), more so as human beings, as really beautiful people, so we thought it would be really interesting to collaborate. And because we’re all so different, we needed to keep the form and the process of composition rather open.”

To that end, then, Larson and Harkins will kick off the process, and send Takemitsu in Tokyo a videotape of one of their musical-theatrical performances. Takemitsu will send his response to the tape to Cage in New York, who will send his response to Larson and Harkins. This round robin will occur at least twice before the composers meet in Manhattan for a week or so to complete the piece.

“My guess is that Takemitsu will respond to our videotape with a purely musical piece,” said Harkins, “and I can imagine Cage responding to that with a poem, since he’s really into text, and then he’ll send it to us, and we’ll take it from there all over again.”

HORTON: No surprise, but at last it’s official. On Tuesday morning, the City Council (sitting in its capacity as the Redevelopment Agency) unanimously approved the lease agreement between the Horton Plaza Theatres Foundation and the San Diego Repertory Theatre. That makes the Rep the main tenant and manager of the two below-ground theaters being constructed at Horton Plaza. They are slated to open in December.

Under the terms approved Tuesday, the Rep will receive a management fee estimated at $120,000 a year. The foundation will assume 100% of the cost of the theaters’ utilities during the first year of operation, decreasing annually thereafter by 25% until the fifth year, when the Rep will assume all utility costs. The Rep will retain income generated by the theater and will pay only $1 per year in rent for the seven-year term of the agreement.

The Rep is required to mount a minimum of 240 performances per year, and make the theaters available to other theatrical groups three months a year.

POPS: The San Diego Pops has expanded from a 10-week season in 1983 to the 12-week series that begins at 7:30 next Wednesday night, without making any modifications to the musical menu. But if Pops audiences still prefer what critics call musical pap, they seem to have grown more sophisticated in their snacking habits--and the Pops management continues to keep pace with their taste changes by upgrading the menu annually.

This summer, the Pops will offer an assortment of elegant platters, including beef tenderloin with aspic and avocado mousse, poached salmon surrounded by capers, shrimp and crab claws with ceviche, and boneless breast of chicken stuffed with spinach--all priced from $7 to $9. The wine list has been expanded to include the likes of Dom Perignon Champagne ($96 a bottle).

“The changes you’ll see in the menu this summer,” said Ron Zappardino (vice president of operations for the Pops), “reflect our findings . . . that the Pops aficionado has a more discriminating palate. The expensive wines have been just as popular as the cheaper ones, and many people have expressed interest in dinner items like beef and salmon--not just snacking foods.”

Back on the musical front, the Pops all-Gershwin program on June 20 will be a benefit for the San Diego Symphony Musicians’ emergency fund. Special features that night will include soprano Marilyn Rue’s performance of several Gershwin favorites, “Summertime,” “Someone to Watch Over Me,” and “The Man I Love.” Rue is also a regular in the symphony’s cello section. “Sun-Up San Diego” TV host Jerry G. Bishop will be the “golden baton” special guest conductor in the usual Sousa march selection, while conductor Matthew Garbutt will dispense the usual podium duties.

ARTBEATS: Thursday’s annual KPBS-TV fund-raising auction begins at 6 p.m., and more than 30 pieces of fine art will go up for bid--including two signed lithographs by Western artist Olaf Wieghorst, a silkscreen by Corita Kent, a paper sculpture by Ed Pieters, and another paper sculpture by actor Anthony Quinn . . . $412,500 of California Arts Council money is now available for regranting to individuals and groups of artists. Applications are available from COMBO, and Aug. 1 is the deadline for applying. Grant priority will be given to projects and programs that address the needs of San Diego as expressed in the city art plan . . . Actor Paxton Whitehead will return to the Old Globe Theatre this summer, in the title role of Shakespeare’s “Richard III,” to be directed by John Houseman. The play, set for July 26 through Sept. 22, will be the 500th Old Globe production.