LOCAL MUSICIANS SOUND OFF FOR SHOT AT 'APOLLO'.

Byline: Simone Schramm Community columnist

Two young Oak Park musicians will compete in January at the world-famous Apollo Theater in New York to appear on the televised ``Showtime at the Apollo'' talent show.

Chase Canove, 17, and Bryan Lazar, 11, members of the local blues band Playback, will compete separately in their respective age groups. Bryan plays blues guitar, and Chase's specialty is saxophone and drums.

``I'm obviously looking very much forward to it. ... I'm doing a different kind of song so it will give (judges) the opportunity to hear something different,'' said Chase, who won the Apollo contest in 1998.

``It's an honor to have a son that's going to appear at the world-famous Apollo, where many famous blues players were discovered and went on to successful careers,'' said Robert Canove, Chase's father, another member of Playback.

The boys qualified for the contest by submitting audition tapes and performing at a live audition.

Liviu Marinescu, a music professor at California State University, Northridge, has been awarded $10,000 by the Fromm Music Foundation at Harvard University to compose a new piece to be performed in the next three years.

``I would say that without a doubt this is probably the highlight of my entire career,'' said Marinescu, 32, who joined Northridge's music faculty last fall.

William Toutant, dean of CSUN's College of Arts, Media, and Communication said that for a composer, receiving a Fromm commission is like a journalist receiving a Pulitzer Prize.

Juan Azcuanaga, a cook at an El Pollo Loco in San Fernando, won $300 as one of six finalists in the restaurant chain's 11th annual Perfect Pollo Challenge held earlier this month.

Fourth-graders in Julie Marsh's class at Erwin Street Elementary School in Van Nuys donated $175 in toys to the Los Angeles Fire Department for distribution to 26 needy children in its Spark of Love program.

The money represented the profits from an ambitious class project in which the youngsters created and ran the Hip Hop Popcorn Co.

Pet Orphans Fund in Van Nuys, one of the oldest humane organizations in Los Angeles, honored Jerry Miller of Valley Glen with the Mary Jo Greenberg Volunteer of the Year award.

Twenty-nine other volunteers were saluted. They are:

Amanda Abel, Doug Beckerman, Arlene Cohen, Christina Dodson, Sara Golden, Tom Hubbard, Chris Jersensen, Karen Lee, Debbie Lenier, Suzan Main, April Nakao, Sharon Nelson, Arlene Ober, Maria Pelz, Tiffany Quiroz, Sharon Ramey, Sue Ritchie, Jessica Russell, Pat Ryan, Mort Scharff, Mary Scibello, Leah Skeans, Darlene Schwartz, Gwen Wilson, Brad Witlach, Georgia Wolf, Sylvia Wong, Abby York and Jessi York.