PERFORMING ARTS: CLASSICAL MUSIC, DANCE, OPERA : Slonimsky Stories Live On

On Christmas Day, 1995, halfway through his 102nd year, Nicolas Slonimsky died. In long obituaries in the days following, the celebrated lexicographer, musicologist and conductor received his due in tributes, anecdotes and remembrances.

Still, to anyone who knew him, these “Nicolas stories,” as Slonimsky’s longtime friend, composer David Raksin, calls them, will continue to circulate. Forget his considerable professional achievements--as raconteur alone, Slonimsky was one of a kind.

Monday night at 7:30, at the UCLA Faculty Center, a public memorial for Slonimsky will feature a few personal memories to be recounted by his daughter, Electra Yourke; by Raksin, who will act as emcee; and by Ernest Fleischmann, managing director of the L.A. Philharmonic.

Slonimsky once wrote program notes (in the 1960s) for the Philharmonic in his informative, highly idiosyncratic, literate and sometimes hilarious prose style--the same style still, perhaps forever, cherished in his writing of Baker’s Biographical Dictionary of Musicians.

“In the sense of a Quaker meeting,” Raksin promises, “we will encourage other people to stand up and talk about Nicolas.”

Raksin, whom Yourke calls her father’s best friend, says there will be no music, but Yourke promises that portions of a 100th-birthday film made about Slonimsky will be shown, as well as a brief clip from the collection of the late violist Philip Kahgan, who took home movies of many conductors over a period of decades.

Stephen Fry, head of the UCLA music library, has put together an exhibit of Nicolas Slonimsky memorabilia that will be on display Monday in the Schoenberg Hall foyer, across the street from the faculty center. Fry says that the exhibit will remain on view even after the memorial.

Then, on Tuesday night, the touring St. Petersburg Philharmonic, conducted by Yuri Temirkanov, will play Sergei Slonimsky’s “Visions” as a memorial to Nicholas Slonimsky, at its second Dorothy Chandler Pavilion performance.

Sergei Slonimsky, 64, a prolific composer who has lived in St. Petersburg all his life, is the son of Nicholas’ late brother, Michael. Sergei was reunited with his uncle in St. Petersburg on the occasion of Nicolas’ 98th birthday in 1992.

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ALHAMBRA ALUM: Pianist-conductor Grant Gershon, a native of Los Angeles, had to go to Austria to get discovered by L.A. Philharmonic Music Director Esa-Pekka Salonen. The two met when Gershon played rehearsals for the Salzburg Festival production of Messiaen’s “St. Francois d’Assise” in the summer of 1994. Impressed by the young musician’s skills, Salonen appointed Gershon assistant conductor of the Philharmonic in September of that year.

Since then, Gershon has been busy--being constantly prepared to conduct any program on short notice, conducting a few special events, playing the piano in Philharmonic-sponsored recitals--but not highly visible.

He will not be easy to miss, however, when he leads the full orchestra in a Neighborhood Concert at Alhambra High School on Feb. 11.

Alhambra High happens to be Gershon’s own alma mater, the school from which he was graduated in 1977. “Physically, the campus hasn’t changed, “Gershon says, “but the atmosphere is different with all the cutbacks, and the music department is really struggling to keep up. My feelings, when I have gone back, are mixed, and a little bittersweet.”

To help fill the gap, Gershon will conduct a three-part, intermissionless program consisting of Weber’s “Euryanthe” Overture, Bach’s Concerto for Two Violins (with soloists Bing Wang and Tina Qu) and Hindemith’s Symphonic Metamorphosis on Themes of Carl Maria von Weber.

Actually, the Feb. 11 event will mark the fourth consecutive day Gershon will have led the orchestra in what are called run-outs--meaning concerts away from the Music Center.

He leads half the orchestra in On-Campus Concerts at Virgil Middle School in Silver Lake, Feb. 8 and 9. Another young conductor, Michael Christie, takes the other half to Lynwood High School those same days. Then, Feb. 10, Gershon leads a Neighborhood Concert in Cerritos, while Christie conducts his players at Compton College.

Gershon used to be a stalwart of L.A. Music Center Opera, where he served as chief rehearsal pianist and sometimes pit keyboardist. He says that he likes the excitement in his new job of learning a new program every week and being responsible for possibly conducting it. That happened once last season, when he replaced the indisposed Lawrence Foster for an entire weekend in mid-March 1995.

Scheduled to conduct his very own subscription concerts in April, Gershon will also lead Symphonies for Youth events in May.