Austin American-Statesman from Austin, Texas • 39

PAGE D7 INSIDE LSLPd '-li rnrvn LrQ lajlmj UJ Li Wednesday, March 301988 Austin American-Statesman nuiimnnii 5 Focal pinch-hitting UT's David Stevens answers opportunity in 'Requiem' performance flit -X if Sip" Lou Diamond Phillips and Edward James Olmos star in Stand and Deliver, which is based on a true story. 0 i it SI 'Deliver' stands as inspiring true story International artists Bengt-Emil Johnson, left, Kerstin Stahl and Lars-Gunnar Bodin will perform a concert of Swedish works for electronic tape and soprano tonight at 8 in Bates Recital Hall. builders. Kong, who last month captured rave reviews in San Antonio, will repeat her highly praised program (Poulenc Couperin, Bach and Soler) in Jessen Auditorium at 8 p.m. Thursday.

Among Kong's credits are fourth place in the 1983 Bach International Piano Competition and Grand Prize in the 1985 International Piano Recording Competition. Another prize has come to Austin soprano Susan Stetson, recently named the Shreveport Opera's Singer of the Year. Along with a cash award of $500, Stetson received an engagement with the company next season. In addition, the Dallas Lyric Opera has just cast Stetson in two Gilbert and Sullivan operettas, Ruddigore and The Mikado. The allergy ailments of the tenor soloist booked for the Berlioz Re-qUiem performance last Saturday night led to an unexpected opportunity for 30-year-old University of Texas student David Stevens.

Stevens, a doctoral candidate in voice performance, was alerted Wednesday there was a chance he'd be called to replace Arturo Sergi, who was suffering from allergies. "On Saturday afternoon I was called again and asked to stand by," Stevens said. "By 5 o'clock, I knew." At 6:30 p.m. 90 minutes before the downbeat Stevens met with guest conductor Robert Shaw to work out the details on his solo, which was to be sung from the first balcony of the Arts Complex Concert Hall. Stevens was familiar with the music: he'd worked on the part once with his teacher, Darlene Wiley, in case there was an audition.

But it wasn't exactly the uppermost thing in his mind. He'd spent all day Monday writing his comprehensive doctoral exams, and on Wednesday his wife Laurie, a master's student in violin, gave birth to their second child, Benjamin. "(The performance) was a really neat experience," Stevens said. "No one really knows how great Robert Shaw is until they perform under him. His demeanor and aura are such that you feel that he really Wants to know who you are.

In the rehearsal he was so nice and let me take the reins. I was concerned my toice (a light, lyric tenor) wouldn't carry in the PAC. But Shaw encouraged me to stay within the falm of possiblities. He said 'I want you to make the people in the audience feel that you have a whole octave beyond your range. I want you to sound like a Bach And that's the sort of voice I have angelic, light, almost neuter.

I knew then I had a friend in him I didn't disappoint him as 'the person that's been brought According to several listeners, Stevens acquitted himself beautifully. I "He certainly covered the part admirably, with great musicality," said his teacher, Wiley. Morris Beachy, director of the University Of Texas choral program and the Justin Choral Union, agreed. Another member of the audience, Bob Duke, described the entire concert as "extremely moving music-making." Wiley added that Stevens' participation made the Berlioz an all-UT event (Sergi was an "outside" professional singer). "It was all a very positive experience.

Everyone performed so well. Shaw proved he really is the master," Wiley said. And Stevens was happy. Shaw hot only praised his performance he invited him to sing in a music festival in France this summer. "At this point," Stevens said, t'having several months to prepare for anything feels like a luxury." i The majority of classical music programming in Austin is ultra-conservative, following a museumlike approach that favors Old Masters over anything new.

