MUSIC : Martinson Brothers Share the Spotlight at Seal Beach Fest

At the Martinson house in Santa Monica, brothers Haldan, 19, and Anders, 16, generally practice the violin and piano in separate rooms. Recently, though, they’ve been practicing together for a joint appearance Thursday, July 19, sponsored at the Seal Beach Chamber Music Festival by the Long Beach branch of the California Music Teachers Assn.

Their dad, a biochemist at UCLA, and mother, an administrator at Kaiser PermanenteHospital in West L.A., “stuck a violin in my hands first, since I was the older one,” recalls Haldan. Anders was encouraged to take up piano “because it was not the best idea for siblings to be playing the same instrument.”

“They didn’t expect us to get into it,” Anders adds. “But we were doing well, so we continued. They didn’t plan for us to be like this” --practicing up to six hours a day.

Haldan graduated from high school last year, took time off to work intensively on his violin studies and will enroll at Yale in September. He’s not sure if he wants to be a professional musician. “I’m going there to get a music and a liberal arts education,” he says. “Definitely music will be a big part of it, but I’m interested in taking other classes.” Anders also is undecided whether to make music his career--even though he won the prestigious Los Angeles Philharmonic Bronsilaw Kaper Award in 1989.

In Seal Beach, Haldan will play the first movement of Beethoven’s Violin Concerto and Pablo Sarasate’s flamboyant showpiece “Ziguenerweisen” while Anders provides accompaniment. Anders will play works by Haydn, Listz and Chopin.

“The Haydn sonata is difficult,” he says. “I was surprised. Sometimes it seems simple, but it’s hard to play. There are not many notes, but each note is important. It’s hard to get the real classical style.”

When they’re not rehearsing, the brothers like to swim, play basketball and take care of a large menagerie of birds they raise and tame. “We get them when they’re babies,” says Haldan, “and hand-feed them. They become perfectly tame. I let them sit on my music stand.”

Who: Violinist Haldan Martinson and pianist Anders Martinson at the 16th Annual Seal Beach Chamber Music Festival.

When: Thursday, July 19, 8 p.m.

Where: McGaugh School Auditorium, 1698 Seal Beach Boulevard, Seal Beach.

Whereabouts: 405 freeway to Seal Beach Boulevard exit, south to Bolsa Avenue. School is at the corner.

Wherewithal: Admission is free.

Where To Call: (213) 596-4749.

MORE MUSIC:

Toshiyuki Shimada will lead the Pacific Symphony in an all-Beethoven program Saturday, July 21 at 8 p.m. at Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre, 8800 Irvine Center Drive in Irvine. The “Leonore” Overture No. 3 will be played along with the “Pastorale” Symphony and the First Piano Concerto, with German pianist Andreas Bach as soloist. (714) 740-2000.