VENTURA COUNTY WEEKEND : MUSIC : SOUNDS : Up-Tempo Career for Local Pianist-Composer : At 38, Miguel del Aguila’s accomplishments include nomination for a Kennedy Center Friedheim Award.

When composer-pianist Miguel del Aguila takes the stage for an evening of his music at Ventura College tonight, the program might well be viewed as a micro-retrospective. It’s true: 38-year-old artists are rarely granted hindsight surveys.

Consider it, then, a condensed version of the saga thus far. It’s a saga that has included musical coups, a steadily ascending career and international recognition, and a recent bureaucratic fracas. Dramatic undercurrents aside, del Aguila said he is basing tonight’s program “on short, very lively pieces, so that kids can come and it won’t challenge their attention span.”

Del Aguila is plunging into music again, after a summer’s detachment spent in the Ozark Mountains of Arkansas. “I needed a vacation with no music,” del Aguila said last week. “I’m glad I did that. I came back refreshed, in need of music again.”

The latest news for the composer is the nomination of his Wind Quintet No. 2 for the prestigious Kennedy Center Friedheim Awards, to be decided Sunday. He heard the news in a roundabout way. “I was away and someone called to tell me about it, after reading about in the Los Angeles Times. I applied to the contest months ago, and then I was away and didn’t think anymore of it.”

At tonight’s concert, del Aguila will perform piano versions of his engaging, friendly and frenzied “Tocatta,” his first work performed by the Ventura County Symphony, and “Conga,” premiered by the county symphony a year ago. He will also play the more recent “Vals Brutal” (Brutal Waltz), inspired by his short-lived, fractious involvement with the Oxnard Fine Arts Commission.

Del Aguila had one meeting earlier this year as a new member of the commission, during which he expressed his dismay with what he perceived as a lack of support for Oxnard artists and alleged mismanagement of funds. Since that initial butting of heads, the commission has yet to reconvene.

Frustrated, del Aguila took his case to the muse. “I was so mad that I sat at the piano and started writing. It’s very sarcastic and it has no theme. It goes on and on, very fast. It’s very amusing and impressive, like a politician’s speech. It has a lot of notes running up and down. It’s a fun piece. It’s also a serious piece. If you don’t know the story, it sounds like a serious piece.”

The centerpiece of tonight’s concert, though, will be the premiere of “Caribbean Bacchanal,” adapted from a section of del Aguila’s grand, as-yet-unstaged opera, “Cuauhtemoc.” This version will be for two pianos, eight hands, with pianists Edward Francis, Newton Friedman and Eric Kinsley joining del Aguila at the keyboards. Ironically, this dizzily festive music comes from the third act, as the protagonist, the last Aztec emperor, is being hanged.

“Contrary to what any normal person would do, this music is hysterically happy. I tried to separate the orchestra from what was going on on stage. On stage, the hero is being hanged and it is very sad. But the orchestra is playing themes from the opera in a very lively, Latin, jazzy way--like a ‘40s band.

“This is different when played solo, but in the opera I wanted to bring out the tragedy not by stressing what’s on stage. Also the orchestra at that point starts to represent our world, the Western world. The fact that the music is very happy, that’s a clear expression that nobody cares.”

Born in Uruguay, trained in Vienna and elsewhere, and a resident of Oxnard for the last few years, del Aguila has become an integral player in the county’s cultural landscape. His works have been performed by various organizations around the area.

This season, the Santa Barbara Symphony will premiere the orchestral version of “Caribbean Bacchanal” Nov. 11 and 12, and the two-piano version will be replayed at Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 12. On Feb. 9 and 10, the New West Symphony will play his “Back in Time,” an orchestral piece expanded from the first movement of his Wind Quintet No. 2.

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His sphere of influence extends far beyond Southern California. The Wind Quintet No. 2, premiered by the Santa Barbara-based Bach Camerata last January, went on to be performed nearly 20 times by various wind quintets over the summer. “That piece really took off,” del Aguila said. “My publisher kept receiving letters from quintets, saying they heard about the piece.”

Three days after the Ventura College concert, del Aguila will be at the Kennedy Center to hear his Wind Quintet No. 2 played by the Bach Camerata, flown in for the performance. The top prize winner of the competition, whose nominees also include Charles Wuorinen, Osvaldo Golijov, Bright Sheng and Ezequiel Vin~ao, will net $5,000.

For del Aguila, who studied piano before settling on life as a composer, sitting down and performing his own music is its own reward. He enjoys taking creative matters into his own hands.

“I am a pianist and I want to play my own music,” he said. “Everything I write for orchestra I always try to write for piano also, so I can play it myself. I enjoy having the direct contact with the audience. Composers, when they just write and write, tend to lose contact. Playing piano brings me back to reality.”

DETAILS

* WHAT: Miguel del Aguila will perform piano versions of his compositions, including the world premiere of “Caribbean Bacchanal,” for two pianos, eight hands.

* WHERE: Ventura College, 4667 Telegraph Road.

* WHEN: 7 p.m. tonight.

* HOW MUCH: Admission is free.

* FYI: 654-6462.

FOR FOTO SLUGGED cav/music/aguila #2