Civic Theatre to Resonate to 2,500 Flutes a-Tootling

The revered Zen masters taught the value of meditating on the sound of one hand clapping, but what about the sound of 100 piccolos playing the obbligato to Sousa’s “Stars and Stripes Forever?” Or 50 bass flutes intoning the theme to Henry Mancini’s immortal “Pink Panther?”

The answer to these profound spiritual questions may be revealed on Aug. 18 at San Diego’s Civic Theatre in the opening ceremonies of the National Flute Assn. Convention. According to San Diego Symphony flutist Linda Lukas, some 2,500 flute players will descend on the city for four days of professional workshops and master classes in flute music from around the world.

That more than half of the 4,000-member flute association attends the annual conference is a testimony to the high-powered nature of the event, which includes the world premiere of a flute composition by Phillip Glass--”Arabesque in Memoriam”--and a newly commissioned work by Argentine composer Mario Davidovsky, who will be in attendance.

“All the best players will be there,” Lukas said. “It is really the yearly flute event. It’s also an anniversary kind of thing where people know they can see all of their colleagues. Also, it’s the one time when all of these professionals play for free--it’s all volunteer work.”

The San Diego conference’s focus on music of the Pacific Rim is another reason for the large number of registrations, according to the association’s marketing director Irene Pruzan.

“The program is definitely more international in flavor this year, with a particular emphasis on the Orient,” said Pruzan. Friday night’s Civic Theatre concert will feature flutists and ensembles from Japan, China, Taiwan, and Australia, as well as from Mexico and North America. John Kaizan Neptune, master of the shakuhachi, the traditional wood flute of Japan, will preside over a late evening cabaret on Saturday.

One unusual international duo is Yeshiu, made up of Nigerian drummer Onye Onyemaechi and Chinese-American flutist Suzanne Teng. Their repertory includes ritualistic chanting, hypnotic meditations, and improvisation in various ethnic traditions, according to Pruzan.

Some of the workshop topics have more than a mildly exotic air: “The Flute and Magic,” “How to Protect Yourself from Dangerous Noises,” and “Bulgarian Flute Music.” A panel on women and music will feature Doriot Anthony Dwyer, principal flute with the Boston Symphony.

“Dwyer was the first woman principal player in an American orchestra--she was a symbol for all of us,” Pruzan noted .

A unique ritual of the flute association is a massed performance of J. S. Bach’s “Air in G,” in which all 2,500 attendees pull out their flutes and play together. The entire group will follow the Bach performance with “Harmonies,” a newly commissioned work for massed flutes with video tape by Lynn Wilson.

Violinist Igor Gruppman is still enjoying the euphoria over last week’s announcement of his appointment as concertmaster of the San Diego Symphony.

“It is something I really wanted and worked for,” said the 32-year-old Russian emigre, who served as co-concertmaster with Karen Moe Dirks last season. “The orchestra’s entire 1987-88 season was like a year-long audition for me.”

Although this is his first concertmaster position with a full symphony orchestra, he has been concertmaster with the San Diego Chamber Orchestra since 1983. Gruppman said it was too soon for him to decide whether he would continue his association with the chamber orchestra.

He was not upset that he could be replaced as the symphony’s concertmaster when the board selects a new music director next April.

“Every concertmaster is in the same situation,” Gruppman said. “It is not a tenured position, and any new conductor who comes in may replace the concertmaster from the previous regime. There is a positive thing to it, however. A great conductor can take his concertmaster with him. For instance, (Carlo Mario) Guilini brought Sidney Weiss to the Los Angeles Philharmonic from the Monte Carlo Orchestra when Guilini became music director.”

The responsibilities of his new position have forced him to cut short his travel plans following the close of the summer pops season. In late September, he will play duo violin recitals with his wife Vesna in Austria and Yugoslavia. In order to be ready for the San Diego season opening on Oct. 14, they will shave a few dates off of the itinerary.

While some music researchers study the drumming patterns of wandering African tribes or the songs of aborigines in the Australian Outback, UC San Diego Professor Jann Pasler has chosen a more urban topic for intensive research. Les Apaches was a Parisian secret society of composers, artists and assorted intellectuals that flourished during the first decade of this century. Among its members were Maurice Ravel, Claude Debussy, and the expatriate Igor Stravinsky.

Pasler will take the next 18 months off from her teaching duties to write a book on this little-known musical cadre, a project which will require a pair of lengthy trips to the French capital. She was able to take such a lengthy respite from her academic duties by extending her sabbatical with some $50,000 of research grants. The grants should keep musicologist Pasler well-supplied with croissants during her Parisian sojourn.