Mark Mcgurty

At 34, Mark McGurty has become that modern rarity: a genuinely independent composer. Not a member of any society or association, not affiliated with any organization or cradled on any campus, McGurty has made a way with his music and a well-practiced musical jack-of-all-tradesmanship. Tonight, McGurty is presenting a concert of his music at the Santa Monica Art Museum. Typically, he has been involved in everything from finding theater lights and an acoustical shell to renting the chairs.

At 34, Mark McGurty has become that modern rarity: a genuinely independent composer. Not a member of any society or association, not affiliated with any organization or cradled on any campus, McGurty has made a way with his music and a well-practiced musical jack-of-all-tradesmanship. Tonight, McGurty is presenting a concert of his music at the Santa Monica Art Museum. Typically, he has been involved in everything from finding theater lights and an acoustical shell to renting the chairs.

Mark McGurty's "Scene Concertante" for flute, harp and strings will not receive its premiere, as announced, by Pacific Symphony Chamber Music players this weekend. "The soloists who are performing did not feel that they had enough time to adequately prepare the work, so we have decided to postpone it to next year's chamber music season," Louis G. Spisto, the orchestra's executive director, said Wednesday. Instead, the program--at the Newport Harbor Art Museum at 7:30 p.m.

Composer Mark McGurty will write a new piece on the spot at a Pacific Symphony family concert to be led by Keith Clark at 11:30 a.m. Saturday at the Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa. McGurty will open the program with a short talk about what a composer does and then, while Clark leads the orchestra in music by Vivaldi, Mozart, Saint-Saens and Stravinsky, McGurty will write the new piece. Clark will conduct McGurty's new work at the end of the concert.

Changes at Long Beach Opera: The promised production of Debussy's "Pelleas et Melisande" by the Long Beach Opera, originally planned for April 28-May 6, has been rescheduled for April 1991. Replacing "Pelleas" will be a triple bill: Pergolesi's "Livietta et Tracollo," Stravinsky's "L'Histoire du Soldat" and the world premiere of Mark McGurty's "The Anatole Cycle." Performances are April 28, May 2 and May 6. Richard Cordova will conduct all three operas.

In response to "Remembering PSO's Early Days" (Feb. 28), a letter written by Mark McGurty, we praise The Times for its coverage of the 10-year tenure of Louis G. Spisto, Pacific Symphony Orchestra vice president and executive director. Lou took a local orchestra on unsteady financial footing and propelled it to artistic growth and accomplishment with the hiring of music director Carl St.Clair, drawing widespread critical acclaim from the media as well as other national orchestras who now look to the PSO as a role model for innovation.

Mark McGurty's "Denizens of the Realm, Faerie," the first work ever commissioned by the Long Beach Symphony, received its premiere Saturday night. Like other works by the orchestra's 35-year-old composer-in-residence, "Denizens" makes few concessions to popular tastes or trendy musical styles.

Mark McGurty, composer-in-residence at the Orange County Pacific Symphony, will be on hand Monday night when the orchestra presents the premiere performance of his "Epiphanies" at South Coast Repertory Theatre. The 17-minute chamber work was commissioned from the 30-year-old composer for this final concert of the orchestra's "Connoisseur Concerts" series at the Costa Mesa facility.

After a 1-year hiatus, the Pacific Symphony will revive its chamber music programs with a four-concert series beginning Feb. 5 at the Muckenthaler Cultural Center in Fullerton. The 3 p.m. program will include Mozart's Oboe Quartet, K. 370; Dvorak's "American" String Quartet, and Nick Ariondo's Arabesque for string quintet and accordion. Ariondo, a Los Angeles-based composer, will be the accordionist. The center is at 1201 W. Malvern Ave. Dates and programs for the remaining concerts: --Feb.

Keith Clark and members of his Orange County Pacific Symphony offered a chamber program Monday night at the South Coast Repertory Theater in Costa Mesa that had the look and taste of a pickles-and-strawberry-jam sandwich. The bread consisted of two staples of the Baroque menu--one of Vivaldi's "Four Seasons" ("Spring") and one of Bach's "Brandenburg" Concertos (No. 2).

A new season under the Green Umbrella--the collaborative new-music series of CalArts and the Los Angeles Philharmonic--began Monday in fine fashion. The program at Japan America Theatre boasted a brace of substantial premieres from young composers, in vivid, articulate performances by the New CalArts Twentieth Century Players.