World Series

The hills of San Juan Capistrano are alive with the sound of music.

On Wednesday, the Doo Wah Riders rumble through a set of country rock at the free San Juan Summer Nites concert festival at Historic Town Center Park. On Saturday, Carreo Aereo will present Argentine folk music for the San Juan Capistrano Multicultural Arts Series at the San Juan Capistrano Regional Library. In September, Kitka, a female vocal ensemble from the Balkans, will perform for the Multicultural Arts Society at the South Coast Assembly in San Juan Capistrano.

And there’s more to come. The Multicultural Arts Society, also based in San Juan, is planning to begin an unplugged world music series in a yet-to-be-announced downtown location.

That’s four concert series and a lot of music, much of it world music.

It all started in 1989 with the creation of the Multicultural Arts Series, a world music concert series founded by former San Juan Capistrano librarian Jose Aponte. Under Aponte, the series focused primarily on Latin and African-based music. And the program grew, in number of concerts per year and in popularity until the Orange County bankruptcy of 1994 threatened to end it.

The library, which had been funding the series, had to withdraw its financial support to focus on basic library services. Aponte tried to continue the series but eventually left to become director of the West Palm Beach Library in Florida.

But the music wouldn’t die. A committee, headed by Sundarajan Mutialu, attempted to continue the concerts under the nonprofit umbrella of the Friends of the San Juan Capistrano Library.

The program slowly continued for about three years, but problems with fund-raising and an inability to pursue all the projects that Mutialu envisioned inspired him to branch off and create the Multicultural Arts Society.

The Friends of the Library, Mutialu says, being a support organization for the library, was reluctant to create new cultural arts programs at other locations in the city.

So, in conjunction with the city and the Chamber of Commerce, the Mulitcultural Arts Society helped launch the San Juan Summer Nites at Marco Forster Middle School. Now in its second year, the free concert series has moved to the Historic Town Center Park and includes a business fair, a food court and a kids play area.

Although initially a world music series, this year has seen a departure from Latin and African-based folk and jazz, featuring more traditional American music such as rock and country. Not that that has hurt the summer series. According to the city, about 1,500 people showed up for the first concert in June this year.

But that still isn’t enough, according to Mutialu. In addition to the Summer Nites, the Multicultural Arts Society has been producing a world music series at the South Coast Assembly.

And while the attendance hasn’t been great at the South Coast series, the society has been able to provide educational outreach to the community. Over the past year the group has produced events at Marco Forster, a fund-raiser for the San Juan Capistrano Boys and Girls Club called Vintage 98, and laid the groundwork for a training program for teens interested in sound and lighting design.

“We never wanted to leave the library,” Mutialu says. “What we did was the right thing to do at the time we did it.”

The Multicultural Arts Series continues at the San Juan Capistrano Regional Library. After Mutialu’s departure, Bob Slater became its program director.

Slater began as a sound technician for the series when Aponte started the program. He also served on the committee that ran the program under Mutialu but did not want to see the program become anything other than what it was, a concert series. Now as sole program director, Slater has committed himself to embracing the initial spirit of the series.

“The original mission was to provide good quality entertainment for families and to build cultural bridges in the community,” Slater said. “It’s less of an event like San Juan Summer Nites. It’s a concert and the focus is on the music.”

And that focus is apparently working. At a recent concert at the library, audience members stopped on their way out to tell Slater how much they are enjoying the series.

“You’ve got some real winners this year,” said Arthur Manoogian of San Clemente. “I haven’t heard [Dan Hicks] in 25 years.”

The jazzy, folksy guitar of Hicks drew more than 400 to the library last weekend. And the previous concert, a Taiko drumming ensemble led by Kenny Endo, brought in more than 500 patrons.

Ross and Beverly Tone of San Juan Capistrano have been coming to the library concert series for about eight years now. “It’s always a surprise,” Beverly says. “Usually it’s world music here, but Dan Hicks was kind of a treat because he’s a slice of Americana.”

“I dragged him here initially,” she says, indicating Ross.

“I’d read a flyer, see the listing and think uh? . . .” Ross says. “If you have a preconceived idea, leave it at home.”

“Come with open ears,” Beverly continues. “You’ll never be disappointed.

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* For information about San Juan Summer Nites call (949) 493-4700; Multicultural Arts Series at the San Juan Capistrano Regional Library, (949) 248-7469; Multicultural Arts Society’s South Coast Assembly Series, (949) 496-9627.