Quantity and Quality

California Institute of the Arts is a haven for music, dance and art festivals, especially in the spring, when activity increases on the Valencia campus. This week brings six concerts in the “Musical Explorations 2001” series, which is actually spread over the academic year.

But a festival by any other name is still as sweet. What else can you call a clutch of six concerts liberally covering musical traditions from Bali, Java, North India and West Africa?

The “Musical Explorations” convergence of concerts came about because the music department shares the Walt Disney Modular Theater with other departments, said music director David Rosenboom.

“We only get in there for about two weeks out of the year,” he said. “So the things that require the big stage, we still have to concentrate at that location right now. Those tend to be the world music ensembles because they involve dance, and gamelans [traditional Indonesian orchestra] take up a lot of space.”

Rosenboom will appear as pianist along with pianist Vicki Ray for Saturday’s “A Night in Bali.” The concert will blend traditional Balinese gamelan music with adaptations of gamelan by Western composers Colin McPhee and Bill Alves, as well as a piece for gamelan and piano by gamelan’s music director Nyoman Wenten.

“Calharmonia,” Sunday night’s performance by the CalArts Chamber Orchestra, includes a scaled-down excerpt of a longer orchestral work by Rosenboom, as well as music from other CalArts faculty. That includes James Tenney’s transcriptions of the infamous player piano studies by Conlon Nancarrow and newcomer Michael Pisaro’s “clouds.” Benjamin Britten and Beethoven also will be in the mix.

The ensemble is made up mostly of students, with a few faculty members in the ranks.

The week’s musical menu at CalArts reflects the artistic agenda of the music department. Except for the lack of a jazz element, the nightly concerts represent the diverse musical genres taught at the campus.

“The agenda of what we do in-house and what we do publicly are very intimately connected,” Rosenboom said. “I like to think of us as an institute, which is a crucible or an incubator for new work, ideas and interesting juxtapositions and explorations.”

BE THERE

“Musical Explorations 2001,” today-Sunday and Tuesday-Thursday at 8 p.m. in the Walt Disney Modular Theater, California Institute of the Arts, 24700 McBean Parkway, Valencia. $7-$2. Call (661) 255-1050.