Chamber quartet brings classical music to Canoga Park Bowl lounge

IF YOU GO

When you can catch the music

Canoga Park Bowl hosts performances from San Fernando Valley Symphony musicians, ranging from classical to rock, at 8 p.m. Wednesdays at 20122 Vanowen St., Winnetka. The next chamber performance will be May 25. For more information, call 818-347-4807.

A long-haired guitarist at the Canoga Park Bowl lounge drew hoots by declaring his group would launch into some serious "Johnny B."

But instead of cranking out the rock classic "Johnny B. Goode," San Fernando Valley Symphony maestro James Domine's down-beat launched a Baroque classic by Johann Sebastian Bach.

"Johnny Bach, baby!" declared Larry Muradian, the bassist with the orchestra's Symphomaniax chamber quartet, before a soaring performance of "Air on a G String."

The bowling alley at Winnetka Avenue and Vanowen Street, whose Royal Room lounge is said to have hosted country singer Glen Campbell at the start of his career, has turned to classical music to draw a crowd.

For the past couple of years, the venue appears to be the only bowling center in the nation to have fused a sport associated with Homer Simpson with music attuned to loftier airs.

And each Wednesday night, Valley musicians pack the place with fans of classical music, jazz, rock or blues.

"The bowling alley is icing on the cake," said Miriam Altschuler, 83, of West Hills, who had recently attended a Los Angeles Philharmonic concert of a Tchaikovsky piano concerto. "Everyone lets their hair down. I snap my fingers and stomp my feet to whatever they're playing.

"It's different than the

L.A. Phil. It's informal. Relaxed. The players have a good time. And it's close to home."

For Domine - a professor, poet, playwright, author, musician, conductor and composer who 30 years ago founded the San Fernando Valley Symphony at Pierce College - home has been near his native Canoga Park.

It was decades ago that the master of music genres ran a print shop across from the Canoga Park Bowl. Through the local Rotary Club and Winnetka Chamber of Commerce, he befriended owner Gene Giegoldt.

Domine needed space to play classical and other tunes to a vox populi of music listeners. And Giegoldt had the space.

"He developed a phenomenal program. It's extremely successful," said Giegoldt, owner of the 24/7 bowling center that opened in 1958. "Every Wednesday night is a Concert at the Bowl - and not the bowl that you (may) think.

"I've never heard of (chamber music) before in any bowling alley, anywhere."

It could also be a harbinger among the nation's 5,000 bowling alleys, industry officials say.

Once a pastime associated with beer-drinking working stiffs with an extra ball in the paunch, bowling has gone upscale.

A majority of the nation's 69 million bowlers are now women and college graduates, according to the Texas-based Bowling Proprietors Association of America.

And bowling alleys - rebranded into "bowling centers" - are cleaner, brighter and offer the hippest of gourmet fare.

"You can get a high-end martini, eat sushi," said association vice president Bart Burger, an industry veteran of 35 years who specializes in business development. "A few years ago, it would have been a hot dog, pretzel and a beer.

"I have heard of jazz, oldies and big band played in bowling centers. But classical music - that would be a first."

As the sun set last Wednesday, red, white and blue neon blazed above the historic Canoga Park Bowl on a sign highlighted by exploding stars.

Its Village Cafe, renowned for its "family fresh" grub, boasted $15 ribeye steaks.

Its 32 lanes - popular with kids' birthday parties, bowling leagues and a Rolls Royce-driven Will Smith - exploded with the sound of 15-pound balls obliterating 10 pins.

And behind a bank of windows overlooking lanes 18 to 23 is the Royal Room, a dim lounge decorated with a vintage mural of "Camelot."

It was from its sunken pit, flanked by tables, that Glen Campbell performed early in his career, Giegoldt said. It was from its cozy confines that Queen of Soul Aretha Franklin got a royal welcome during a memorable four-hour karaoke session recorded on videotape.

And it was in the lounge shadows that Domine, on acoustic guitar, was joined by Muradian on bass, violinist Ruth Bruegger, cellist Glenn Grab (who toured with Campbell and Bobbie Gentry in 1969) and Jennifer Bliman, who warmed up the crowd playing Broadway hits on her French horn.

For Domine, who leads the chamber group, a symphony jazz band and a rock band called the Screaming Clams - and whose bowling average once was 160 - it's a matter of bringing the world's best music to regular folks.

It was just over a century ago that classical music lost its popular appeal to a stand-offish cultural elite, he said.

"Schubert was a bar pianist," said Domine, 57, with wire-rim specs, straight gray locks that hang past his ears and natty black concert duds, who just performed his own "Made in America Symphony No. 3" last month.

"Now, classical music is disconnected, has become a kind of long-haired, intellectual thing. We're trying to restore it to the popular form of entertainment.

"It fills me full of glee to think of bringing the Beethoven and Kreutzer sonatas to the Canoga Park Bowl ... It's champagne meets beer."

Around the room, wedged between small tables, were about 40 seniors, many who take music appreciation classes from Domine. Some have bowled, some haven't.

Sometime after 8, the chamber group opened with the crisp sound of Vivaldi. Domine plucked his guitar. Grab played pizzicato on cello. Muradian added gravitas on bass. And Bruegger, the violin virtuoso, played the Baroque concerto with fiery schmaltz.

Most listeners were transfixed. But not all.

"What did I think of the tune?" said a man at the bar, his beer cup empty, as he gazed at the overhead TV. "C'mon, I'm watching a basketball game."

Outside the Royal Room, and buffered from the sawing bows, were more than 100 bowlers, yelling over a thousand crashing pins. And many were aware - or simply approving - of the classic magic of the bowling center.

"Who'da thunk?," said Chuck Stewart, 61, of Canoga Park, his eyes glued to the TV. "Nothing raucous. Classic culture."

"I think it's great," said Matthew Villa, 49, of Van Nuys, who'd just slammed a strike for a 208, the best score of his life. "I love classical music.

"I sit and watch it. That's what I love about this place."

Jennifer Aniston Jules Asner Brooke Burns Rachel Perry Marisa Miller