Frederick Moyer--Young & Eclectic

Frederick Moyer is a young pianist who takes the ups and downs of a musical career in stride--a pragmatist.

“Well, my name is not a household word,” Moyer ventured the other day on the telephone from his home in Massachusetts. “But I have been making a living as a musician since I came out of the conservatory. And maybe I’m lucky not to have struck it big too early. Maybe that’s positive.”

On the other hand, Moyer has had enough opportunities to keep him busy. And he has won enough competitions--perhaps the most prestigious being the Concert Artists Guild award--to keep the wolf from the door. Recently turned 30, Moyer plays a recital this week on the Gold Medal series at Ambassador Auditorium, then embarks on his fourth tour of the Orient.

“I’m playing a lot of Rachmaninoff on this tour--both the Third and Second concertos, and the ‘Paganini’ Rhapsody,” the young American noted. “But I’m doing my best not to be labeled a specialist. At this point, I want to be thought of as eclectic, and to continue to enjoy the fruits of the entire repertory--not just a part of it.”

Monday night at 8 in Pasadena, Moyer’s program lists sonatas by Mozart and Schubert, Chopin’s G-minor Ballade, Ravel’s “Valses Nobles et Sentimentales” and Stravinsky’s Three Movements from “Petrushka,” clearly an eclectic mix.

“I’m not really out of touch with living composers, either,” Moyer said. “In the past five years, I’ve been able--with some generous grants--to commission three piano sonatas.” Moyer presented the premiere of one of these commissions, the Sonata No. 4 by American composer George Walker, at his New York recital debut in 1985. In the same year, he was appointed an Affiliate Artist, subsequently participating in the Xerox Pianists Program with a number of American orchestras.

Coming from a family of musicians--his father, William Moyer, was for 14 years a trombonist with the Boston Symphony and, after that, personnel manager of the orchestra--pianist Moyer tends to see his career in the long view.

“For now, it’s enough to keep food on the table. And, if the career takes a lot of time in the building, maybe it will also last a long time.”

IN DANCE THIS WEEK: In a seven-performance, weeklong engagement at Pasadena Civic Auditorium beginning Monday night, Dance Theatre of Harlem makes its eighth local appearance under auspices of the Ambassador International Cultural Foundation. In addition to revivals of Stravinsky’s “Firebird” and the full-length “Giselle,” repertory highlights of this visit include Garth Fagan’s new ballet, “Footprints Dressed in Red” and “Grand Pianola Music,” to John Adams’ score. For programs, see Dance Listings below. . . . Three works by the late Antony Tudor, works mounted by Tudor himself in visits to UC Irvine, will be included in the program by the UCI Dance Ensemble, in performances in Fine Arts Village Theatre, Friday and Saturday on the Irvine campus. Besides Tudor’s “Little Improvisations,” “Fandango” and “Sunflowers,” the program lists works by Israel Gabriel, James Penrod, Antonia Rojas Kabakov and Jean Isaacs. . . . The Gathering of the Clans, called “a Highland Fling of Scottish music, song and dance,” appears at Ambassador Auditorium, Pasadena, next Sunday at 2 and 8 p.m.

AT PHILHARMONIC: Esa-Pekka Salonen and Peter Serkin return to the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion of the Music Center this week for their latest visits with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Conductor Salonen, 29, has been a regular guest on the Philharmonic podium since his debut here, four years ago; pianist Serkin, 40, first appeared with the orchestra, in Hollywood Bowl, a few days before his 19th birthday, in 1966. This week, at performances Thursday through Saturday nights at 8, and again next Sunday afternoon, Salonen and Serkin offer a Stravinsky-Mozart-Beethoven program beginning with “Fireworks” and the Piano Concerto in D, K. 451; the second half of that agenda offers the Capriccio for piano and orchestra and Beethoven’s Fourth Symphony.

WHO’S ON TOUR?: The Joffrey Ballet represents the United States in two international events in February. The company will travel to Alberta, Calgary, this week, to dance in the 1988 Winter Olympic Arts Festival in that Canadian city. Monday through Wednesday, it will perform a new ballet by James Kudelka, “Concerto Grosso,” commissioned by the Festival. The Joffrey troupe moves on to Austria, Feb. 13-17, to participate in an international dance festival. The Los Angeles spring season of the company, in the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion of the Music Center, is scheduled May 3-22. . . . During its current two-week residency at Humboldt State University in Arcata, Calif., the Bella Lewitzky Dance Company will give the world premere of Lewitzky’s new work, “Impressions No. 2 (Van Gogh).” The new piece is the second part of Lewitzky’s trilogy, “Impressions,” and has been commissioned by Pacific Telesis Foundation, CenterArts at Humboldt State and UCLA.