L.A. CHAMBER ORCHESTRA FILLS POST

Topper Smith, general manager of the Orange County Pacific Symphony for the last 13 months, has resigned to take an administrative post with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra.

Effective immediately, Smith will serve as orchestra manager of the Pasadena-based organization, reporting to executive director Robert Elias. (Smith had succeeded Elias as Pacific Symphony general manager in late January, 1984.)

No replacement for Smith has been named, Raymond Ikola, president of the Pacific Symphony Assn. board, said Wednesday.

At the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Smith will oversee personnel and other contractual relations. In addition, Smith said that he will continue as an adviser to the Pacific Symphony.

Smith previously has held administrative posts with the USC School of Performing Arts and the Long Beach Symphony and has taught at the American Institute of Musical Studies in Germany and Austria.

Ikola said that Smith’s resignation is not linked to any fiscal problems of the Pacific Symphony, which he said is falling short of the fund-raising goals set in its $1-million operating budget for the 1984-85 season. “It looks like we’re going to make only about 60% of our corporate underwriting,” Ikola said. “But I assure you there will be no cuts in the programming.”