Playing for Dollars

The music building at Cal State Northridge will be filled Sunday with the sounds of Aaron Copland, Franz Liszt, George Gershwin, Dimitri Shostakovich and African drums. The “Afternoon of Mostly Music” is an annual benefit for the CSUN Arts Council Student Achievement Award Educational Fund.

Performers include veteran stage and screen actress Betsy Palmer, who will serve as the host-narrator, and student musicians and faculty members. Concert organizer Ralph Heidsiek, CSUN emeritus professor of music, said this year’s program is unique for the diversity of its music and the age range of its performers.

“Suffice it to say the difference between the oldest and youngest is 61 years,” Heidsiek said.

The eclectic program will begin with the CSUN Honors String Quartet’s performance of an allegro from the Beethoven Quartet No. 4 and the largo from Shostakovich’s Quartet No. 8. Then Liszt’s three Concert Etudes for piano, and soprano and baritone arias and duets from Aaron Copland’s opera “The Tender Land.”

During intermission, a mini-concert will be performed on the music building’s patio by the CSUN African Music Ensemble, featuring compositions from Ghana and Zimbabwe.

The recital hall performances will resume with the CSUN Philharmonic Youth Orchestra Brass Ensemble playing Dukas’ “Fanfare to La Peri,” followed by a piano, viola and percussion ensemble premiere of “Variations on a Gershwin Tune” and “They All Laughed,”’ an original composition by Heidsiek.

For the finale, Palmer will narrate stories set to music, including Oscar Wilde’s “The Selfish Giant.” Palmer is perhaps best known for her long-running participation as a panelist on the game show “I’ve Got a Secret.”

BE THERE

“Afternoon of Mostly Music,” on Sunday at 3 p.m. at the recital hall, CSUN Music Building, 18111 Nordhoff St., Northridge. $35. (818) 677-2488.