A SPRING BAROQUEFEST

Like Carmel in the North and La Jolla in the South, Corona del Mar perches above the Pacific Ocean and enjoys all the benefits of its position near the sea and close to urban activity. But it has few cultural advantages. Except for one week in June every year.

At that time, Corona del Mar hosts a little festival in late spring. This year, from next Sunday through June 9, the 5-year-old Corona del Mar Baroque Festival will occupy a brief niche in the musical life of Southern California.

Keyboardist/musicologist/conductor Burton Karson founded the four-event festival in the southernmost neighborhood of Newport Beach in 1981. From the beginning, something special--call it good taste or attention to detail or finickiness--has marked the musical presentations.

“We don’t have a real auditorium in Corona del Mar, but what we do have is comfortable, and has a good organ,” says Karson, talking about St. Michael & All Angels Church, site of two of the four festival events.

Another thing the festival does not have, the music professor from Cal State Fullerton says proudly, is a deficit.

“It’s very expensive to do what we do, and our budget now is approaching the neighborhood of $14,000. But we do not operate in the red. I myself take no salary, but our players and singers are paid--our choir is now fully professional--and we even have a union contract for the orchestra.”

At the opening concert, next Sunday night at 8, Karson will conduct works by Michel Corrette, Alessandro Scarlatti, Albinoni and Handel. Soloist is John Walker, organist of Riverside Church in New York City, who will play on the recently expanded, Baroque-style Abbott and Sieker organ at St. Michael & All Angels Church, 3233 Pacific View Drive.

In honor of the Domenico Scarlatti tercentenary, harpsichordist Malcolm Hamilton will play two groups of sonatas by that composer at the second concert, June 5 at 8 p.m. at the Sherman Library and Gardens in Corona del Mar. Also participating in this program will be art historian Irmeli Desenberg, soprano Renee Patitucci and guitarist Peter Zisa.

On June 7, the Sherman Library will again be the setting when Trio Camerata (soprano Su Harmon, recorder-player Andrew Charlton and harpsichordist Karson) and Friends offer a variety of vocal and instrumental music.

Highlight of this event should be a semi-staged version of J. S. Bach’s solo secular cantata, “Durchlauchtster Leopold,” written for the birthday (in 1722) of the Prince of Anhalt-Coethen. Since the work has not been published in performance editions, Karson believes this performance may be the first on the West Coast. Vocal soloists will be soprano Harmon and baritone Richard Haseltine.

Closing the festival, June 9 at 8 p.m. at St. Michael & All Angels, Karson will conduct Handel’s secular oratorio, “Alexander’s Feast” (1738). The soloists will be soprano Susan Montgomery, tenor Gregory Wait and baritone LeRoy Villanueva.

A SUMMER TOUR: Mikhail Baryshnikov will tour this summer with a 16-dancer group from American Ballet Theatre; assisting will be a five-member instrumental ensemble.

The California dates: Fresno, July 8; San Jose, July 9; Sacramento, July 10. Before that, the tour will touch down on Las Vegas, Nevada, July 5 and 6.

Besides Baryshnikov, the dancers include Robert La Fosse, Leslie Browne, Amanda McKerrow, Cheryl Yeager, Ross Stretton, Deirdre Carberry, Gil Boggs, John Gardner, Elaine Kudo and Susan Jaffe.

Baryshnikov will dance Robbins’ “Other Dances” (with Jaffe) and Tharp’s “Sinatra Suite” (with Kudo), plus “The Class,” a full company piece choreographed around a ballet class by ABT dancer Peter Fonseca.

APPOINTMENTS: Vakhtang Jordania, the Russian conductor who defected from the East with his companion, violinist Viktoria Mullova, in 1983, has been named music director of the Chattanooga, Tenn., Symphony. Jordania, 42, makes his debut with the orchestra (recently merged with the local opera association) Sept. 28 with Puccini’s “La Boheme.” . . . Joining the string faculty of the USC school of music in September will be cellist Lynn Harrell and violist Donald McInnes. Harrell will be the first occupant of the recently created Gregor Piatigorsky chair at USC; during 1985-86, he will conduct two master classes each semester, increasing the number in the following school year. And, in 1987, he will become a full-time faculty member. McInnes, who has been on the faculty at the University of Michigan since 1982, returns to USC, where he took advanced degrees under the guidance of William Primrose, full time this fall. . . . Wayne Sheley, formerly dean of the college of creative arts at West Virginia University, has been named dean of the school of fine arts at Cal State Long Beach.