Clarinetist’s Public Valentine to 12 Women

Valentine’s Day is set aside for the woman in one’s life--or in the case of clarinetist William Powell, 12 of the women.

Powell, chairman of the instrumental performance program at CalArts in Valencia, will give a concert Wednesday in which his Valentine’s dozen figure prominently.

Six of the women composed the pieces he and his musicians will perform. The other six are women who have influenced his life, and Powell is dedicating the performances to them.

“It’s my mom and her five sisters, who helped put me through music school and did a lot of wonderful things for me,” said Powell, an accomplished performer who has championed the clarinet for use in both traditional and contemporary music.

“I picked the pieces according to how I perceive them,” he said. “The one for my mother is a premiere. It’s the most romantic work in its instrumentation.”

Called “Quintet,” the piece was written last year by Joelle Wallach, winner of several international competitions for composers. The work is for clarinet and string quartet. Wallach flew in from New York to help with rehearsals. She, and the other five composers, probably will be on hand for Wednesday’s concert, Powell said.

Powell is known for his eclectic repertoire, so it no surprise that the Valentine’s Day selections represent a wide range of music. “Shakti III,” by Beverly Grigsby, uses a clarinet, tabla and a Fairlight III, a computer that plays music. “Shakti” in the Hindu religion is divine light. The piece is dedicated to an aunt of Powell’s who died last year.

Composer Grigsby is a professor at Cal State Northridge, where she founded the Computer Music Studio in 1976.

Listeners unfamiliar with the experiments of modern composition will find something new in “Through the Lullaby,” a piece by Sally Lamb for clarinet and piano. Powell said it “explores meter through gestural displacement and a humorous relationship between consonance and dissonance.”

Portions of “Ningana” have a decided show-biz air, he said. The work, by Jane Brockman, is for clarinet, electronics and tape. The name comes from a Maori word for “resting place.”

Other works on the program are “Nocturne” for solo clarinet, by Deborah Kavasch, and “Harlequin” for clarinet, viola, harp and percussion, by Kathleen St. John.

Powell is a specialist in music by modern women composers. He performed at the International Congresses of Women in Music at USC in 1982, in Paris in 1984 and in Bremen, West Germany, in 1988. He said there are many talented women composers and he wants to be certain their music is heard.

“Generally women have more difficulty getting performances of their work,” he said. “For that reason, they sometimes give up composing.”

Although his Valentine’s Day sentiments are decidedly romantic, Powell has an ulterior motive in his selection of material. He will perform some of the works in New York in March, which is Women’s History Month.

“Valentine’s Day Recital” featuring William Powell; 8 p.m Wednesday, Roy O. Disney Hall; CalArts, 24700 McBean Parkway, Valencia; $5 general, $2 students and senior citizens; for information telephone ( 818 ) 367-5507 or ( 805 ) 253-7832.