Musical Chairs at the Music Center : New Seating Policy Initiated in Response to Complaints

The Amazing Blue Ribbon, perhaps the most prestigious cultural support group in Southern California, has changed its policy on seating at Music Center social events in response to complaints from some of its 600 members and other major donors.

Under the new policy, choice seats at various events will be rotated to avoid complaints that some individuals consistently get seated in the back of the room at social events.

Until now, volunteer committees have made the seating arrangements, leading to complaints that friends of those on the seating committees get preferential treatment.

Now a computer will keep track of seating, many Amazing Blue Ribbon officers will be dispersed among the crowd and other members will take turns sitting at tables far from the center, according to Keith Kieschnick, the giving group’s new executive president.

Several other Music Center support groups also are expected to adopt a rotation seating policy, interviews with volunteer leaders and staff members revealed.

The policy change follows protest walkouts at two recent black-tie Music Center fund-raising affairs, the Sept. 9 Music Center Opera Assn. dinner and the Sept. 16 Chanel fashion show and dinner sponsored by the Amazing Blue Ribbon, according to some of those who left, volunteer leaders and the Music Center professional staff.

In each case about a dozen people seated in the far ends of the Grand Hall of the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion left, these sources said.

One of those who left the $250 per person Chanel dinner, Wallis Annenberg, said “considering my support of the Music Center for 15 years, both socially and financially, my seating was unacceptable.” Annenberg’s family has donated more than $1 million to the Bunker Hill performing arts complex.

In order to see the runway where models flown in from Paris displayed the latest Chanel creations, Annenberg and six other attendees said, those in the back of the room had to get up from their seats and move.

Annenberg, seen frequently in couture Chanel fashions, said she left as quickly as possible after the fashion show ended and dinner began.

Some Amazing Blue Ribbon members who left the Chanel show said vigorous complaints about their seating were made on the spot to both Nancy Livingston, the Amazing Blue Ribbon chairman, and to Nancy Vreeland, who chaired the event. The complaints were passed on to Kieschnick, the new executive president.

Several Music Center major donors who are Jewish also questioned the choice of Sept. 16 for the Chanel affair. They noted that Rosh Hashanah ended at sunset on Sept. 16 for Reform Jews, but for Conservative and Orthodox Jews the High Holy Day continued for a second day, ending at sunset Sept. 17.

The audience had a large Jewish representation, according to Music Center spokeswoman Clare Segal.

Kieschnick, the new Amazing Blue Ribbon executive president, said that when she was told of complaints about seating at the Chanel affair “my immediate reaction was to dive in and take action so that people are not unhappy.”

Kieschnick said she had to persuade one woman not to quit the Amazing Blue Ribbon--which has about 600 members, all women, who each give a minimum of $1,500 annually.

“I’ve never known of a Music Center event where someone hasn’t complained about seating,” Kieschnick said. “What I would like to stress is that this (seating issue) has been heavy on the minds of previous leaders” of the Amazing Blue Ribbon.

About 30 sit-down dinners per year are held at the Music Center, officials said. Some Music Center support groups use an open or festival seating arrangement in which they choose their own seats, except for those reserved for speakers and the event’s volunteers.