SAN DIEGO HOST : SuperBowl XXII : 88 88s in ’88 : Trying in Earnest to Synchronize 880 Flying Fingers

Lee Galloway isn’t a football player. He isn’t even a football fan. He’s never had any burning desire to go to the Super Bowl. But, come Jan. 31, there he’ll be at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium.

He won’t be watching the game. He’ll be waiting for halftime.

Galloway, a local piano teacher, is one of 88 pianists who will perform at the halftime extravaganza being produced by Radio City Music Hall Productions of New York.

“It’s probably just as well that I’m not a fan,” said the 42-year-old San Diego native. “Being in the show, I can’t really watch the game.”

Caught Up in Mania

Although he’s not interested in football, Galloway has gotten a little caught up in Super Bowl mania.

“The Super Bowl is on everyone’s mind here in San Diego, so it’s something I wanted to be a part of,” Galloway said.

Galloway, who plays popular as well as classical music, is looking forward to sharing the field with the Rockettes and singer Chubby Checker. But he expects his participation in the show will be

criticized by some of his more traditional colleagues.

“To some classical performers, I think any kind of popular performance is a sellout, but I think classical and popular performances are equal in a lot of ways,” Galloway said.

“I think this show has a fun concept,” he said. “What’s neat about it is, I think halftime shows can be kind of predictable--the marching band and so forth--and this is going to give it some pizazz.”

In fact, the show will begin with some classical music--Grieg’s Piano Concerto--before segueing into compositions by Ellington, Gershwin and “The Twist,” all specially arranged for 88 pianos.

Synchronize Fingers

Jeffrey Ernstoff, the show’s piano supervisor, said that the biggest challenge he faces is getting the pianists, who range in age from 18 to 80, to learn to play together.

“If you put together an All-American marching band, they’ve all been in a marching band before,” said Ernstoff. “But when does a pianist get to play with 87 other pianists?

“Answer: Once.” Galloway said this unique opportunity to play in a piano ensemble is the most rewarding part of being in the show.

“It’s a lot of fun working with other pianists on this level,” he said. “Usually a pianist plays with different instrumentalists and there’s just one of you.”

The 88 pianists, most of them from the San Diego area, auditioned and were selected in December. Ernstoff sent them their music at Christmastime so they they could begin practicing individually, and he began rehearsing them in groups of 12 at San Diego State University’s Music Building the first weekend in January.

The whole group will practice together for the first time this weekend at Charger Field.

“The biggest challenge for me is the shortness of time in which to learn it,” Galloway said. “There’s just a week or two and everything has to be mastered and memorized. In general, for shows and recitals I’ve done, I’ve had lots of time.”

Ernstoff said there was psychological as well as musical preparation involved in getting the pianists ready for Super Bowl Sunday.

For a group of musicians used to playing in arenas as small as their living rooms and no bigger than concert halls, walking out onto a football field to the screams of 70,000 fans is bound to be a shock, Ernstoff said. “As far as biggest audience goes, it’s hard to beat this,” Galloway said.

At rehearsals, Ernstoff tries to get the musicians to focus on the mood of each piece of music so they won’t turn develop a marching band sound on the field.

“During the classical section, I tell them they should feel like they’re in Carnegie Hall,” Ernstoff said. “During the boogie-woogie, I ask them to make believe they’re in a smoky club. When the Rockettes come on, I say, ‘Okay, folks, you’re on Broadway.’ ”

As the big day draws near, Ernstoff said he has a lot of paranoid fantasies about things that can go wrong--keys falling off the pianos as workers with tractors move them out on the field; 15 pianists getting caught in a traffic jam on the way to the stadium, leaving him with an asymmetrical 73.

Galloway said he’s only worried about one thing: Rain.

It doesn’t worry Ernstoff.

“If it rains, we play Handel’s Water Music,” he said philosophically.

Production manager John Lucas said that the show would go on, even in bad weather. If it should rain really hard the pianos will be dressed in waterproof covers, but the pianists will be on their own.

Race Before Game

With little more than a week to go before facing the biggest audience of his career, you’d think the possibility of rain would be all that Galloway could think about right now. But he’s also making plans for what he’s going to do the morning of the big game. Although he’s not a football fan, Galloway has a Super Bowl Sunday ritual of his own.

“I always run a 10K on that day,” Galloway said. “It’s called Super Run because it’s always on the day of the Super Bowl. I wouldn’t miss it.”

Galloway said that he was not worried about being worn out by showtime. In fact, he said, running will give him the energy he needs to give a peak performance.