THE AUDITION, THEN THE QUEST

I went down to the audition and I was quite a bit nervous. I thought I wouldn’t make it, because I played something simple--Debussy’s “Les Joyeux”--and I thought they wouldn’t be able to tell how I could play. I guess I got ( accepted) because playing the piano is really the only thing I really love doing. It’s the thing I was made for, I think.

--Kai Zi Wu, 15, of San Marino, pianist and entering junior at the new Los Angeles County High School for the Arts.

For the hopeful high schoolers milling in the halls of the Cal State L.A. Music Building on a recent Saturday, the waiting was the hardest part--especially with visions of “Fame” dancing in their heads.

Toting bass guitars, trumpets, toe shoes and big dreams, they came from Whittier, Santa Monica, the valleys, Inglewood and Hawthorne to audition for a place in the two entering sophomore and junior classes at Los Angeles County’s first High School for the Arts. Classes convene Sept. 9 on the Cal State L.A. campus.

Small crowds of nascent artists sat or stood along the hallways, looking over lines, poring over scores, biting nails. Although this was the second set of auditions for the school, this was first (and last) chance for these aspirants to get in. For some, it was also their first preprofessional lesson in The Business: waiting for their number to be called.

“Don’t worry, kid,” soothed Michael Isaacson, a local composer and one of the instrumentalists’ judges, patting one young trumpeter on the back. “It’s going to be all right. You’re not on trial. It’s just an audition.”

I kind of knew I was going to make it as soon as the audition was over, but when we got the letter saying that I had gotten in, I went crazy. . . . I felt that I could be better at what I was doing, and this new school will let me do both things--the regular school and the dancing. I can’t believe it--it’s a terrific deal.

--Dawn Sherrye Brown, 14, of Los Angeles, entering sophomore dance student.

The game plan for a high school specifically for the fine arts has been on the local chalkboard at least five years, but only within the last 18 months have money, government sponsorship and personal initiative come together to bring the project to fruition.

The $325,000 from Sacramento is only enough to cover the first year of operations, however, and officials of the new school, while ecstatic that it exists at all, are cautious about its future.

“Everything depends on our first year here. If we have some results to point to, I think we’ll make it,” said Chuck Stewart, the arts high school’s principal-designate, as he kept a watchful eye on the auditions. “What we’re hoping is that once people see what kind of results we’re producing, private money will replace the start-up grant.” He looked down the hallway at the anxiously waiting young musicians and a faint smile came to his lips: “I have a feeling it’ll turn out all right.”

The school will offer classes in theater, visual arts, dance and instrumental and vocal music besides the basic educational subjects such as English, math and the sciences. Two hundred students will be accepted for this year, with an eventual enrollment of 500 targeted for 1988--if funding is continued. Since the school is administered by a coalition of public school systems, there is no tuition.

One significant problem the embryonic school has encountered is transportation. No school buses will be available to bring students to Cal State L.A. from outlying areas, and carpool arrangements are barely in the planning stages. Stewart said the number of applications to the school would have been five times greater if buses had been available.

“But given the level of commitment we’ve witnessed,” he added, “I think they’ll find a way to get here this year.”

If you can’t live art all the time -- have it be your regular homework as well as just class assignments -- then why do it? When people hear I went to that school, they’ll know I got the proper training and I’ll be able to get ahead in the business. And my folks are 101% behind my going to the school.

--Dee Ann Lerma, 15, of Alhambra, incoming junior art student.

Jason Tiller grimaced fiercely over a fluffed trill during his audition.

As his father played on at the piano, Jason’s eyes went a little wide behind his glasses at the startling if momentary wrongness of his French horn sound, but then he placed his lips back to the mouthpiece and went on with the Mozart concerto, shaking his dark blond head a little.

A little later, during the interview phase of the audition, 14-year-old Jason was the consummate proto-professional, fielding questions from auditors and press alike with the coolness of a young virtuoso.

“I really want to come to this school for a number of reasons,” he said, “but the main thing I want is more in-depth training. My school (in Arcadia) has nothing to offer me but march, march, march, and I’ve had about enough. It’s time to move on and really learn things.”

“I think that one’ll make it--no problem,” someone whispered in the back of the room. Which led to a discussion: How to decide who makes it?

“They’ve got to have lots of talent and the possibility of greatness,” said Mona Paulee, Cal State L.A.’s voice department chair and a judge for the vocal auditions. “Our choices are obviously instinctual--after all, what we’re dealing with here is potential --but I’m amazed at how unanimous the choices have been so far. There’s a communal gut feeling--like we all know this person’s going to make it.”

John Waddell, who was judging vocalists and who’ll coordinate the school’s music department in September, agreed, but added a caveat: “Of course what we’re hoping for is to make some balanced ensembles--choirs, orchestras and so forth. But we’ll always--repeat, always--take talent over filling out the wind choirs or what have you. There will be no quotas at this school--except for desire.”

Just then, soprano Amy Piatt, fresh from a good-luck hand squeeze from her father, stepped up onto the small stage and launched into her audition piece, looking off into the middle distance and doing her best not to see the judges, reporters and photographers.

And the judges, seated at a long table, watched and listened, very closely.

Obviously, they liked what they saw and heard: Both Jason and Amy will be attending classes this September at the new L.A. County High School for the Arts.

“Both Jason and his father and I are eagerly waiting for the school to start up,” said Lois Tiller, Jason’s mother and a professional musician herself. “If he can consistently get over to Cal State L.A., which we’re working on now, we feel that this school could turn out to be just what Jason needed.”

I’m feeling a little uptight ‘cause I don’t know what it’s going to be like. It might be a bit like “Fame,” but those guys were all New Yorkers, and this is L.A. , so it might be a little more laid-back here. But I guess none of us’ll know what we’re getting ourselves into until September. Then we’ll see what happens. . . .

--Sharon Avery Reynolds, 16, of Rancho Palos Verdes, who, if she can get there, will be an entering junior theater student at the L.A. County High School for the Arts.