CLASSICAL MUSIC / KENNETH HERMAN : Sunday Belongs to the Kids at La Jolla SummerFest ’89

Though the La Jolla Chamber Music Society’s SummerFest ’89 continues to serve a high-protein menu of chamber music to its ample Sherwood Auditorium audiences, the organizers have saved the sole orchestral program for the kids. Sunday at 2 p.m., festival artistic director Heiichiro Ohyama will conduct a 40-piece chamber orchestra in Prokofiev’s classic “Peter and the Wolf” and Rossini’s Introduction and Variations for Clarinet and Orchestra. Gail Eichenthal, host of the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s regular radio broadcasts, will narrate and host the young people’s concert.

“My earliest memories of classical music are those of my father taking me to children’s concerts given by the Los Angeles Philharmonic,” Eichenthal recounted. “I don’t know what I took away from those concerts at age 2 or 3, but I remember looking forward to them because it meant I had a date with my dad. I also remember that in those days Henri Temianka conducted the concerts.”

Some musical influence was undeniably stirred, however. Eichenthal began her piano studies at age 6 and continued them through college. In 1978, she broke new ground when she went to work for the Los Angeles Philharmonic as the first female host of a nationally broadcast radio series of orchestra concerts. She has also accompanied the orchestra on four international tours as its official reporter and has hosted the Philharmonic-sponsored youth concerts conducted by Ohyama.

Eichenthal views a young people’s concert as a chance to educate without appearing to be too educational, and she is not above such theatrical tricks as changing her costume or wearing a disguise.

“In the first part of a concert of this type, I offer some musical explanations, but I try to sneak the music theory in through the back door. Rather than teaching, I hope to stimulate the children to listen to the music.”

In public appearances with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Eichenthal has been given several serious assignments, including delivering the narration to a concert performance of Bartok’s “Bluebeard’s Castle.” But she has also been a soloist in Leopold Mozart’s “Toy” Symphony (along with the likes of L.A. County Supervisor Ed Edelman and former television actress June Lockhart) at a Hollywood Bowl performance, and she executed a critically acclaimed solo on a beer bottle for a Hollywood Bowl “Hoffnung” festival concert.

Recently, Eichenthal has expanded her professional horizons beyond the classical music arena and is reviewing motion pictures for CBS radio’s Los Angeles affiliate, KNX-AM. Although she will continue to host the Philharmonic’s radio broadcasts, she has ensured her long-term connection with the orchestra. In 1988, she married Philharmonic clarinetist David Howard, who, coincidentally, will play the solo in the Rossini “Introduction and Variations” on Sunday’s young people’s concert.

Due to the generous underwriting of the La Jolla young people’s concerts by Peter and Peggy Preuss of Del Mar, tickets for Sunday’s program are a genuine bargain--$3 for children and $5 for adults.

Get the inside story. Although some of the SummerFest ’89 concerts are expected to sell out, among the least noticed of the festival’s offerings are the master classes held at, and co-sponsored by, UC San Diego. This year’s clinicians are cellist Gary Hoffman and pianist Jeffrey Kahane. The two classes (which are held simultaneously at 7 p.m. Thursday in Mandeville Center) are free and open to the public. Each performer will work with four previously auditioned students, offering critical comments and demonstrating approaches and interpretations. These master classes offer a unique opportunity to learn how these world-class performers approach their repertory.

Theme and Variations. The Thomas Luis de Victoria Choir of San Diego, the area’s newest choral ensemble, will make its debut Sunday at a 2 p.m. concert in the Chapel of the Carmelite Monastery in North Park. Kenneth Nielsen will conduct this inaugural program devoted to the motets of Victoria and Palestrina, as well as a “Missa Brevis” by Palestrina. Nielsen, music director of Our Lady of Grace Church in El Cajon, studied conducting with Germany’s noted Bach conductor Helmut Rilling; he is also a composer whose recent work, “Four Saints,” will be premiered by the Oregon Repertory Singers this fall in Portland. . . . San Diego Opera General Director Ian Campbell will take to the airwaves (KFSD-FM) at 5 p.m. Sunday to give local opera fans their last chance to acquire a subscription to the 1989-90 five-opera season. Single tickets will go on sale Sept. 11. The usually shy Campbell will play music from the upcoming season and gently hawk subscriptions. . . . This week’s SummerPops offering is a tribute to the wit and suave compositional style of Cole Porter. Guest conductor Skitch Henderson will take the San Diego Symphony though its paces Wednesday through Saturday evenings at Hospitality Point. . . . West Coast Lyric Opera will present soprano Debra Pearson in a lieder recital Sunday at the Words and Music Gallery in Hillcrest. Pearson, who won the 1987 regional Metropolitan Opera Auditions here, will be accompanied by pianist Chris Allen.