NEW SYMPHONY IMAGE-RAISER

Wesley Brustad, who started work this week as the Orange County Pacific Symphony’s new executive director, wants to make the symphony a household name in the county.

“That’s why I’m here, to make this orchestra better known and understood as a cultural asset,” Brustad explained during an interview Tuesday in the symphony’s Fullerton office.

“You don’t just go out and raise funds and figure your job is done. You have to do much more--you have to build a strong, deep relationship with the community, and to let them know that this is their orchestra,”

Pointing to the stacks of planning, fiscal and other reports on his desk, he added, “I only came on the job yesterday. I haven’t even got my feet wet yet. I can’t give specifics on how I’m going to tackle things, not until I’ve waded through all these (reports).”

Then laughing, he said, “I said I took this job because of the challenge. Well, believe me, it is a challenge.”

The appointment of Brustad--who left the Spokane Symphony Orchestra after six years as executive director--was announced a month ago. Pacific Symphony officials said he was picked after a nationwide search that produced more than 20 candidates. The post had been vacant since March, when Topper Smith quit to become orchestra manager of the Pasadena-based Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra.

The 42-year-old Brustad was chosen, Pacific officials said, because of his considerable experience in arts administration, especially in community liaison, fiscal development and marketing. Before he joined the Spokane orchestra, he was managing director of the Tennessee Performing Arts Foundation and community-development vice president with the Guthrie Theatre Foundation in Minneapolis.

“He’s exactly the kind of guy we need right now. Up to now, our attention has been to build the artistic strengths, but our growth has now reached the point where we must pay greater attention to support,” said Keith Clark, music director of the 85-member professional orchestra.

The Pacific Symphony has projected a 1985-86 operating budget of $1 million, the largest in its seven-year history (the budget was $900,000 last year and $540,000 two seasons ago). It expects to offer perhaps 60 concerts--its biggest season yet--in subscription and touring programs.

In September, the Pacific Symphony--now housed in a small office in Fullerton and forced to hold rehearsals at various venues--plans to move into new quarters in downtown Santa Ana, where a three-story, former church is being leased at minimal cost from the city. Conservatory classes and chamber concerts, as well as rehearsals, will take place there.

Besides Brustad, the Pacific has also hired Edmundo Diaz del Campo as assistant conductor and educational activities director. A marketing coordinator, not yet named, is expected to be added to the staff this summer.

Part of Brustad’s task is to restore the symphony’s subscription memberships, now at about 1,200, to the 3,000 level of four years ago. (Memberships fell off, officials said, after the subscription concerts were moved from the Knott’s Good Time Theatre to the Santa Ana High School Auditorium and the pops series was phased out.)

Most dramatically of all, Brustad is to lead accelerated efforts to promote program underwriting--$350,000 in private donations is the goal for the next season. “Orange County is an area of truly dynamic growth. The potential (for expanded support) is certainly there. My job is to get that (fiscal) blood going for this organization,” said Brustad.

The new executive director is an old hand at doing just that. A graduate of the University of Washington School of Drama, he started out as an actor and director with the Seattle Repertory.

In 1970 he turned to an administrative career and rose through the executive ranks: assistant director of theOhio Arts Council, executive director of the South Carolina Arts Commission, executive vice president of the South Carolina Foundation, and from there to Minneapolis and the Guthrie Theatre Foundation, parent organization of the nationally known resident theater.

As managing director of the Tennessee Performing Arts Foundation in 1975-77, he directed fund-raising and other pre-construction activities for the building of the three-theater arts center in Nashville. He later became founding artistic director of the Advent Theatre, a stage company affiliated with the new arts center.

When Brustad joined the Spokane Symphony Orchestra in 1979, he said, the orchestra was $150,000 in debt. The Spokane organization--which has 80 musicians and offers a 60-concert season--is now deficit-free with a budget of about $1.2 million.

“But things there had gotten into a maintenance mode for me as an administrator. It (eastern Washington state) is not the kind of high-energy area that Southern California is. I wanted to go to an area like Orange County, where things are still growing, where I could still go in and help build an organization,” he said.

“This orchestra (Pacific Symphony) is still growing, and growing swiftly. It is also a rarity for a regional orchestra these days--it has always operated in the black.”

But Brustad said he recognizes the fund-raising competition here is considerable--not only other arts organizations such as the Orange County Performing Arts Center, but also social welfare, educational and similar institutions.

“There’s no question that this area has an unusually high concentration (of fund drives),” said Brustad. “You hope that recognition is given the real distinctions that exist among the various groups, and that we can cooperate and work together. What you hope is that this competition doesn’t become cut-throat.”