Reading, writing and improvising

Monday was opening day for the Henry Mancini Institute’s seventh annual summer program, and by midmorning the activities were ramping up to full speed.

At UCLA’s Schoenberg Hall, the HMI Orchestra members, freshly organized and feeling each other out musically, were reading through the music for tonight’s opening concert. After lunch, the 84 young musicians, from 64 U.S. cities and nine foreign countries, split into a variety of ensembles, exploring everything from chamber music to improvisation.

In one of the studios, a group of classical string players listened closely as veteran orchestrator, educator and bandleader Ladd McIntosh led them through the process of learning how to improvise. It was clear from the apprehensive looks on many of their faces that most viewed it as a daunting experience.

McIntosh started by gently urging the musicians through a series of minor scales, with a rhythm section providing a sturdy foundation. That accomplished, he kicked off Miles Davis’ “So What,” a tune allowing improvisation using the previously studied scales. Pointing to one player after another, he allocated solo spots.

Some of the players grasped the process quickly, enjoying a newly discovered musical craft. Others took their turns nervously, sometimes stopping as they tried to find their way across the half-step change in the middle of the tune.

“Let’s try that again,” said McIntosh to one violinist. “Pick out the common notes in both of the scales and you can use them to make the transition.”

Nodding, the violinist used the guidance to maneuver her way successfully, smiling happily as she finished her solo.

It was a fascinating display of what the Mancini Institute is all about. Although its free concerts have tended to emphasize the appearances of various guest artists and the compositions of faculty members and film composers, substantive accomplishments take place in the nitty-gritty of the daily sessions. Players with jazz-oriented backgrounds have the opportunity to perform classical chamber and orchestral music. Classically trained artists encounter the mysteries of harmonic and rhythmic improvisation.

The Mancini Institute was founded by the late Jack Elliott, whose goal was a program for young artists that reflected his diverse experience as a genre-crossing composer and musician. Funded independently, determined to deal with Elliott’s desire to answer the question of what it means to be a professional musician, it annually brings more than 80 scholarship students -- with all expenses paid -- to an intensive, four-week stay on the UCLA campus. The current artistic director is Patrick Williams.

During a lunch break, South Pasadena violinist Matt Peebles, who is scheduled to attend the Juilliard School in the fall, expressed apprehension about contact with jazz.

“I don’t know anything about it,” he said. “I’ve never played anything but classical music.”

But like many other students, he values the expansion of musical horizons that the Mancini program provides.

Composer Sherisse Rogers, a Philadelphia native who studies at the Manhattan School of Music, had a different perspective.

“I just want to have the chance to hear some of my music played,” she said.

As an electric bassist writing primarily for jazz groups, Rogers had found opportunities to expand into other stylistic genres, especially string orchestra, extremely limited. But Kelly Connaughton, the institute’s executive director, was quick to point out that Rogers, like the other four composer participants, would indeed receive assignments to write for larger ensembles, and to have those compositions played and recorded for future study.

One of the few repeat attendees, French horn player Christopher Rickert, a North Carolina native and a graduate of Indiana University, enjoys the interaction among players from many different areas.

“I think that’s one of the most important aspects of the program,” he said. “And it’s something that lasts beyond just the four weeks that we’re here.”

Trombonist Jennifer Krupa, a Juilliard graduate from Hemet, agreed. Just back from a European tour with a female jazz ensemble sponsored by the International Assn. of Jazz Educators, she also described the pleasures of playing in the trombone section of a symphony orchestra.

“I love the feeling I get when I play those low bottom notes through the ensemble,” she said.

Which, interestingly, resonates with what the late Henry Mancini once said about what led to his career as a composer and arranger.

“I was playing flute in the town orchestra when I was a kid,” he said. “And when I heard all those sounds around me, I just had to figure out how they were made.”

That’s a quest that was continuing, in numerous directions, in the other rehearsal rooms at Schoenberg on Monday.

In one, jazz pianist and composer Billy Childs was conducting a string, woodwind and rhythm ensemble in one of his chamber pieces, carefully coaching the string quartet through a subtle combination of rhythmic and tonal textures in a phrase behind a piano solo. Neither classical nor jazz, it called for an understanding of each genre.

In another room, veteran woodwind artist Ray Pizzi was leading a woodwind quintet through the fast-fingered passages of his piece “Road Rage.” Here too the players had to juxtapose classical textures with sudden bursts of unison, bop-like licks.

And when clarinetist Harry Ong, a Seattle native with a degree from the University of Michigan, whipped off a highflying top note to end the piece, Pizzi leaned over and gave him a pat on the back.

Looking out at a few listeners, he smiled, nodded his head and said, “Aren’t these kids really something?”

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The HMI Orchestra

Where: Royce Hall, UCLA

When: Today, 8 p.m.

Price: Free

Contact: (310) 845-1903