A CHINESE ORCHESTRA IN SAN DIEGO

Conductor Zoltan Rozsnyai never intended to assemble a Chinese orchestra. The original plan was to draw musicians from around the world to play in the newly created resident orchestra on the Scripps Ranch campus of United States International University.

But when the word got out about the ambitious project, instrumentalists from China responded en masse.

“We notified various nations through consulates and the usual channels,” explained Gordon Hilker, director of the university’s School of Performing and Visual Arts. “There was no effort to recruit Chinese musicians--it just took off. We now have piles of applications (from Chinese musicians) over and above what we can use.”

Rozsnyai said he auditioned 580 tapes from Chinese applicants. “That’s about 3 1/2 months of listening--if you don’t sleep.”

Actually, the 34-piece orchestra is not composed solely of Chinese nationals. Two South Americans and five Americans are found in its ranks.

“The ideal ratio,” Rozsnyai said, “would be to have 75% foreign players and the rest American. In the last 30 days, we’ve had 62 non-Chinese applicants to the orchestra.”

After a year of training, Rozsnyai’s musicians made their San Diego debut last week. Friday night in La Jolla’s Sherwood Hall they will play a concert to demonstrate their prowess in playing Mozart and Copland, as well as traditional Chinese composers He Lu-ting and He Zhan-hao.

They will also premiere a commissioned work for orchestra and erhu, a traditional Chinese string instrument, written by China Lin, who will perform the solo part. Lin’s “A Song to Mother” is based on folk songs from his native Fujian and is written in memory of his mother, who died in China’s Cultural Revolution.

Rozsnyai, founder of the noted Philharmonia Hungarica Orchestra, was a likely selection as USIU’s conductor for several reasons.

“I have a history of organizing orchestras,” said the expatriate Hungarian. “I earned the reputation of orchestra builder, especially with the Philharmonia Hungarica, which I founded (in Vienna) after the ’56 Hungarian revolution. In retrospect, this project was not too much easier.”

The voluble conductor was also the San Diego Symphony’s music director during its salad days of the late 1960s. At that time, Rozsnyai and his crew rehearsed in USIU’s School of Performing Arts, which was then in downtown San Diego. Since he left the symphony in 1971, Rozsnyai has conducted in Europe and was music director until 1982 of the Knoxville (Tenn.) Symphony.

According to Rozsnyai, the motivation for Chinese musicians to come to this country is especially intense, even in China’s post-Cultural Revolution artistic climate. But the reasons for coming here have been initially counterproductive to building a solid orchestra.

“The Chinese have come here under very strong oppression. In addition, they are individualistic people because they are so many. They feel, however, that the moment they step on United States soil, the whole world has to be different.

“Nobody is important but them, and they can do absolutely whatever they want, which is the straight opposite of what the orchestra needs. The orchestra is a very precise, very disciplined collective.”

Then there was the matter of learning Chinese etiquette, when a “yes” means “no.”

“When I saw an orchestra member not playing, I stopped conducting and asked, ‘Chan, do you have your music?’ ‘Yes,’ he replied, but he would not play. Then, two colleagues of his explained that he does not have his music. To say straight no, you see, is impolite. Not to play music when I give the cue is OK, but to admit that he does not have the music is unpolite.”

The caliber of player in the USIU group is surprisingly high, according to orchestra administrator Kathryn Martin. Most of the members have already embarked on their professional careers.

“We have the assistant principal viola from the Chinese Broadcasting Symphony, the principal cellist and principal clarinet from the Beijing Philharmonic, the principal clarinet from the Fujian Symphony, as well as members of the Chinese Central Ballet Orchestra,” Martin said.

Having a classical orchestra on a university campus is hardly atypical, but USIU’s program has several unique characteristics. The program is much more intensive. The orchestra rehearses three hours a day, five days a week, even though the average university orchestra may meet but once a week.

Like a graduate program, all of the musicians hold either university or conservatory degrees, and their only classroom studies are English as a Second Language. The school houses them and provides meals. For some foreign students, American sponsors are responsible for paying for other personal needs.

According to Rozsnyai, musicians of each nationality react differently to the program’s opportunity.

“When I talk to a West German or Israeli musician, they ask me, ‘How much money?’ We provide scholarship, room and board, but they want a stipend, also. The French musician says, ‘Well, maybe.’ The Hungarian says, ‘Get me out! I’m coming!’ ”