USING MUSIC TO RECOGNIZE A SHAME OF THE 20TH CENTURY.

Byline: David Mermelstein Correspondent

There is no shortage of music acknowledging man's inhumanity to man. Sometimes the tribute is triumphant, as in Tchaikovsky's ``1812 Overture,'' sometimes anguished, as in Krzysztof Penderecki's ``Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima,'' but the goal is always to produce something lasting, a fitting memorial as durable as a stone monument.

``Manzanar: An American Story'' - a piece for orchestra, chorus and speakers intended to recognize the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II and illuminate the broader meaning of that experience - is the latest piece to join the ranks of the sonic sentinels. Its Los Angeles premiere is scheduled for Thursday night at UCLA's Royce Hall. It has been performed just twice before, at UC Santa Cruz on May 7 and at UC Berkeley on May 10.

The work is a collaboration between composers Jean-Pascal Beintus, David Benoit and Naomi Sekiya and playwright Philip Kan Gotanda, who provided all the texts, but the moving force behind the project is Kent Nagano, music director of the Los Angeles Opera, who will conduct the American Youth Symphony in Thursday's performance.

Not shy about placing ``Manzanar'' in the grand tradition of classical music, Nagano compares the work's structure to certain works by Berlioz, including ``La Damnation de Faust,'' ``Romeo et Juliette'' and the curio ``Lelio.''

``The French word is spectacle, meaning a work involving multifaceted elements and forces. And that's very similar to what 'Manzanar' is.''

The work is now divided into three sections. The first part, with music by Sekiya, who was born in Japan, explores Japanese immigration and settlement in America. The second part, with music by Beintus, who is French, and Benoit, an American, portrays the internment period. And the last part, with music by Sekiya again, draws connections between the past and the world today.

``I felt the three composers would weave a very complicated sound world, which would be interesting to explore,'' says Nagano, who also relished the idea of commingling the work of three disparate composers. ``In a sense, 'Manzanar' is experimental.''

Gotanda says an unconventional approach was essential. ``It was very much Kent's intent that this not be a museum piece, not a piece of history, but a piece for today and tomorrow,'' he says. ``It's a piece that gives us the story but is poetic enough for everyone to feel.''

``Manzanar'' takes its name from a California internment camp that, between March 1942 and November 1945, held more than 11,000 people of Japanese ancestry. The name gained a measure of fame in 1973 when Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston and James D. Houston published ``Farewell to Manzanar,'' her memoirs of life in the camp. In 1976, a TV movie based on the book was broadcast.

The piece began its long gestation in 2000, when Kevin Starr, then California's state librarian and now a USC professor, approached Nagano about creating a musical component to a larger project preserving the memory of Japanese internment.

``I wasn't 100 percent convinced that such a story would be best told by a symphonic tone poem,'' Nagano confesses. ``And I wasn't sure the audience would be broad enough or that people would understand.''

Yet Nagano, whose parents and grandparents were interned during the war, though not at Manzanar, says he felt something needed to be done to reach children like his 6-year-old daughter, as well as subsequent generations. So he took the commission, unaware of the challenges that lay ahead.

In addition to substantial artistic challenges, the project fell victim to the state's ongoing budget crisis. Ultimately, several nonprofit institutions - including Antioch University, Santa Monica College's Madison Project, the Japanese American National Museum, and the Manzanar National Historic Site and Interpretive Center - rescued it by contributing staff and helping to raise funds.

The Royce Hall concert will include other works as well. But a common thread is the idea of human freedom. As conceived by Nagano, the program includes ``The Unanswered Question'' by Charles Ives, ``The Apology of Socrates'' by Plato and music related to the opera ``Fidelio'' by Beethoven.

Nagano says he wants ``Manzanar'' to reach as broad an audience as possible. And though those who lived through the experience are at the top of his list, he is equally interested in the generations to come. ``History is meant to be learned from,'' he says. ``Certainly the issues and lessons to be learned from this dark moment in American history are important to revisit.''

MANZANAR: AN AMERICAN STORY

What: The Los Angeles premiere of a work for orchestra, chorus and speakers including Sen. Daniel K. Inouye, Martin Sheen, Pat Suzuki and Kristi Yamaguchi. Performed by the American Youth Symphony.

Where: Royce Hall, UCLA.

When: 8 p.m. Thursday.

Tickets: $20 to $58. [phone] or www.uclalive.org.

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Photo:

(color) Kent Nagano on ``Manzanar,'' an orchestral piece exploring Japanese-American internment