MUSIC NOTES : EDUCATORS CONFERENCE DRAWS 6,000

Nearly 6,000 members of the Music Educators National Conference have convened at the Anaheim Convention Center this week to discuss issues ranging from the effects of computer technology to state certification of teachers.

In addition to the lectures, seminars and workshops (open to MENC members only), which will be offered through Saturday, there will be about 60 school and college performing groups--bands, orchestras, choruses, jazz ensembles and show choirs--giving free public concerts throughout the conference. The National High School Honors Orchestra, made up of 160 students selected from all 50 states, will present a concert at 2:30 p.m. Saturday in the California Room at the Convention Center. James DePreist, music director of the Oregon Symphony, will conduct the orchestra in a varied program that will include Howard Hanson’s Symphony No. 2 (“Romantic”), Beethoven’s Leonore Overture No. 3 and John Argosino’s Concertino for Piano and Orchestra (with the composer as soloist), among other works.

Membership in the association costs $60 and is open to anyone interested in music education. Cost for the conference is an additional $40. MENC is a national association that represents every level and discipline in music education.

For further information, call (714) 758-6250.

The Idyllwild School of Music and the Arts will hold auditions for admission to its new Residential Arts Academy on Saturday from 10 a.m to 4 p.m. at the Festival of Art Forum Theatre, 650 Laguna Canyon Road, Laguna Beach.

Students who will be qualified to enter grades eight through 12 by September are eligible to apply. High school graduates also may apply for the academy’s postgraduate program.

Auditioning students should be prepared to demonstrate their ability or potential in vocal or instrumental music, dance, theater, musical theater or the visual arts, according to Linda Baltimore, director of admissions.

To make an appointment for an audition, call Tom Bewley at (714) 659-2171.

The academy is a new arts high school near the village of Idyllwild in the San Jacinto Mountains. It will open in September.

More than 100 classical and jazz musicians will perform free at a concert Monday from 7 to 10 p.m. at the Irvine Marriott Hotel, 18000 Von Karman Ave., Irvine.

The concert is funded by the Music Performance Trust Fund (established to offer free concerts to the public) and sponsored by the recording industry and Local 7 of the American Federation of Musicians. It will feature the Orange County Philharmonic Orchestra, an ad hoc orchestra made up of members of five local orchestras; the Irvine Symphony; the Claude Bolling Trio; the Ralph Gari Saxophone Quartet and members of Ballet Unlimited.

John Koshak will conduct the Orange County Philharmonic in music by Bizet, Copland, Shostakovich, Strauss and Sousa. The Irvine Symphony will present a concert version of Mozart’s opera “The Impresario.” Members of Ballet Unlimited will dance “Chopin Waltzes.”

The Bolling Trio will present a suite for flute and jazz trio. The Saxophone Quartet will play French compositions by Bozza and Rivier.

Sponsors of the event include the Orange County Philharmonic Society, the Irvine Marriott Hotel, Mesa Music Press and Ballet Unlimited.

For further information, call (714) 546-8166.