‘NEW MUSIC’ EVENTS SET

“New Music Los Angeles ‘87” will offer a broad sampling of 20th-Century works from Stravinsky to surfing music from March 1-15 in a wide variety of locales.

The settings range from a nightclub at the downtown Alexandria Hotel to a nightclub in Hollywood, from the halls of CalArts to the underground tunnel at MacArthur Park, from the Pavilion of the Music Center on Bunker Hill to the University of Judaism on a hill overlooking Bel-Air, from Wadsworth Theater on the grounds of the Veterans Administration in Westwood to the Japan America Theatre in Little Tokyo.

Announced Thursday at the Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions (LACE) gallery, the citywide festival will encompass more than 24 musical events at 14 locations.

According to festival coordinator Ara Guzelimian, a consortium of 22 Los Angeles arts organizations will present the separate parts of the two-week festival, which he calls, “Son of New Music America ‘85” (NMA, a peripatetic annual new music festival that was given in the fall of 1985 in Los Angeles, caused many local organizations to seek ways of presenting a follow-up festival here, culminating in New Music Los Angeles ‘87, Guzelimian said.)

The consortium includes LACE, the UCLA Center for the Arts and UCLA music department, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), Chapman College, the L.A. County Museum of Art (LACMA), the Arnold Schoenberg Institute and the Independent Composers Assn. (ICA).

The purpose of the festival, Guzelimian said, is “to showcase the 22 participating organizations.”

Funding for the festival, Guzelimian said, will come from the National Endowment for the Arts, Whitelight Foundation and the Cultural Affairs Department of the City of Los Angeles. The job of the consortium is to coordinate publicity and administration.

The festival begins in Schoenberg Hall Auditorium at UCLA on March 1 at 4 p.m., when the touring ensemble Tashi presents the West Coast premiere of a work by Lukas Foss.

It closes March 15, with events given at three locations. At the Japan America Theatre, at 2:30 p.m., Pierre Boulez leads the L.A. Philharmonic New Music Group in his own “Le Marteau sans Maitre” and Schoenberg’s “Pierrot Lunaire.” In MacArthur Park, beginning at noon, there will be, first, a presentation of Bonnie Barnett’s “MacArthur Park Hum,” to take place in the resonant pedestrian tunnel under Wilshire Boulevard; second, a bandshell concert by the ICA, at 1:30 p.m.; third, two ongoing sound installations. At the Stella Polaris Gallery in Beverly Hills, at 8 p.m., a program of video and electro-acoustic works by Michael Scroggins, Barry Schrader, Frederick Lesemann, Marc Waldrep, David Stout and Robert Campbell will be given.

In between, there will be a festival within a festival, March 7-8, when the 11th CalArts Contemporary Festival, this year under the artistic direction of Frans van Rossum, offers two days’ worth of concerts on the Valencia campus. Among other themes of the CalArts programs will be a celebration of the 75th birthday of composer John Cage, who will attend the CalArts events.

Composer-conductor Pierre Boulez will be in Los Angeles at the same time. He is scheduled to lead the L.A. Philharmonic in a program of his own music and that of Berio and Bartok in the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, March 6.

The following week, Boulez will again lead the Philharmonic in the Pavilion, this time in a program to include the United States premiere of the 1986 version of his “cumming ist der Dichter,” two other Boulez works, and Stravinsky’s “The King of the Stars” and “Le Sacre du Printemps.” Finally, he leads the new Music Group in the matinee concert of March 15, at the Japan America Theatre.

Among other possible highlights of the festival schedule: A program called “Visual but Not Video: Music That’s Fun to Watch” presented by California Outside Music Assn. (COMA) at the Lhasa Club, March 6 at 9 p.m. A Monday Evening Concert at the County Museum of Art, March 9, to be conducted by Joel Thome, and offering premieres of works by Hans Werner Henze and Kenneth Rouse.

Also: A recital by pianist Alan Feinberg, at the ASI, March 10, devoted to music by Wolpe, Davidovsky, Ligeti, Ran and Busoni. An appearance by pianists Johana Harris-Heggie and John Heggie, on a Lo Cal Composers concert at the University of Judaism, March 11 at 8 p.m. “Surf Night” at LACE, with “surf legends, contemporary local surf bands and vintage surf movies,” March 12 at 8 p.m.

Finally, in Charlie’s Obsession, a nightclub at the Alexandria Hotel, March 13 at 11 p.m., the first U.S. appearance of a group from London called Current 93, presenting a new work created specifically for the festival.

For festival brochure or further information: (213) 825-0261.