A Day at the Beach: Bach, Lots of Kids

Bach hit the Beach Club in sunglasses Saturday evening. White-wigged, in knee pants and with sand in his shoes, the composer (actually Alan Chapman) said with a proud air, “My pieces, ladies and gentlemen,” as the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra broke into Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 in F.

The orchestra played under a blue and white striped tent as a crowd of more than 650 (including about 200 children) clustered on the beach in Santa Monica, backs to the ocean, for First Cut’s first big party. First Cut is a new volunteer support group for the chamber orchestra, and the evening was a thriller for Lynn Brengel and Robin Maloof, who’d been planning the benefit for a year.

Invitations said “Bring Your Own Blanket,” and antique appliqued wedding ring quilts were spread next to Price Club acrylics on the sand. While the palms swayed, children whooped and hollered on gymnastics equipment. Adults had cocktails and put in bids on auction items. Then everyone gathered up pink cardboard boxes filled with fried chicken, pasta, brownies--the good picnic stuff--and munched away, listening to Purcell’s “Trumpet Voluntary,” Haydn’s “Toy Symphony” and a Gershwin medley conducted by Lucas Richman.

It was definitely family night, sometimes three-generational. Grandparents Dick and Nancy Call were with their daughters--Nancy, with her husband, Joe McCullough and their sons, Joe and Tom, 9 and 7, and Kate with her husband, James Klawiter, and her boys, Phin and Patrick Regan, 8 and 6.

Nancy and Jim Birdwell brought their 17-year-old twins, Scott and Chris. Stephen Lindgren, 5, with his mother, Susan, sported a new red “Royal Yachting” sweat shirt. Blaine and Linda Fetter sat with their sons, Kyle, 11, and Adam, 4, on a tattered red and white quilt. Joanna Korshak, 4 that day, was surrounded by her grandmother Marie Hendricks, parents Louise and Stuart Korshak and a birthday teddy bear from Carlotta Keely.

Charlie Bakaly wore his Kentucky American flag sweater; he and his wife, Christy, left their preschool youngsters at home. Carter Vettese, 3, wore a big red bow in her hair. Kelly and Chris Brengel, 10 and 9, stood on stage to sing the national anthem. Morgan Kruger, 8, ate a brownie, with her very dear chum, Ann Keely, 8. Regula and Doug Campbell (they’re executing the new ferry and terminal landscaping in Avalon) chatted with John Welborne. Stuart Siciliano, 8, and his brother Alex, 5, were in no one place longer than five seconds. Sean Lanni, at age 9, qualified to sell $5 raffle tickets, and brother Patrick, 5, carefully clutched his one $5 ticket (a winning one).

Up front, orchestra board president Jennifer Diener, eyes closed, lying on her back, relished Bach with her husband, Royce. Nearby were Erich and Patricia Vollmer (he’s the orchestra’s executive director) and Garret and Isabel Leahey and their two children, Garret III, 10, and Peter, 7. Jim and Gail Ellis watched as her daughter, Jessica Sullivan, 16, played the role of the cuckoo in the “Toy Symphony.” Paulette and Bill Burkitt and RoseMary and Alan Korostoff enjoyed the party, sans children.

As the red sunset faded, most headed home in those ubiquitous Jeeps and Explorers. The neon necklace party favors around the kids’ necks could be spotted in traffic down the freeway.

Salomon Brothers Inc. (the firm of the co-chair’s husband, Doug Brengel) underwrote the benefit, allowing profits to be used for orchestra recording projects. Said Lynn Brengel the next day: “We’ve had so many thank-you calls. Bach will return.”

*

WINNERS: Nick and Patty Weber and their family had two courts of competitive boccie ball going in Montecito on Saturday to honor soon-to-weds Kathleen McCarthy (daughter of Kathleen and Tom McCarthy) and Adam Duncan. The idyllic al fresco lunch was under the oaks . . . .

Nearby at the Santa Barbara Polo & Racquet Club, Geannie Holden Sheller of Westwood and Debi Mayer of Granada Hills co-chaired the 10th anniversary Golden Mallet Invitational Polo Tournament for the Pre-School Auxiliary of the Assistance League of Southern California. Gloria Holden watched as husband Glen, former ambassador to Jamaica, swung the mallet. She founded the event. More in the crowd: David and Chip Selby of Sherman Oaks (she’s Assistance League president), Beverly and Larry Thrall, District Attorney Gil Garcetti, and his wife, Sukey, Bob Meeker, Laura-Lee and Robert Woods, Gini and Henry Braun and Daria and Ross Manning of New York.

*

KUDOS: Walter H. Annenberg, former ambassador to the Court of St. James, has been elected an honorary life trustee of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in recognition of his generous support. Cleon Knapp and Herbert L. Lucas are new trustees . . . .

Six have been elected to the 60-member Board of Overseers of the Huntington Library: Joseph Coulombe, Howard Privett, Lynn P. Reitnouer, Stewart Smith, Therese Stanfill and Tamotsu Yamaguchi.

*

ESCALATION: The Newport Harbor Art Museum presents its third annual Black and White Bash at Fashion Island shopping center Saturday. Chairwoman is Susan Porter . . . Crittenton Center of Los Angeles dedicated its newly completed rehabilitation center . . . Austria’s ambassador to the United States, Helmut Turk, was honored at a reception at the home of Yvonne Jurmann . . . The American Film Institute and Ava and Charles Fries honored director Marian Rees with a retrospective and reception at La Toque . . . Long Beach Youth Home Boosters feted Phyllis London at its Festival of Chefs . . . .