San Diego Spotlight : Spreckels Organ Program Adds Some Pops to Series

In an effort to give the customers what they want, the Spreckels Organ Society has expanded its traditional organ recital format to include four programs with a pops flavor.

Now in its fifth season, the well-received Monday night series will begin a nine-week summer organ festival July 6 and run through Aug. 31 at Balboa Park’s Spreckels Organ Pavilion.

“In response to audience suggestions, we’ve included some programs on the lighter side to broaden the instrument’s appeal to the public,” explained Robert Plimpton, San Diego civic organist and adviser to the society. “Our approach to pops programming follows the Boston Pops model; we’re looking for the really good music in the popular realm. We don’t feel we’re slumming.”

The Spreckels’ pops programming, announced this week, includes Gaylord Carter’s accompanying comic silent movies, an evening of operetta and Broadway show tunes, and a baseball-themed program on the eve of the All-Star baseball game, which will be played in San Diego on July 14.

“I’ll play ‘Take Me Out to the Ballgame,’ of course, and we’ll probably show some film clips of baseball bloopers,” Plimpton said. “We’ll also have some players on hand to sign autographs. With so many people in town for the All-Star game, we thought it would be a great way to get them to hear the Spreckels organ.”

Over the last five years, Plimpton and the Spreckels Organ Society have worked to refurbish the classic instrument (built in 1915 for the Panama-California Exposition), upgrade the concert series and heighten public awareness of the instrument, the world’s largest outdoor pipe organ.

Plimpton will play the series’ opening concert July 6, assisted by two of San Diego’s premier musicians, soprano Virginia Sublett and San Diego Symphony principal trumpeter Calvin Price. The series continues:

* July 13: All-Star Hits with Robert Plimpton and Friends.

* July 20: Recital by Marvin Mills, organist of All Souls Unitarian Church, Washington, and outstanding young American organist at 1992 American Guild of Organists national convention.

* July 27: Theater organist Carter accompanies Laurel and Hardy’s “That’s My Wife” and Harold Lloyd’s “Safety Last.”

* Aug. 3: Recital by Kimberly Marshall, university organist at Stanford University.

* Aug. 10: Recital by Gordon Turk, organist from Ocean Grove, N.J.

* Aug. 17: Pops program by classical and theater organist Tom Hazleton from Hillsboro, Ore.

* August 24: Program of opera, operetta and Broadway hits with singers Pauline Tweed, Fran Bjorneby, Tom Oberjat and Michael Morgan, accompanied by Robert Plimpton.

* August 31: Recital by James Walker, college organist at Los Angeles’ Occidental College.

Bank deposit. In its new role as principal sponsor of the San Diego Symphony’s SummerPops, Bank of America presented a $200,000 grant to the symphony earlier this week. According to BankAmerica Foundation spokesman Jack Houseman, the grant is the largest awarded by the San Francisco-based bank to either an arts or charitable agency in San Diego County.

The sizable grant came at a propitious time for both organizations. The SummerPops had been shopping for a corporate sponsor to replace the insolvent HomeFed Bank, sponsor of the symphony’s outdoor summer series for the last five seasons. (The locally based HomeFed is soon to be seized and sold by the Resolution Trust Corp.)

Bank of America, which became the bank with the greatest number of branches in the county after merging with Security Pacific Bank last month, was eager to assure San Diegans that it would be a good neighbor in Southern California.

Bank of America’s grant to the symphony is particularly generous compared to comparable grants awarded this year in San Francisco and Los Angeles. Houseman said BankAmerica Foundation gave $100,000 each to the San Francisco Symphony and to the Los Angeles Music Center, which supports its five resident performing arts organizations, including the Los Angeles Philharmonic. The mega-bank’s entire 1992 budget for charitable and arts organizations in its 10-state region is $19.5 million.

Though Bank of America has not been a major contributor to San Diego Symphony programming in recent seasons, two years ago it was the major player in the consortium of four banks that forgave the symphony’s $1.8-million debt on Symphony Hall. Security Pacific, however, had sponsored the symphony’s Classical Hits series for the last two seasons, a $50,000 commitment. The symphony is still looking for a sponsor to pick up the popular series, which is led by guest conductor Murry Sidlin. Houseman declined to speculate on the possibility of Bank of America assuming Security Pacific’s role as sponsor of Classical Hits.

pichar

A matter of principal. Sheryl Lynne Renk, San Diego Symphony acting principal clarinet since last June, triumphed over 84 other musicians and won Monday’s audition for the orchestra’s principal clarinet chair. Before coming to San Diego, Renk had performed with the San Francisco Symphony, the Modesto Symphony and the Sacramento Symphony.

David Peck, the previous principal clarinet, left the local orchestra last season to play with the Houston Symphony. This Monday, music director Yoav Talmi and select orchestra members will hold auditions for the principal cello position, which became vacant with the resignation of Xin-Hua Ma in February.

Music education. In this era of chronic budget shortfalls, San Diego music educators annually have to fight for their lives.

And this Saturday, celebrating the victory of another year of music teaching, the best singers of this year’s crop will perform at 7:30 p.m. in Point Loma Nazarene College’s Brown Chapel.

For the free choral concert, guest conductor Ron Gillis will lead the high school honor choir, and youth choir specialist Christine Youngsma will conduct the elementary singers.

CRITIC’S CHOICE

PIANIST-PROFESSOR CELEBRATES 10 YEARS AT PALOMAR

Pianist Peter Gach, a member of the Palomar College music faculty, will celebrate his 10 years at the San Marcos school with a recital of Chopin’s Twelve Etudes, Op. 10, at 2 p.m. Sunday in the college’s performance lab (D-10). Gach, a Chopin expert who has performed extensively in Poland, also will play Chopin’s Polonaise in A Major, Op. 40, and the two Nocturnes Op. 27.