‘Orchestra’ seat, $200; a cut of the action, priceless

At a symphony concert, there are orchestra seats -- but these are orchestra seats. A cluster of chairs just behind rows of Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra musicians playing brass and strings. Close enough to feel the throb of percussion instruments. Close enough to see the spit fall when the French horn players casually pull the mouthpieces off their instruments to dump excess saliva on the floor.

“It was loud,” Jonathan Bowerman says of his seat between the French horns and the piano -- but with a wide grin on his face. Because for Bowerman and others in this unusual group of concertgoers, these “orchestra seats” are the best seats in the house.

Assembled behind the players during a rehearsal Thursday night at the Colburn School of Performing Arts -- as well as in chairs hugging the wall in front of the players and tucked into every available corner of the crowded rehearsal room -- are participants in Sound Investment, a 3-year-old L.A. Chamber Orchestra program in which donors of $200 or more may participate in the development of a new work by the season’s composer in residence. In exchange for their financial support, these investors are invited to three gatherings over the course of the season to observe the new composition take shape.

Their donations go toward the cost of the commission, which has ranged from $12,000 to $25,000. This season, there are 36 households participating in the program, though only a handful have faithfully attended all the events. Those who have say it’s been well worth the investment of both money and time.

Edith Van Huss of Playa del Rey, also a subscriber and member of the orchestra’s board of directors, has participated in all three years of the program. “It’s like a mutual fund,” says Van Huss, who works for a company that manages mutual funds. She also plays violin with a community music group. “I wanted to make the investment with other people. There are those who can give $1 million to commission a new work, but we’re not in that league.” Adds Van Huss, who attends the gatherings with husband Tom: “I’m not necessarily a fan of new music, but I’m stretching myself.”

Chrys Wu, a 34-year-old paralegal, freelance writer and editor from Venice, thought long and hard before donating her $200 to become a “sound investor.” “Here I can afford to be a patron -- not that I think I’m a Medici now,” she says. She also finds larger, more moneyed institutions such as the Los Angeles Philharmonic more intimidating than the chamber orchestra. “I recently went to a concert at Disney Hall, and every flat surface is sponsored,” she exclaims. “For me, it’s what’s being performed, not the place it’s being performed.”

This season’s composer is 36-year-old Pierre Jalbert, an assistant professor of composition and music theory at Houston’s Rice University who held the title of Young American Composer-in-Residence with the California Symphony from 1999 to 2002.

Last December, participants gathered in a Colburn School auditorium to meet Jalbert in an informal discussion of his composition, then still in progress, with a deadline of March 1. Working title: “Ecstatic Visions,” with movements inspired by Dante’s cantos. “I’m under the gun,” he confessed with a laugh. He picked out some passages of the piece on the piano, leaving the donors to imagine the rest of the orchestra in their heads.

He also passed out copies of pages of his handwritten score, done in a personal shorthand that resembled some ancient hieroglyphic more than music. The first version is always done on blank paper, not music staff paper: “I find those five lines too daunting,” he acknowledged.

Jalbert met the deadline, and on March 4, the investors gathered again to hear a rudimentary version of the work, now titled simply “Chamber Symphony,” performed in the same auditorium with two percussionists, orchestra concertmaster Margaret Batjer on violin and Jalbert filling in for the rest of the ensemble on piano. Thursday’s rehearsal was the first time that both donors and composer got to hear the piece played by the full orchestra. There would be only two more rehearsals before the world premiere as part of the orchestra’s concerts tonight at Glendale’s Alex Theatre and tomorrow at UCLA’s Royce Hall.

At their final meeting after the rehearsal, both composer and donors give high ratings to the Sound Investment experience. Some members of the group ordered copies of the final score -- a marked contrast to Jalbert’s original handwritten pages -- so they could follow along during the rehearsal. Now, they gather around the composer, like fans at a rock concert, to ask him to sign their scores. As one enthusiastic donor observes: “We recognize the baby in the adult.”

“The thing that’s valuable to me is creating new music,” says Wu, who after the rehearsal engages in a lively discussion with percussionist Wade Culbreath about the unusual instruments used for the piece, including an African drum called the djembe. “The repertoire really stagnates. As beautiful as the Tchaikovsky Cello Concerto really is, how many times do you have to listen to it before you say, ‘What else is there’ ?”

Allen Evans, a former performer with the orchestra who now supports the organization through Sound Investment, calls the program “a marvelous idea. It’s really a very modest contribution, but I’m very proud to be part of something like this. I tell my friends I like to be close enough to the musicians to see the sweat popping out of their foreheads during the difficult passages.”

Jalbert, appearing both pleased and relieved by the positive post-rehearsal response, observes that having the donors on hand throughout the process has allowed him a “sneak preview” of what to expect when “Chamber Symphony” makes its debut tonight. “What I’m really trying to do is communicate with an audience, and as a composer, you usually don’t really get that until a piece is played in concert,” he says.

“As a composer, you are always hearing these things in the abstract, hearing them in your head. Even when I was just playing it at the piano -- it’s different playing it at the piano for the crowd, it changes everything,” he adds thoughtfully. “You can always tell when something’s not working: People start fidgeting in their seats, coughing a little bit, not paying attention anymore. It’s a good indication that something’s not quite right.

“There are still a few things I might go back and fiddle with, but when it comes together like this, it’s very satisfying.”

*

Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra

Where: Alex Theatre, 216 N. Brand Ave., Glendale

When: Today, 8 p.m.

Price: $16-$68

Contact: (213) 622-7001, Ext. 215

Also

Where: Royce Hall, UCLA

When: Sunday, 7 p.m.

Price: $16-$68

Contact: (213) 622-7001, Ext. 215