While this policy serves cautious audiences jvell, it doesn't do much for listeners who want more than the Reader's Digest 100 Greatest Works Ever Written. Over the next two Weeks, three events are scheduled -that should give the more adventurous among us some of what been missing. I Tonight at 8 in Bates Recital JHall, the UT Electro Acoustic Re- SIDE POCKET -fffmm of the Straight Stick" 10701 N. Lamar 834-242 11a.m.-2a.m.Pany Largest Billiard Room in Austin 39 Tablat 3 Ping Pong Tablet 2 Shuffleboardt 3 Football Now Serving Draft Beer htONITE: i3.00 MINI CHIHUAHUA BUCKETS XYZJy Gavin, 7 AND Water The Dog $2.00 PITCHERS ALL NITE TOMORROW: NAZARETH By Patrick Taggart American-Statesman Staff Don't be too disappointed when you see the words "based on a true story" appear on screen in Stand and Deliver. Long employed by filmmakers to convince viewers that the story they are about to see is "real," this familiar credit is too often a disguise for lousy plotting, poor handling of the drama's emotional content or any of a dozen other failings.

Audiences are beginning to realize that credibility in films is achieved through dramatics, not "true story" claims. In any case, Stand and Deliver is a true-story movie that delivers very well indeed. Based on the work of East Los Angeles math teacher Jaime Escalante, it is an inspiring tale of an educator whose persistence and dedication pay off in the face of enormous odds. In 1982, the real Escalante took a group of unmotivated East Los Angeles high-school students who barely grasped simple arithmetic and inspired them to master calculus. Those of us who never progressed beyond Algebra II know exactly how amazing an achievement this is.

As portrayed by Edward James Olmos, Escalante is equal parts genius, nerd, entertainer and cop. Burned out in his private sector job as a computer expert, Escalante resigns in order to teach computer science to high-school kids. The job pays less and is decidedly more psychologically strenuous. Screenwriters Ramon Menendez and Tom Musca don't explain why Escalante made this peculiar choice; chalk it up to his enigmatic character. Because the school lost its financing to buy computers, Escalante is forced to teach math.

His students, almost without excep- 2915 GuadaltiM Stoli Party with the 474-5314 ANGELA STREHLI BAND Late Show with Mel Brown Band Stoli Drink all $3.00 NIGHTCLUB LIGHTED DANCE FLOOR CP- Pianist Anthony de Mare will perform works by 20th-century composers in the Opera Lab Theatre April 7 at 8 p.m. Classical music Ann McCutchan cital Series features composers Lars-Gunnar Bodin and Bengt-Emil Johnson with mezzo-soprano Kerstin Stahl in a concert of Swedish works for electronic tape and soprano. All three are internationally recognized artists; Bodin is perhaps best known as one of the most influential pioneers of Swedish electronic music. He is currently head of the Electronic Music Foundation in Stockholm, which houses one of the most sophisticated studios in the world. The program includes works of Bodin and Johnson, plus those of four other leading Swedish composers.

Russell Pinkston, head of the UT Electronic Music program, has heard several of Bodin's compositions and described their "long, very beautiful electronic Bounds music that is timbre and texture oriented." "Both Bodin and Johnson have done a lot of work in textsound composition," he added. "This involves the use of recorded speech as abstract material. At times it is possible to understand the spoken word; at other times, word are fragmented to suggest meanings." Pinkston calls Bodin's knowledge of electronic methods "exhaustive," and is certain Bodin, who is fluent in English, will speak from the stage about the new music scene in Sweden. Also noted for his concert talks is pianist Anthony de Mare, a specialist in 20th-century repertoire who will perform in the UT Opera Lab Theatre April 7 at 8 p.m. The winner of the 1982 International Gaudeamus Interpreters Competition (the Netherlands) and the 1983 International Competition of Contemporary Piano Music (France), de Mare, an American, plays music by a variety of 20th-century composers, from Charles Ives to Frank Zappa.

