Spotlight Shines on Skillful HMI Orchestra

The 84 young scholarship participants in the 2001 Henry Mancini Institute summer season finally took center stage Saturday night at the Wadsworth Theater in a program aimed at displaying their skillful versatility.

Unlike last weekend’s event, which placed the HMI Orchestra in a largely supportive role, this concert featured the ensemble and its soloists in virtually every piece.

The only exception--and an impressive one, at that--was the appealing alto and soprano saxophone playing of John Dankworth in a guest appearance.

The Dankworth segment, in fact, was the musical highlight of the performance. Opening with a composition of his own, “Belleville Blue,” he added his visceral orchestration of the Ellington/Tizol “Caravan” and a sensitive rendering, featuring his own alto saxophone, of Johnny Mandel’s “The Shadow of Your Smile.”

Dankworth’s writing matched smooth professionalism with a sensitivity to finely nuanced combinations of tone and color. Working with popular songs, he nonetheless offered the institute players the opportunity to experience the subtle pleasures of fine orchestral arranging.

The balance of the concert stretched from original compositions by institute staff conductor Peter Boyer and scholarship composer Gad Zeitune to a commission from veteran jazz artist trombonist Bob Brookmeyer.

A collection of themes from the film music of Elmer Bernstein, conducted by the composer, wrapped up the evening.

The primary value of these works was the range of styles they presented to the players in the HMI Orchestra. Starting with the fanfare qualities of the Boyer piece (“New Beginnings”) and the exploratory elements in Zeitune’s “Overture Dall’Ovest,” the performance continued through the meandering themes of the Brookmeyer work (apparently titled “The McAlister Commission”) and concluded with the flashy film music colors of Bernstein’s selections (climaxing with his memorable western theme for “The Magnificent Seven”).

Despite the value of this stylistic range, however, both the programming and the presentation of both of the institute’s major events thus far has seemed a bit rudderless--a reflection no doubt of the absence of music director Jack Elliott, whose illness has limited his participation in the 2001 season.

The Mancini Institute has the potential to become a vital force in the Los Angeles cultural scene--a force reaching well beyond its relatively limited summer program.

But to do so, it will have to build from a base of creative choices and activities considerably wider than what it is displaying in the current season.