Grammy Week: More Than Just the Awards : Pop music: Recording academy is offering a film festival, benefits and educational programs.

The Grammy Awards ceremony may still be a week away, but a series of supporting “Grammy Week” features--including community and educational activities--kicks off today.

“The Grammy Awards show is the focal point,” said Irving Azoff, chief executive of Giant Records and chairman of the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences’ Host Committee. “But this really is the week to educate the industry and the general public about the work the academy does.”

Among the highlights:

* “Sound and vision: Hollywood Salutes the Grammys,” a five-day film festival produced in association with American Cinematheque. The event kicks off Thursday with a screening at the Directors Guild of America in Hollywood of “El Mariachi,” the 1993 winner of the Sundance Festival Audience Award. Other films, including profiles of this year’s special Grammy recipients Fats Waller, Bill Monroe and W. C. Handy, will be shown at the Laemmle Sunset 5 complex.

“This combination of film and music seemed a natural,” said Liz Heller, an independent producer and consultant who is serving as the executive director of the Los Angeles host committee.

* The 1993 Rhythm & Blues Foundation Pioneer Awards dinner Feb. 25 at the Palace in Hollywood. Honorees include Hadda Brooks, Solomon Burke, Lowell Fulson, Wilson Pickett, Carla Thomas and Martha and the Vandellas, with a lifetime achievement award to James Brown.

* Natalie Cole will perform with an orchestra on Saturday at the Beverly Hilton as part of a dinner and silent auction to benefit MusiCares, the recording academy’s nonprofit program to provide health care to members of the music community.

“Grammy Week” officially starts today with a two-day “Grammy in the Schools” concert program at Hollywood High School. Hosted by actor-comedian Cheech Marin, the concerts will introduce 1,200 elementary schoolchildren from around the city to musical instruments and big band sounds.

On Friday, more than 2,000 high school students will attend a music program at Hollywood High, featuring a celebrity panel discussion about music career opportunities and performances including the Grammy All-American High School Jazz Band, directed by bandleader Branford Marsalis.

Other student activities in “Grammy Week” include a Capitol Records recording studio tour for the Hamilton High School Academy of Music. The program will feature performances by saxophonist Dave Koz and the group Portrait. In addition, some students from Santa Monica High School will be able to participate in an “Executives for a Day” program at Rhino Records. Both events are scheduled for Tuesday.

The activities will also include a Grammy “Billiards Bash” on Sunday at the Hollywood Athletic Club, benefiting MusiCares and Grammy in the Schools, and an auction the same day at the Hard Rock Cafe of music-related items and collectibles, sponsored by radio station KLOS-FM and benefiting MusiCares.