WOMEN COMPOSERS AIM FOR THE MAINSTREAM

The International Congress on Women in Music has met in various locales four times in the last seven years for the purpose of promoting the contributions of women composers. Organizers of the congress--really a three-day music festival--carry one overriding goal, according to Beverly Grigsby, coordinator of the fifth event this weekend at Cal State Northridge: They hope to see it become extinct.

“We would love to get to the point where we won’t have to present the festival anymore,” the Cal State Northridge composer-pedagogue stated. “We’re aiming for the mainstream.”

Works to be performed by various instrumental and vocal forces at the congress have been drawn from a total of 580 compositions submitted by women composers from around the world.

Alas, even though they’ve come a long way, these musicians are still regarded in most circles as “ women composers,” Grigsby noted. The biggest obstacle to that elusive “mainstream” is a simple one, she said: “Nobody knows they exist. Prejudice is not a factor anymore. In the last 10 years, there hasn’t been much, the way it used to be. And, honest to God, it used to be!

“What we’re trying to tell people is, not only are women writing (90% of the chamber and orchestra works played during the festival date from the last five years), but they have been writing for hundreds of years.

“You know, I still hear people say, ‘Well, that’s nice, but there aren’t any Beethovens or Mendelssohns out there.’ I disagree, and what we (in the Congress) are trying to do is rewrite the history books. Also, we’re hoping that some of the young women and even the young girls who attend might be inspired to write music.”

Grigsby is not only working feverishly on the festival (along with Jeannie Pool, director of the International Congress), but also (again with Pool) on the International Institute for the Study of Women in Music, housed at the valley school.

“We have collected scores--more than 1,000 of them--biographies, writings, everything you can think of covering the subject in the last 4,000 years. (In Ancient Egypt, many prominent composers were women.) We have about 10,000 records. And there’s more coming. We are fortunate to have Aaron Cohen (author of the landmark, 5,000-entry “International Encyclopedia of Women Composers”) as a major donor.”

Commenting on the overabundance of submitted works, Grigsby lamented: “I feel badly that the festival is so limited (three evening concerts in the Campus Theater and two afternoon events in the Recital Hall). Even the stuff we couldn’t do was wonderful.

“We got some lovely, atmospheric things from China--including a piece for 12 clarinets. I so wanted to include it, but we just couldn’t rehearse it enough.”

OPERA THEATER UPDATE: With the folding in November of Los Angeles Opera Theater came the expected finger-pointings and second-guessings among company officials. Confusion, in the wake of the LAOT collapse, evidently extends to season-ticket holders.

A letter to Calendar from Gayle Strauss and Rick Roudebush asks a pertinent question: “We are interested in knowing whether ticket holders are considered as legitimate ‘creditors’ and where we fall in the order of creditors to be paid.” The writers added that the phones at Opera Theater had been disconnected.

Edmund Kaufman, president of the LAOT board, responds: “All creditors are in the same basket. We sent a letter to our subscribers (announcing the folding), but there has thus far been nothing new to tell them. They’ll all get something, either money--probably around 15 to 20 cents on the dollar--or other opportunities that will compensate for the loss of money.”

Kaufman said that an arrangement is being worked out for LAOT ticket holders to get tickets to another local performing arts organization’s productions. He delcined to name the organizastion.

The LAOT debt, Kaufman said, is estimated at $250,000-300,000, not including ticket monies. The amount owed for the never-mounted productions of “Lulu” and “Cavalleria Rusticana”/”Pagliacci” alone totals $175,000. Current company assets are estimated at $100,000, he added.

A final decision on reimbursement to ticket holders is expected sometime this month or next, Kaufman said.

AT THE PHILHARMONIC: On Monday night, John Harbison, the orchestra’s composer-in-residence, makes his debut as leader of the New Music Group with a concert at the Japan America Theatre. The program lists “In Memoriam Igor Stravinsky” by William Kraft (Harbison’s predecessor), “On This Most Voluptuous Night” by Yehudi Wyner, “The Surma Ritornelli” by Christopher Rouse (like Wyner, an East Coast-based composer) and Harbison’s “Mirabai” Songs, the latter three works in West Coast premieres. Roberta Gumbel will be soloist in this program, titled “Exotic Texts.”

In Philharmonic concerts at the Pavilion, Finnish conductor Paavo Berglund finishes his two-week engagement with the orchestra, leading a program devoted to music of his compatriot, Jean Sibelius: the Symphony No. 1, the Violin Concerto (with Joseph Swensen in his Philharmonic debut) and the Symphony No. 7. Concerts are scheduled for Thursday, Friday and next Sunday.