A WAY TO STAY COMPOSED : Yamaha’s Junior Original Concert Will Show How Some Students Are Getting a Sound Musical Foundation, Despite Proposition 13

The outlook for arts education in California’s public schools has been dismal since the passage of Prop. 13 in 1978 and is only getting worse in the state’s current economic crisis.

So it is that the Buena Park-based Yamaha Music Corp. of America is taking its role in introducing kids to music more seriously than ever.

The situation in the public schools is “just getting worse and worse,” says Michael Bates, head of the music education division at Yamaha. “We’re doing anything we can to promote the idea that life isn’t just the need to read and compute.”

Through the nonprofit Yamaha Music Foundation, the company helps give instructional and other support to more than 250 independent Yamaha music schools across the country. The foundation’s premier showcase for young composers, the annual Junior Original Concert, will be held Sunday at the Good Time Theatre in Knott’s Berry Farm.

The instrument maker supports the foundation to the tune of about $3.5 million a year, getting about $1 million of that back from the sales of instructional materials. The program is run by music instructors, many of them with experience teaching in public schools, and Bates says the Yamaha company takes a hands-off approach to the foundation.

“This is not in fact some kind of trick deal to get people to buy a piano,” says Bates, although he admits that getting people interested in music at a young age is good for business in the long run.

The Yamaha program teaches children from age 4 onward, with tuition averaging $40 a month for most schools (for a weekly one-hour lesson). The idea for the program was imported from Japan, home of the giant company, where it has been bringing musical instruction to youths since the mid-’50s. Yamaha schools in the United States started in about 1965 and now serve about 18,000 to 21,000 students each month.

Many of the most accomplished students go on to compose their own works, and some of the best of these (primarily from Southern California) are chosen for the annual Junior Original Concert. This Sunday’s concert will spotlight 11 young composers, including several from Orange County.

Composers include: Lillian Ma, 8, Irvine; Joshua Chai, 11, Santa Ana; Yumi Hashimoto, 11, Gardena; Kristy Nomi, 13, Cerritos; Olivia Herman, 16, Irvine; Laurie Kono, 11, Torrance; Marcel Aulia, 12, Indonesia; Mayumi Hattori, 13, Garden Grove; Jun Kurasako, 13, Rosemead; Cheryl Melchor, 16, Cerritos; Linda Martinez, 15, Whittier.

Martinez plays piano in the 9 1/2-minute piece she composed for jazz ensemble. She also performed the piece in a Junior Original Concert in Japan in August. She started with Yamaha at age 4 1/2 and had composed her first piece, entitled “Rain Drops,” by age 6.

While she had performed publicly before, it was at a Junior Original Concert in 1986 that she first played one of her own compositions for an audience.

“The first JOC concert was a turning point, because I did my own composition,” Martinez says. “It felt great. There’s something special about it. . . . It’s just so much more relaxing to play my own music.”

In addition to Martinez, other repeats from last year’s Junior Original Concert at USC include Hashimoto, Herman and Nomi. All will perform new works.

All the composers will be playing piano or electronic keyboards in the concert, some solo and some with ensemble. The styles include classical and jazz. The program will last 70 minutes, plus intermission.

What: Junior Original Concert by young composers.

When: Sunday, Nov. 17, at 2 p.m.

Where: Good Time Theatre, Knott’s Berry Farm, 8039 Beach Blvd., Buena Park.

Whereabouts: Take the Beach Boulevard exit from the San Diego (405) Freeway and go north, or from the Riverside (91) Freeway and go south, to La Palma Avenue. Go west to Western Avenue and park in the west parking lot. Enter park at gate 2.

Wherewithal: $5 for adults, $3 for children.

Where to call: (800) 336-6874.