Southlanders in Friedheim Semifinals

Two Southern California composers, William Kraft and Robert Linn, are among the 10 semifinalists in the 1990 Kennedy Center Friedheim Awards for New American Music. Ten recent compositions are in competition. Four of them will be chosen to proceed to the final round; these will be announced by the Kennedy Center and the Eric Friedheim Foundation on Friday.

The final round will take place in Washington Oct. 28, when the Orchestra of the Mannes School of Music, conducted by Michael Charry, plays the four chosen works and the judges--critic Tim Page and conductors William Smith and Werner Torkanowsky--determine the winners. Top prize is $5,000; second, $2,500; third and fourth, $1,000 and $500, respectively.

In addition to Kraft and Linn, the composers of the works selected (from a field of 115 pieces) for the semifinal round are Stephen Albert, Robert Beaser, Frederick Bianchi, William Bolcom, Michael Colgrass, Richard Danielpour, Daron Hagen and Ralph Shapey.

Reached in Colorado where he is attending rehearsals and performances of two of his orchestral works by the National Repertory Orchestra, composer Kraft talked about his “Veils and Variations,” for horn and orchestra, which was given its premiere performance two years ago. The performers: the Berkeley (California) Symphony, conductor Kent Nagano and horn player Jeff von der Schmidt, who commissioned the 28-minute work.

“Of course I’m thrilled--and not just for Jeff and Kent and the orchestra--for myself too. Composers spend most of our time closeted away, doing our work. It’s good to get out into the sunlight. And, for a West Coast composer, being recognized on a national forum is valuable, as well.”

Kraft added that his being chosen in the 1990 semifinals marks his third appearance at this competition. In 1986, his Timpani Concerto took second prize on the awards, and in 1987, he was a semifinalist for his string quartet, “Weavings.”

Semifinalist Linn, who celebrated his 65th birthday on Aug. 11, said he has recently retired from the USC faculty and is now “a full-time composer, something I never thought would happen.”

Linn’s Second Piano Concerto, which the composer describes as “conventional in form--three movements and 30 minutes long”--is Linn’s first entry in a competition in many years, he says. It received its premiere performance Feb. 8, when John Perry was the soloist, Daniel Lewis the conductor and the USC Symphony the orchestra.

“I’m delighted to have been chosen among the top 10,” Linn acknowledged, “but it would be even nicer to finish among the winners.”

After the second piano concerto, a third one is a possibility, the composer says, “but at this time I am quite busy writing my third symphony --a labor of love.”

The Kennedy Center Friedheim Awards for New American Music is an annual event devoted to orchestral works and chamber pieces in alternate years. They were established in 1978 by the Center and the Eric Friedheim Foundation to honor the memory of Friedheim’s father, the distinguished pianist, composer and teacher, Arthur Friedheim.

MAGAZINES: Gramophone, the oldest record review and audio publication in the world--it was founded in 1923--crosses the Atlantic next month.

Managing editor Christopher Pollard says: “With more than a third of our circulation outside the United Kingdom and over half of that in the United States, we intend to serve that readership by having more writing by Americans about American subjects. . . . Our expanded focus on the United States is simply a recognition of the roles that Americans are playing in the classical music world today.”

A spokesman for the magazine confirmed that Gramophone will not publish a separate United States edition, but will include in each issue “a United States supplement.”

Circulation of the magazine, according to Pollard, is now 70,000, worldwide.

The London-based magazine was established by Sir Compton Mackenzie (1883-1972), the author of 100 books, who felt he was unable to concentrate in silence and required his secretaries to play the piano to fill the void while he worked. Subsequently, he acquired a player-piano and later a gramophone--in 1922. After a year of dissatisfaction with then-available recordings, Mackenzie launched Gramophone Magazine as “a forum for classical record collectors and an incentive to recording companies” to more successfully meet the demands of the public.

PEOPLE: Violinist Isaac Stern, the object of gala 70th birthday celebrations in San Francisco recently, will return Sept. 26 to the city where he began his career to open the new season of the San Francisco Symphony in Davies Symphony Hall. . . . The Bella Lewitzky Dance Company will open the concert performances of the 1990 Biennale Internationale de la Danse in Lyon, France, Sept. 15. The Biennale is said to be the largest dance festival in the world, attracting a reported 60,000 spectators in its three weeks of dance presentations. In 1990, the biennial event takes the theme, “An American Story: A Century of Dance in the United States.” Previous Biennales have focused on dance of France and Germany. Under the direction of Guy Darmet, the festival takes place in Lyon, St. Etienne and Grenoble. . . . David Hockney will design and Lotfi Mansouri will stage a new production of Puccini’s “Turandot,” to be presented by Chicago Lyric Opera in 1991 and by San Francisco Opera in 1993. “Turandot” will be Hockney’s third production to be shown in San Francisco; previously, he designed productions of “The Rake’s Progress” and “Zauberflote.” Singing the title role in this “Turandot” will be Eva Marton. . . . Shulamit Ran will serve as composer-in-residence at the Chicago Symphony beginning with the 1991-92 season. The Israeli musician, now a member of the faculty at the University of Chicago, was born in Tel Aviv in 1949. She came to the United States at the age of 14 to study at the Mannes School in New York. In her new Chicago post--at which she will serve, informally, during 1990-91--she succeeds John Corigliano, who was composer-in-residence for three seasons. . . . Conductors John Barnett and Allen Robert Gross, both of whom led the Santa Monica Symphony--as candidates for music director of the orchestra--during the 1989-90 season, have been invited to return for 1990-91. Each will conduct two concerts.