Music Center Presents Chandler Awards

The Music Center celebrated its 25th anniversary in grand style Sunday night, with a party that included everything from performances by Zubin Mehta and Midori to a fireworks show.

“Congratulations, Music Center” was on the lips of everyone from Bob Hope to Neil Simon, as the Music Center taped what will become its first nationally broadcast 90-minute television special (scheduled Jan. 14 on PBS). The show will feature the presentation of the first three Dorothy B. Chandler Performing Arts Awards to 17-year-old violinist Midori, choreographer Charles Moulton, and theater director, writer and set, costume and puppet designer Julie Taymor.

The evening included several selections by the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra as well as performances by the Los Angeles Master Chorale (Bach’s Cantata No. 50), Los Angeles Music Center Opera (“Stay the Night” and “The Alabama Song” from Weill’s “The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny”), Center Theatre Group/Mark Taper Forum (“Ritual Rap” from “Stand Up Tragedy”) and Joffrey Ballet (the Russian Dance from “The Nutcracker” and three excerpts from “Parade”). Also included was a performance and slide show of various works by award-winner Taymor, two short offerings by Midori; the “Te Deum” from “Tosca” sung by Justino Diaz; “Where Do You Start,” by Rosemary Clooney, and a performance of “All I Ask of You” by Dale Kristien and Reece Holland of “Phantom of the Opera” (currently at the Ahmanson Theatre).

“We’re all very proud of the entire evening,” said Music Center President Esther Wachtell on Monday morning, referring to the pre-taping reception, the taping of the performance and a gala dinner afterward. “I’m particularly pleased with the television show, because I thought it reflected the Music Center so beautifully. And I’m also very pleased with the awards, because I think they reflect what Los Angeles is all about . . . recognizing young artists.”

While most of the 250 scheduled performers and hosts turned up for Sunday’s performance, a disappointing absence was that of “Phantom of the Opera’s” Michael Crawford, who was scheduled to sing “Music of the Night,” but was said to be under the weather (as was scheduled host Judd Hirsch).

Although 88-year-old Dorothy B. Chandler, founder of the Music Center, was not in attendance, she was represented by her daughter, Mia Chandler Frost, who told of the pride that her mother had in the Music Center’s quarter century of achievements as well as in its future. Mrs. Chandler would be watching the television show in January, Frost said.

“My mother continues to see the Music Center as a challenge to the intelligence, imagination and patience of our children,” Frost said.

During the show, Midori, Taymor and Moulton were presented their awards by their respective “masters”--dubbed such by Music Center resident directors for their lifetime contributions to their fields. The masters were Mehta, “Phantom of the Opera” producer-director Harold Prince and New York City Ballet principal dancer Suzanne Farrell.

In presenting the awards, Farrell called Moulton “a superb athlete who has become one of our country’s most innovative young choreographers.” Prince called Taymor “a director . . . designer and a storyteller extraordinaire who creates, conjures and conceptualizes theater magic.”

But the most tender presentation came from Mehta to Midori (who had said before the performance that “the whole point of the award for me is that Zubin picked me out”). Mehta, beaming with a father’s pride, likened Midori to a young Jascha Heifetz and proclaimed that she would “play into the next century and set standards of violin playing that we don’t know even exist today.” Mehta then carried Midori’s award--a cast bronze sculpture of a woman’s torso by L.A. artist Robert Graham--off the stage for her, saying that while Midori was strong enough to carry her violin, she could not carry the heavy statuette, which a spokeswoman said weighed between 10 and 15 pounds.

Producers Bob Banner and Gary Pudney and director Don Weiner kept the show running quite smoothly through the first half. But at the beginning of the 2-hour-and-15-minute show’s second half, there were technical difficulties in taping the Master Chorale’s performance of the Bach cantata.

The performance under Mehta’s direction was repeated, after which the number was introduced. The arrangement would be reversed on television, the producers explained.