EXPLORING TIES BETWEEN SOUNDS AND LOCATIONS

Exploring the relationships between music and architecture, between sound and place, “Chamber Music in Historic Sites” has developed a faithful and constantly growing audience in the seven years of its existence.

The eighth season of the series, founded by the Da Camera Society of Mount St. Mary’s College, has now been announced, and it is more wide-ranging than ever.

Locations outside the central population centers--Guasti, San Pedro and San Gabriel are three of the townships to be visited this season--as well as undiscovered Central City sites will be utilized as background for the series. Several of those sites are in the historic Adams Boulevard-USC neighborhood; two others are in the Art Deco structure that still houses the original Bullocks-Wilshire department store.

In all, there will be 27 locations, hosting 29 concerts (some repeated on the same day), the events divided into five series. As with every past season, impresario MaryAnn Bonino this year extends the range of musical expression: In addition to standard string quartet and brass quintet repertory and sacred music, the series also include film music, Renaissance literature, gospel music, zydeco music and premiere performances of new works, plus an appearance by a recent crossover ensemble performing composed chants.

A few expected highlights:

On opening night, Sept. 27, in the moderne opulence of the Townleigh Room at Bullocks-Wilshire (1929)--with the merchandise racks removed, of course--the Da Camera Players, joined by composer David Raksin acting as raconteur, will celebrate the golden years of Hollywood and film music.

Oct., 11, in the Cordelia Culbertson house in Pasadena (a Greene & Greene private residence dating from 1911), the Mendelssohn String Quartet will play music by Dvorak, Beethoven and Villa-Lobos.

At the Page Museum at the La Brea Tar Pits, Oct. 25, American pianist Eric Stumacher will give West Coast premieres of recent works by John Steinmetz and John Deak, as well as play work by Bartok, Schoenberg and Prokofiev.

Nov. 22, at the 59-year-old African Methodist Episcopalian (A.M.E.) Church on Adams Boulevard, folk singer Odetta, with the Fire Choir, will perform spirituals and gospel music.

In the Art Deco lobby of the Wiltern Theatre, Jan. 10, 1988, the Chicago Chamber Brass (quintet) will offer an eclectic program.

Midst the books and relics of the Hoose Library (1926) at USC, Jan. 31, the Renaissance ensemble, Sequentia, from Cologne, will perform 12th-Century music from Provencal.

In the mansion of the Guasti Vineyards (near Cucamonga) on Feb. 7, Paul O’Dette and the English ensemble called Parley of Instruments will give a Baroque program.

Feb. 28, at the 6-year-old Cabrillo Marine Museum in San Pedro, the California E.A.R. Unit will explore music by John Cage, George Crumb and others. Guests at this concert will also receive a tour of the museum and a box lunch.

Among the remaining artists to appear this season are guitarist Eliot Fisk, the American String Quartet, Eastman Brass, cantor Alberto Mizrahi, the Cleveland Quartet, the Brodsky Quartet, the Vienna Chamber Trio, Consort of Musicke, soprano Julianne Baird and lutanist Konrad Junghaenel, the Apple Hill Chamber Players, David Hykes’ Harmonic Choir, the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio and the Ciompi String Quartet.

Information: (213) 746-0450, Ext. 2211.

AT THE BOWL: Making its Hollywood Bowl debut this week, the touring Montreal Symphony, led by its music director, Charles Dutoit, plays four programs in five nights. Tuesday, when Dutoit conducts and the soloist is mezzo-soprano Florence Quivar, the agenda is Berlioz: the “Rob Roy” Overture, the dramatic scene, “La Mort de Cleopatre,” and the “Symphonie fantastique.” Wednesday night, the young Japanese violinist with one name, Midori, joins the Swiss conductor and the Canadian ensemble in a program listing Strauss’ “Don Juan,” Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto and Stravinsky’s “Petrushka.” Thursday, Emanuel Ax is the soloist, playing Mozart’s Piano Concerto, K. 503, while Dutoit leads Wagner’s “Fliegende Hollaender” Overture and Bartok’s Concerto for Orchestra.

Jorge Bolet is the pianist for the two weekend “Tchaikovsky Spectacular” concerts. He will, of course, play the Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-flat-minor; were he to play the Piano Concerto No. 2 in G minor, there might be an insurrection at Cahuenga Pass. Dutoit and the Montrealers will follow precedent for the remainder of the program, performing “March Slave,” “Capriccio Italien” and, of course, the “1812” Overture, complete with fireworks.

COMPOSERS: Music by Mel Powell, Morton Subotnick, Victor Herbert, Nicolas Slonimsky and John Adams will be performed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic Institute Orchestra tonight at 7:30 in Royce Hall at UCLA. Of these five American composers, only Herbert will not attend the concert; he died in 1924. . . . Nadia Boulanger, the late French pedagogue, conductor and composer, will be remembered on the centenary of her birth at a monthlong celebration at Oberlin College in Ohio, Sept. 1-Oct 1. . . . The United States premiere of Gioacchino Rossini’s “Bianca e Falliero”--an enormously successful opera at its premiere in 1819 but, within half a century, forgotten--will take place in Florida in December. The production by Greater Miami Opera will be conducted by Willie Anthony Waters, staged by Francesca Zambello and sung by a cast headed by Gianna Rolandi and Kathleen Kuhlmann in the title roles.