SUMMERFEST ’87 TUNES UP FOR AUG. 22

The summer’s predicted drought of classical music will end Aug. 22, when the La Jolla Chamber Music Society will open its eight-concert Summerfest ’87.

After the success of the society’s inaugural chamber music series last year, this year’s 10-day festival has been expanded to include a chamber orchestra concert, wider participation of San Diego musicians and an appearance by in the role of ensemble pianist.

The festival’s artistic director, Philharmonic assistant conductor and principal violist Heiichiro Ohyama, will appear as soloist and ensemble violist, as well as conductor of the Aug. 23 all-Baroque chamber orchestra concert. Strings from the San Diego Chamber Orchestra will provide the core of that ensemble, according to the society’s executive director, Geoffrey Brooks.

“We were originally planning on putting together our own chamber orchestra,” Brooks explained, “but by taking an existing ensemble that has practiced together, they will be much more malleable in terms of putting together a quality program.”

Soloists for that program will include cellists Ralph Kirshbaum and Philharmonic principal Ronald Leonard in a Vivaldi Concerto for Two Cellos, as well as internationally known violinists Gyorgy Pauk and Miriam Fried in the J.S. Bach Concerto for Two Violins in D Minor.

At the Aug. 25 concert, clarinetist David Shifrin and former principals from the San Diego Symphony--concertmaster Andres Cardenes and hornist Jerry Folsom--will join Previn and others in chamber works by Beethoven, Ravel and Brahms. “Previn actually asked to play in the festival,” Brooks said. “He wants no special attention here--he just wants to be one of the boys.”

“It will be a working vacation for him,” added Cynthia Rushing, festival chairwoman.

Other San Diegans include UC San Diego faculty members Carol Plantamura and Jean-Charles Francois. Soprano Plantamura will sing songs of Debussy and Luciano Berio, accompanied by pianist Francois, at the matinee concert Aug. 23, a program that will showcase local performers.

“We wanted to expand our use of San Diego musicians this year,” Brooks said. At the same concert, pianist Karen Follingstad and cellist Jeffrey Levenson will join violinist Cardenes in Beethoven’s “Ghost” Piano Trio. According to Brooks, there will a work by Beethoven on every festival concert except the Baroque chamber orchestra program.

All festival concerts will be given in the La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art’s Sherwood Hall. Pre-concert lectures will be given by Los Angeles musicologists Ara Guzelimian, Gail Eichenthal and Robert Winter.