CLASSICAL MUSIC : Grossmont Choir to Join the Soviet-Bound Swarm

San Diego County’s obsession with the Soviet Union shows no sign of abating. At the end of this month, an elite choir from La Mesa’s Grossmont High School will spend a week performing at high schools in Leningrad and Tallinn. Music instructor Ed Basilio, who directs the 17-voice Grossmont Choir Ensemble, put the trip together after San Diego Mayor Maureen O’Connor made her arts expedition to the Soviet Union last summer.

“We received a letter of endorsement from her,” Basilio explained, “and then contacted high schools in the Soviet Union through their Intourist service. Our students will be staying in homes of Soviet students while they are there, which is one of the aspects they are really looking forward to.”

This is not the first time the Grossmont Choir Ensemble has embarked on an ambitious tour. Last year Basilio took his charges to a choral festival in Orlando, Fla., and five years ago they sang at another festival in Vienna.

“We have a 63-year musical tradition here, and we’ve always had a high standard of performance,” said Basilio, who has been at the school for only three years. He explained that his select group, which is an honors course, is populated primarily by juniors and seniors who have progressed through Grossmont’s other choral organizations.

“Most of these students have come up through the feeder choirs in the area junior high schools. They all read music, which is necessary since we perform music at college level difficulty,” he added.

Although six adults will act as chaperones on the Soviet trip, Basilio will accompany his group on the piano, saving the expense of an accompanist. The musical program he has chosen to take to the Soviet Union includes the Faure Requiem, a group of American songs by Aaron Copland, settings of Negro spirituals, and a choreographed excerpt from Andrew Lloyd Webber’s current stage hit “Phantom of the Opera.” Basilio will lead a program of sacred music taken from the tour repertory at St. Martin’s Catholic Church, La Mesa, on May 22 at 7:30 p.m.

Grossmont High School’s elaborate music program contrasts with the meager offerings of many San Diego high schools.

“It’s shocking that the program has survived, but having a solid musical tradition here has helped. Most schools were wiped out musically after the passage of Proposition 13,” Basilio said.

“The Mark of Zorro.” One of the San Diego Symphony’s more successful innovations has been its Nickelodeon Series, which has presented classic silent films accompanied by theater organist Dennis James and members of the orchestra. The popularity of this Symphony Hall series has made tickets extremely scarce for the May 13 showing of Douglas Fairbanks’ “The Black Pirate,” which is this season’s final Nickelodeon offering.

Tickets should be no problem, however, for James’ accompaniment of another Fairbanks classic, “The Mark of Zorro,” which he will play July 24 at the outdoor Spreckels Organ pavilion in Balboa Park. This performance will be sponsored by the recently formed Spreckels Organ Society as part of its Monday evening summer concert series on the park’s unique outdoor pipe organ. The globe-trotting James, now plying his off-beat trade in France, spent the winter months performing in Australia and New Zealand.

The Return of Gustavo. San Diego Chamber Orchestra’s recently announced 1989-90 Sherwood Series turns out to be a 21-gun salute to San Diego talent. Not surprisingly, Chula Vista’s most famous native son, pianist Gustavo Romero, will make his annual appearance with maestro Donald Barra’s chamber orchestra March 12, 1990. Another Romero of note, although not related to Gustavo, classical guitarist Angel Romero will be the featured soloist on the orchestra’s April 23, 1990, concert. Igor Gruppman, the violinist with a virtual monopoly on local concertmaster posts, will appear with his wife, Vesna Gruppman, on the Feb. 19, 1990, program.

Although the remaining soloists have no local connections, the list is impressive. Pianist Cecile Licad, who performed last year at Symphony Hall with the visiting Scottish Chamber Orchestra, will open the new season Nov. 20. Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra’s principal oboe, Allen Vogel, who soloed with the San Diego Symphony last weekend, will grace the Jan. 29, 1990, concert under guest conductor JoAnn Falletta. Barra will be on the podium for the other four subscription concerts.

The Return of Pinkerton. San Diego Opera general director Ian Campbell was not exactly going out on a limb when he added another performance of Puccini’s ever-popular “Madama Butterfly,” this season’s final opera offering. Sure enough, when all the seats were counted, the figures showed that San Diegans filled Civic Theatre all five nights. Five Civic Theatre performances can accommodate about 14,510 people, and, according to the opera office, a total of 14,500 saw Puccini’s favorite heroine sacrifice herself because of her fateful marriage to a caddish American Naval officer.

The real test, however, will be whether or not Campbell and his crew can work the same magic with all five performances of next fall’s “Boris Godunov,” which will open the San Diego Arts Festival. From the ticket-buying public’s point of view, Mussorgsky’s grand historical pageant is a far cry from Puccini’s four-hankie melodrama.