Providing the Young a Glimpse of Tomorrow

It’s almost time for the summer’s annual invasion of talented young musicians, transported to the Southland by the Henry Mancini Institute for a three-week, full-immersion dip into the turbulent waters of the professional music world.

Hailing from 10 countries--Denmark, Switzerland, Hungary, Japan, Austria, Canada, England, the Slovak Republic, Brazil and the United States--the 80 participants in HMI 2000 receive transportation, tuition, room and board.

“In addition,” says the institute’s music director, Jack Elliott, “they will be working all the time, performing in free public concerts, and getting paid for the performances as well.”

Those performances will include six programs at UCLA’s Royce Hall, plus other events around town.

Further sweetening the situation, the students, whose average age is 23, will have the opportunity to attend master classes and seminars, and to perform or interact with such artists as tenor saxophonist David Sanchez, trumpeter Terence Blanchard, bassist Christian McBride, violinist Mark O’Connor, alto saxophonist Bud Shank, trombonist Dave Taylor, guitarist Dori Caymmi, and film composers Bruce Broughton and Jerry Goldsmith.

Sounds like a pretty good deal, and it has been, with the institute’s summer programs--this is the fourth installment--attracting an increasingly higher caliber of young artists in each year.

“The thing that’s really fascinating,” adds Elliott, “is that, although there are a lot of people who would like to come back, we actually have a low level of returning players. And the reason for that is that the previous year’s players often don’t make the cut in the following year’s auditions, because the acceptance bar keeps being raised a bit higher.”

Still, given the fact that the employment opportunities in the music business--for even the most talented players--aren’t exactly proliferating these days, one wonders what the endgame is. Are students, in effect, being prepared, and prepared extremely well, for jobs that either don’t exist or are in short supply?

Elliott, recognizing the dilemma as well as anyone, prefers to take the optimistic road.

“My hopes are to see them all working somewhere,” he says. “And a lot of them are, and that’s really the test. Probably 10 or 15 people out of 80 to 100 a year either stay in Los Angeles or come back, look for some work, and have some luck with it. No, they’re probably not going to be the first to get the available jobs. The pool of available talent is pretty deep in L.A. But you never know. Sometimes they do get the jobs first, and sometimes it’s actually because they are the youngest, the most ambitious, and the most adventurous.”

Elliott sees the role of the institute, in any case, as a provider of musical experiences that are available in few other locations, an opportunity for young players to perform the wide spectrum of material--from jazz to symphonic pops to edgy, contemporary classical music--that today’s musical marketplace encompasses.

“There isn’t anything else around quite like this,” he says. “They’re playing music that just doesn’t exist in this form in many places--maybe on record, but not in other places. And many of them show up unprepared for the shock of playing this range of music. It’s totally unique.

“This year, they’ll be playing pieces like Manny Albam’s ‘Press Any Key to Continue: Dedicated to My First 50 Error Messages,’ Jerry Goldsmith’s music from ‘Chinatown’ and ‘Planet of the Apes,’ Bill Holman’s ‘Of All Things’ and Mark O’Connor’s ‘Fiddle Concerto.’ David Sanchez is performing some selections from his ‘Obsesion’ album arranged for full orchestra, along with music by Borodin, Copland, Debussy and Bernstein. I know some stuff like this is being done elsewhere, but not in this quantity and with this quality.”

The success of the Mancini Institute can perhaps best be judged by how rapidly the budget has grown--from an initial $300,000 to this year’s $1.6 million, virtually all of it devoted to support for the young participants--with much of it coming from the Recording Industry Assn. of America’s Performance Trust Fund.

“It takes a lot of effort from a lot of people to make this all happen,” says Elliott, “but the truth is that we’re all having a ball with it. I can’t think of a better way to spend the summer.”

* The Henry Mancini Institute Summer Concert Series at UCLA’s Royce Hall, July 29, Aug. 4, 5, 18 and 19, 8 p.m.; Aug. 13, 3 p.m. Concerts are free and open to the public, but tickets must be obtained in advance. Information: (310) 845-1900 or https://www.amjazzphil.org.

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Don Heckman can be reached at djh@earthlink.net.