Students of New Age Learn the Score on Synthesizers : Electronics: Program’s participants get a lesson in modern music-making, lend their hands to artistic creation.

Once upon a time, schoolchildren were trundled off to hear the local symphony perform “Peter and the Wolf,” or to look at paintings on the walls of the nearest art museum.

But this is the electronic age, a reality reflected in a current program offered by the Newport Harbor Art Museum and the Orange County Philharmonic Society. More than 1,000 county students will take part in the program, which continues this week.

There were no paintings in store last Tuesday at Newport Harbor for students from Fountain Valley High School, who instead saw the familiar TV in an unfamiliar setting as part of “American Landscape Video: The Electronic Grove,” an exhibit of work by six video artists.

After the tour, students convened in a back room of the museum for a quick lesson on synthesizers. Christy Coobatis, a composer and arranger from Laguna Beach who teaches electronic music courses through UC Irvine Extension, took his audience through a simplified step-by-step demonstration of how synthesizers are used to create musical scores for television and movies.

Coobatis asked students to contribute ideas as he created an impromptu musical score for an episode of the syndicated series “Star Trek: The Next Generation.” Beginning with an eerie background tone, Coobatis and his roomful of assistants chose from more than 200 sounds stored in the synthesizer and, track by track, slowly pieced together an atmospheric opening for the science fiction series.

He then switched to another clip, this time from a low-budget film he scored called “While We Lay Sleeping,” which he described as a cross between Pee-wee Herman and “The Twilight Zone.” The teens in his audience perked up as he electronically recorded a booming drum track for a scene.

The composer said he wanted to give students an idea of the work that goes into producing music for films and television shows, and also records and music videos. “You’ve got to realize what it takes to produce a piece of art,” Coobatis, 35, told his audience. “Regardless of what the art form is, it’s going to take discipline.”

Coobatis (who says he’s a rock ‘n’ roll guitarist at heart) has provided scores for a number of TV series, specials and movies from “Matlock” to “Still the Beaver.” He said he is now working on the music for “a female version of ‘Rambo’ ” to be called “Commando Girls.”

Coobatis, who spends as many as 14 hours a day working in his tiny home studio, said he welcomes the chance to get out and talk to kids. The program continues Tuesday with students from Mission Viejo High School and concludes Thursday with a visit from Foothill High School.