CHEMIST COMPOUNDS CAREER WITH PROMOTING LOVE OF MUSIC IN SPARE TIME.

Byline: Jean Russell Vogel Community Columnist

``If Handel or Vivaldi answers, don't hang up,'' Simi Valley's ever-busy Harold Knight cautions people. ``You have the right number, and I'll call back as soon as possible.''

Knight, who seems to have held two jobs during much of his adult life, makes constant use of his answering machine, but prefers to grace its utility with music.

A chemistry major, Knight graduated from La Sierra University in 1948. Since then his ``day job'' has been in spectrography. His other talents and interests led to ``spare time'' musical pursuits ranging from professional to volunteer.

During his teen years, Knight had a brief career as a piano recitalist in his home town of San Diego. While in college, he studied privately with an uncle who was a choir director and with William Lert, who was then conductor of the Pasadena Symphony.

As a second job during his nearly 30-year residence in Los Angeles, Knight was director of a number of choral groups affiliated with two Presbyterian churches in the Beverly Hills area. For shorter periods, he served as choir director for churches in Pasadena, Hollywood and Glendale.

Knight's baritone voice was also put to work during a period when he was ``cantor on call,'' substituting in various Catholic churches as lead singer in Mass when the regular cantor was unavailable.

Between his 1977 move to Simi Valley and breaks between choir directing jobs, Knight began to ``enjoy having free weekends,'' as well as more evening time to play the several pianos in his collection.

However, as a favor to a friend, he accepted a short-term choir directing stint at a nearby Westlake Village church. This led to Knight's association with Community Concerts and later his five-year presidency of the local area unit, expanded in 1995 to East County Community Concert Association.

Geri Gaines, 1986-91 president of the then Simi Valley Community Concert Association, spotted new member Knight as the kind of man with an interest in music that the organization needed. Aware of his musical accomplishments, she recruited him to the booking committee.

In 1991, Knight became president. The January 1994 Northridge Earthquake eliminated the organization's longtime concert venue at Simi Valley High School. As the SVCCA's 20th anniversary approached in 1995, the organization opted to expand its membership as East Ventura County Community Concert Association and schedule performances at the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza.

Knight is pleased to report that 900 subscribers, in contrast to the former 500, are now enjoying what he considers ``the best entertainment bargain around'' in comfortable, reserved theater seating.

The subscriber bargain now includes six concerts, twice the number offered 20 years ago. Use of a larger facility, the Charles B. Probst auditorium, allows for sale of tickets to individual concerts, though not at subscriber prices. For details, Knight refers inquiries to [phone].

Has this time-consuming transition left time for the music-loving president to sit down at his Chickering grand? Not much, but Knight says there is always piano music when one or more of his three daughters visits.

Since he opened Spectrodyne Consultants in Simi Valley about 18 months ago, Knight has almost eliminated his commute time. Soon, maybe he'll get back to restoring his other pianos. Retirement might guarantee it, but that's off in the future.

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Photo

Photo: Harold Knight of Simi Valley helped expand the EastCounty Community Concert Association.

John Lazar/Special to the Daily News