ZWILICH’S ‘CELEBRATION’ TO RING IN PREVIN ERA

Last October, Ellen Taaffe Zwilich composed “Celebration” to honor the opening of the Indianapolis Symphony’s new concert hall. The 10-minute piece is dominated by the joyous sound of ringing bells. Fittingly, the Los Angeles Philharmonic has chosen the work to officially “celebrate” the Andre Previn era, which begins Thursday at the Music Center.

Previn will also conduct symphonies by Mozart and Prokofiev. In addition to the assembled first-nighters, a collection of PBS cameras will be on hand (KCET Channel 28 will air the concert on Dec. 11).

The New York-based composer will be present for that much-anticipated event, one that she confesses is as exciting to her as the news of her winning the Pulitzer Prize in music (for her Symphony No. 1) two years ago. “Being an active member of the musical society is very important to me,” she said. “It goes beyond success or prizes. It gets at the issue of music being a living art: You write, you hear and you learn from what you hear.”

That living quality, she said, is perfectly exemplified by “Celebration,” commissioned by and dedicated to Indianapolis music director John Nelson. “When I’m working on a commission,” the 46-year-old composer said, “I always get a vivid sense of the musicians for whom I’m writing. The people in Indianapolis invited me to listen to the orchestra and I even went on a hard-hat tour of the hall under construction.

“I recently wrote a piece for the San Francisco Symphony (the Symphony No. 2, scheduled to receive its premiere this season), and as I was working, I could just see the players sitting and waiting.” Far from being an inhibiting thought, she said, this image “made the sounds in my head more concrete.”

Though not wishing to make an issue out of it, Zwilich did concede that she is in a unique position in American music. The number of prominent female composers is few; the number of those who have won the Pulitzer is fewer. Right now, the latter totals just one.

“There’s a close community of women composers. I think there’s a good spirit out there. I’ve met a lot of young women who’ve told me they have been inspired by my success, and that pleases me. I would like them to be able to follow their dreams.”

So she does recognize her position as a role model to women in music? Yes, Zwilich said, but the burden is not that great. “Anyone in the public eye has to have a good sense of humor and perspective. What matters most to me is writing music and hearing it performed.”

Zwilich feels little affinity for such pigeon-holing labels as “woman composer” and scoffs at the thought of describing her writing style. “I consider myself an individual. I feel free to use whatever sources appeal to me: Balinese, 19th-Century, even the so-called avant-garde. Writing music is a constant discovery process. I try to let the music take me someplace I’ve never been.

“I’m a free spirit. You know, if I couldn’t be a composer, I’d get on a sailboat and sail away.”

FOR THE RECORD: The Philharmonic’s free “Welcome Previn” concert will be in the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion on Saturday, rather than next Sunday, as had been noted in Martin Bernheimer’s Sept. 29 interview with Previn. All tickets for the 8 p.m. event have been distributed. However, speakers will be set up outside on the Music Center Plaza and seating and refreshments will be available for listeners unable to watch.

IN DANCE: San Francisco Ballet will present two programs at its three appearances in Royce Hall this week (see Page 43). Familiar works by Jerome Robbins (“In the Night”), George Balanchine (“Western Symphony”) and the company’s late co-director Lew Christensen (“Sinfonia” and “Norwegian Moods”) are scheduled Saturday night and next Sunday afternoon. Two premieres are included in the program next Sunday night: the local premiere of company dancer Val Caniparoli’s “Hamlet and Ophelia” pas de deux and the West Coast premiere of “Menuetto” by company director Helgi Tomasson. Christensen’s “Con Amore” and Balanchine’s “Brahms-Schoenberg Quartet” complete the agenda.

For the first three weekends of this month, such ensembles as the R’Wanda Lewis Dance Company, Ballet Folklorico International de Sur, Koroyar Folk Ensemble, Nara Nata Folk Troupe, the Tahitians and the Butterfield Country Cloggers will be performing in an annual international festival at Marineland, of all places. Show times through Oct. 20 are noon to 4 p.m. each weekend day.

PEOPLE: Soprano Marni Nixon will replace Martha Schlamme at a cabaret concert sponsored by the Chamber Music in Historic Sites series on Nov. 24 at the Variety Arts Center. Schlamme lies in a coma in a Jamestown, N.Y., hospital after she suffered a massive stroke on stage at Chautauqua two months ago.

Cellist Lynn Harrell will host the first of four master classes at USC Tuesday night at 7 p.m. Harrell is serving this year as Visiting Piatigorsky Professor. He will become a full-time faculty member in 1987.