900 PERFORMANCES SCHEDULED : JUMBO AMERICAN MUSIC WEEK ON TAP

The second annual American Music Week--a nationwide concert series to spotlight the works of the wide spectrum of American composers--will be celebrated in the Los Angeles area with more events, more funds and more performers and composers, event organizers announced Tuesday.

Nationally, the weeklong event will officially run from Monday through Nov. 9, although many related events will be held both before and after.

Altogether, American Music Week will more than double in scope with 900 scheduled performances of avant-garde, jazz, electronic and popular music, said Nancy S. Clarke, executive director of the American Music Center, the New York-based service organization charged with coordinating the event.

Clarke said the festival’s expansion also will be felt here, with three additional concerts scheduled for Los Angeles, compared to the six performed last year, and more than 30 additional concerts throughout the state.

The Los Angeles Philharmonic Assn. will close the festival with the world premiere on Nov. 10 of Daniel Lentz’s “crack in the bell”--a contemporary piece commissioned and performed by the Philharmonic New Music Group at the Japan America Theatre.

Lentz, who was present at Tuesday’s press gathering, expressed mixed feelings about American Music Week. Although thankful for the chance to present his work, he said that it was unfortunate that a “political climate of flag-waving” was being used to promote American music for one week instead of encouraging music directors to perform all forms of new music throughout the year.

But Earle Brown, president of the American Music Center and an avant-garde composer whose works will be presented at the Bing Theater of the County Museum of Art on Monday, contended that the festival would not be taken as an excuse by some music directors to make a token gesture.

“I find the interest is increasing,” Brown said, portraying the festival as one of several developments indicating a resurgence in American music comparable to the 1930s when this country’s jazz and contemporary composers made their strongest impact on European music.

Jazz singer Betty Carter and Andre Previn, music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, will act as co-chairs of a 100-member sponsoring committee of musicians representing all forms of American music.

The festival already has succeeded in stimulating a more than three-fold increase in its operating budget.

Clarke said this year’s funding has jumped to $225,000, compared to $65,000 last year due to first-time grants from the Maxell Corp. and the Rockefeller Foundation. This year’s private-sector grants, she added, supplement $65,000 in second-year funding provided by the National Endowment For The Arts.

These funds do not pay performer salaries or commissions for new works, but are being used to assist local organizations plan and promote their own musical offerings to America’s composers, she said. “We just hope that this can act as a catalyst to do more commissioning. We want to instill the deep-seated belief that American music is important.”