Mel Powell to Open American Composers Series

Wednesday, a program of music by Mel Powell will open the 10th consecutive season of one of the more prestigious series in the nation: the American Composers Series at the Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theater in Washington.

Still, the Pulitzer Prize-winning composer, who has taught at CalArts for two decades, is leery of such programmatic arrangements.

“One-composer programs are problematic, even if the composer is Bach,” Powell says. But, he continues, such programs are possible “if the composer will not resist certain retrospective aspects of putting them together.”

Too many music writers “try to get rid of their early pieces, as if they should be ashamed of them. I like all my children.”

On Halloween night--”the symbolism of the demoniacal is not lost on me,” says the composer--forces from CalArts, plus eight guest artists, will gather for a Powell program surveying works from the period between 1954 and 1989.

One of the recent pieces on this program--”Settings,” to be played by Bryan Pezzone and Trina Dye--was a study for Powell’s “Duplicates: A Concerto for Two Pianos,” which earlier this year took the Pulitzer Prize in music composition, after being introduced at a Los Angeles Philharmonic concert in January.

Also from the 1980s are “Modules: An Intermezzo,” to be performed by the New CalArts Twentieth Century Players; Three Madrigals for flute alone (1989), to be played by Rachel Rudich; and the String Quartet (1982), to be performed by the Colorado String Quartet, which played it at the La Jolla summer festival last year.

“Some people believe that music like mine, abstract music which is not programmatic, has little connection with its own time. I disagree,” says the 67-year old composer.

“For my generation of composers, the world is indeed reflected in our works. There are elements that have darkened our waning years. Four decades ago, we were all buoyant and optimistic--I’m talking about writers of serious American music, music for which there appeared to be a public.

“At that time, we really thought the future was going to be bright and peppery. Then came Vietnam, all those assassinations. . . . By 1982, both we and the world had gone awry. That’s all in the music.”

But today, recuperating successfully after a recent, extended hospital stay, Powell seems to have come out of his dark period. He will travel to Washington for the concert. What has changed?

“I giggle more now than ever before. For a six-week period, I was being fed intravenously. I’ll never forget my first taste after that: It was only a spoonful of ice water, but it tasted like ambrosia.

“After that kind of experience, the world seems changed. Every Toyota looks like a Rembrandt.”

The Kennedy Center American Composers Series, coordinated by Lois Howard, continues Dec. 5 with a 75th birthday celebration for David Diamond. Among the artists appearing on that program will be soprano Ruth Golden and the Benny Kim Quartet.

The 1990-91 series closes March 13 with a program of music by Leon Kirchner, at which the composer will appear as pianist with, among others, the Orion String Quartet.

PREMIERE: The world premiere performances of Robert Starer’s latest work, “Nishmat Adam--The Soul of Man,” will be given Monday and Tuesday nights at Stephen S. Wise Temple in Bel-Air. Singers Gayna Sauler and Nathan Lam are the soloists; composer Starer will narrate, the Stephen S. Wise Symphony Orchestra will be conducted by Michael Isaacson. The new work, written by Starer on a commission from the Stephen S. Wise Temple, contains seven movements, and uses texts from Shakespeare, Itzhak Peretz, Stephen S. Wise and the Bible. In an introduction to the work, the composer says that the title of the new cantata comes from Proverbs: “Ner Adonai Nishmat Adam,” translated, “The Light of God is the Soul of Man.”

Born in Vienna in 1924, Starer attended the Jerusalem Conservatory, 1938-43, before serving in the British air force, then entered the Juilliard School in 1947. He has written three operas and seven ballets, four of them for Martha Graham. Since completing “Nishmat Adam,” Starer says he is writing another vocal work, this one also based on texts from Proverbs, and written for the 92nd Street YMHA in New York City.