CLASSICAL MUSIC / KENNETH HERMAN : Young Musicians Stage Show of Unity in El Cajon

Devotion to such leisure-time pursuits as skateboarding and video games may characterize much of the younger generation, but a cadre of stellar exceptions gathered on the stage of the East County Performing Arts Center in El Cajon on Sunday afternoon. About 200 local youngsters, aged 4 to 16, performed in the second annual five-piano concert sponsored by the San Diego branch of the Suzuki Music Assn. of California.

Unison playing by multiple keyboards is an unusual feat, although there are concertos for multiple keyboards in which each soloist has an independent part. But this ensemble approach to learning is congruent with the Suzuki method. The now-celebrated method, first devised to teach the violin to groups starting from the age of 3, has been adapted to other instruments. Sunday’s concert in East County featured not only pianists but violinists, cellists and flutists.

“This type of group performance has been done in Japan,” explained symphony cellist Glen Campbell, “but the first time it was done in the U.S.A. was here last year.” Haruko Kataoka of Matsumoto, Japan, co-founder of the Suzuki piano method, returned to be the concert’s guest of honor for the second year.

The concert at the East County Performing Arts Center gets its name from the five Steinways that ring the edge of the stage. Of the piano repertory performed, from the beginners’ “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” to Bela Bartok’s Six Romanian Dances, the final movement of Haydn’s D Major Piano Concerto was the piece de resistance .

These more accomplished players performed under the direction of Ethan Dulsky, who conducted the accompanying 18-member chamber orchestra made up of San Diego Symphony members, Suzuki teachers and advanced Suzuki students. Most of the symphony players, such as the chamber group’s concertmaster, Karen Moe Dirks, had children of their own in the concert.

Although the size of the stage limited the number of piano students who could play at one time, 17 violinists lined up in two rows to play Vivaldi’s A Minor Concerto. The youngest violinists, the 4-year-olds, played one-eighth-size violins, the only scale violin these diminutive performers could hold.

When the Suzuki method was introduced in this country, it was not well-received among professional musicians, especially members of symphony orchestras. The method’s overall conformity and its unvarying, lock-step progression of learning pieces was highly suspect to American players, who were accustomed to the traditional, individualized approach of studio pedagogy. Much of that original reluctance, however, has changed to admiration.

“There was some trepidation at first, but when you see the fine solo performers who have started their studies with the Suzuki method--it works,” Campbell said. “What more could you ask for than a Frank Almond or the symphony’s first-chair cellist, Eric Kim?”

Villain to the rescue. At last Thursday evening’s dress rehearsal of San Diego Opera’s “Fidelio,” which played to 1,500 students at Civic Theatre, stage director Robert Tannenbaum gave an unexpected demonstration of his thespian abilities. Baritone Tom Fox was feeling under the weather, so the ailing singer asked for a day’s reprieve from his role of Pizarro, the evil jail keeper who falsely imprisons Fidelio’s husband, Florestan. Since it was not only a student performance, but one at which the customary press photos were taken, it was imperative to have a real Pizarro on stage in proper costume.

With opera chorus master Martin Wright singing Pizarro’s part in the wings, Tannenbaum acted the role in full battle array. Using every stock villain gesture in the book, Tannenbaum hammed it up gloriously, according to witnesses. The students not only ate up his exaggerations, but gave him the ultimate villain’s accolade: a hearty round of boos at his curtain call.

Fox was back on stage Saturday for the opening night of “Fidelio” and, according to San Diego Opera, will be heard in tonight’s 7 p.m. performance at Civic Theatre.

An imperial Requiem. UC San Diego composer Joji Yuasa was commissioned in 1980 by Japan’s Fuji television network to write a Requiem for the aging Emperor Hirohito, who was 79 at the time. By the following year, Yuasa had completed the five-movement, 20-minute work. On one of his frequent visits to Japan, the composer had the Requiem videotaped and put into the archives.

With the demise of Hirohito last month, Yuasa is now waiting to learn when his composition will receive its official performance. Yuasa, who was born in Koriyama, Japan, and made his reputation as a member of the Tokyo experimental ensemble in the 1950s, claims acquaintance once removed with the late emperor. Yuasa’s great uncle used to play chess with Hirohito.

Second chance for “Lucia.” For those opera buffs who missed San Diego Opera’s opening production, Donizetti’s “Lucia di Lammermoor,” or for those who want to hear again tenor Richard Leech’s gorgeous bel canto melodies, the opera will be broadcast at 8 p.m. Feb. 21 on KFSD-FM (94.1). For the first time in the company’s history, the local classical music station will broadcast the entire season of San Diego Opera productions.

KFSD program director Kingsley McLaren will host these opera broadcasts. The New Zealand native with the elegant accent hardly needs any coaching in opera lore. For five years, the lanky bass-baritone sang with Houston Grand Opera, where he appeared in operas such as Bernstein’s “Candide,” Verdi’s “La Forza del Destino” and Lehar’s “The Merry Widow.”