In Austin he'll offer those two, plus music by Henry Cowell, George Antheil, John Cage, Meredith Monk and John Adams. Creative improvisation is the theme of performances by the Dallas-based new music group BL La-certa, which will collaborate this weekend in a production titled Any Given Moment, featuring dancers Ruth Alpert and Dianne Gregg, with visual artist Wiley Akins. Performances are 8 p.m. Friday and 6 and 9 p.m. Saturday in the Dou- WEDNEDAY BUD PARTY TONIGHTI FREE BUD DRAFT 7-9 PM 50e BUD AND BUD LIGHT LONGNECKS ALL NIGHT! Music by The HIGHRIDERS NO COVER! (formerly The Country Palace) 16511 Bratton Lane 255-9622 SATURDAY IMEVOS IIWOJJUOS BUY ONE GET SECOND PLATE MEXICO TJJPICO OUST 8 BLOCKS EAST OF 1-36 STAND AND DELIVER Stars: Edward James Olmos, Lou Diamond Phillips Rating: PG -i Theaters: Barton Creek, Highland Mall, Arbor 3 Critic's rating: it tion, long ago resigned themselves 1 to lives of menial work and no mo- bility.

While Escalante's de facto job is to teach them math, his real a assignment is to re-animate these 3 kids, to persuade them that they can succeed in a system not of their 9 own making. rl It's a terrific variation on the old come-from-behind victory genre usually reserved for sports sub-j jects, like Rocky and Hoosiers. Buta as directed by Menendez, Stand and Deliver is more than a parade of familiar cliches. Yes, we do see the most rebellious, disenfran-; chised student (Angel, played byj Lou Diamond Phillips) succumb to Escalante's hypnotic power. And yes, the piece has villains, but they come in the unlikely form of schol-.

ars from the Educational Testing! Service. But while the possibility for sen-1 timentality is all about, Menendez'' downplays it every time. His trump card, though, is Ulmos, whose eccentric performance convinces us that this is the kind of teacher who could work near-miracles. The rest of the cast forms a large ensemble in which all parts share equally. While Phillips may command attention because of his laudable work last summer as Ritchie Valens in La Bamba, other actors create equally indelible characters.

These include Will Go-tay as Pancho, Ingrid Oliu as Lupe and Patrick Baca as Javier. Taken together, Stand and Deliver is the perfect course in remedial inspiration. Restaurant ft 'Oyster Bar 111 Api onfi roNfiRESS 1 ftVL BLOCKS SOUTH OF THE CAPITOL 477-1244 yr IN FOR NO COVER! gherty Arts Center. Tickets are $5 for students and seniors. Once considered a band of sweat-shirted renegades out of North Texas State University, BL La-certa has matured to become the premiere "downtown" new music ensemble of Dallas, if not of the entire state.

(An "uptown" example is Voices of Change, associated with Southern Methodist University.) The four players excel at on-the-spot composition, using orchestral instruments (cello, trombone, flute, clarinet) and a heap of off-the-wall percussion. Chamber music in chambers: The Austin Chamber Music Center recently announced a new concert series called "Intimate Concerts," described as "chamber music as it is meant to be, in the intimate setting of elegant private homes." For those who despaired when cellist Lynn Harrell and harpsichordist Igor Kipnis were booked in the mammoth Concert Hall at UT, the series will at least provide complementary acoustics for small instrumental forces. The first concert in the series is set for Tuesday evening, April 12 at Reuter House, 806 Rosedale Terrace. The Spanish Colonial Revival home was designed in 1934 under the direction of Louis and Math-ilde Reuter, who envisioned the house as a setting for musical events (Mathilde was a singer). Works by Bach, Boccherini, Haydn and Verdi will be performed by violinists Robert Rudie and Elliott Antokoletz, violist Joan Ka-lisch, cellists Paul Olefsy and Hai Zheng, and pianist Felicity Coltman.

Said Rudie, "Chamber music is the big reward musicians get for learning to play their instruments. And it will be all the more enjoyable to play it in the type of setting it was intended for." A check on ticket sales revealed healthy interest already; the $30 price includes the April 12 concert and another at Bauer House May 10, plus catered receptions for both. For information, call 454-7562. Earlier music: Prize-winning harpsichordist Joanne Kong is coming to Austin to perform on a new instrument built by young Texas harpsichord craftsman Gerald Self, who is considered one of the country's foremost instrument ph Tues, March 29lh-Sun. April 3rd (ji lit i im jones jn fit Jeff Stilson Russell Hebert Ilk.

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