ARTS CENTER UNVEILS ITS 2 OPENING ATTRACTIONS

The Los Angeles Philharmonic and Orange County Pacific Symphony will be the first attractions when the Orange County Performing Arts Center opens its 3,000-seat main theater next fall, Center officials disclosed Tuesday.

Thomas Kendrick, Center executive director, told a press conference in the Center’s Costa Mesa office that Zubin Mehta, music director of the New York Philharmonic, is slated to conduct the Los Angeles Philharmonic for the Center’s “grand opening” night, currently set for Sept. 29. Previously, Center officials had set Oct. 1 as the opening date.

Center officials reportedly had been negotiating for the Mehta appearance months before Andre Previn assumed full duties last October as music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

Further details of the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s 1986-87 schedule in Orange County, Kendrick said, are to be jointly announced by the Philharmonic and Orange County Performing Arts Center at a forthcoming press conference.

The Orange County Pacific Symphony--the first local group to be signed by the Center--will perform Oct. 2 as part of the Santa Ana-based orchestra’s 14-concert schedule through May, 1987, at the Orange County Performing Arts Center.

Keith Clark, the orchestra’s music director and conductor, said the programs, including soloists and “specific dates,” are to be announced early next year. The schedule will include children’s concerts and a “Saturday Night Pops” series, as well as eight regular classical concerts.

“It is an exciting prospect for us--a great challenge--to be now able to perform on a regular basis in a true concert hall,” said Clark, whose 85-member professional orchestra has been performing chiefly at the 50-year-old, 1,600-seat Santa Ana High School Auditorium.

Kendrick said: “Inclusion of this distinguished regional orchestra represents a significant precedent for all concerned. It reflects what this Center has long sought--a balanced programming that is a careful blend of regional, national and international attractions of quality.”

The Orange County Performing Arts Center’s 3,000-seat multipurpose hall is the main facility in the project’s $70.7-million opening phase now under construction in the South Coast Plaza Town Center in Costa Mesa.

Tuesday’s Orange County Pacific Symphony announcement came three weeks after the Orange County Center announced its first signed attraction--a two-week, three-production run by the New York City Opera in January, 1987.

The announcement Tuesday also ended months of speculation on whether the local orchestra would be performing in the Center’s opening season. At one time, orchestra supporters said some Performing Arts Center officials had expressed doubts whether the Pacific Symphony or any other Orange County group would be of sufficient caliber--or had the box-office draw--to perform in the larger hall.

In early 1984, the Center board rejected a bid by the Pacific Symphony to be named the Center’s “resident orchestra.” In its bid, the symphony organization said it feared the Orange County complex might become wholly an “import house” for Los Angeles and other non-local groups.

In wake of the Pacific Symphony bid, the Center board established a policy not to consider “residency proposals” from any organization in the Center’s initial stages.

In recent months, Pacific Symphony representatives said relations between local groups and the Center have improved markedly since Kendrick--the former director of operations at the Kennedy Center--was hired last spring. (He assumed the Orange County post full time last September.)

And William Lund, Center board chairman, said Tuesday: “We have always been committed to the idea of having the (Orange County) regional groups perform here. We have always told them there will be a place for them.”

However, Clark and orchestra board president Michael Gilano said Tuesday that their 7-year-old organization now faces a “huge test” on how well they can draw audiences and raise private underwriting for the 1986-87 Center season of 14, possibly 16, concerts.

Gilano said projections on actual costs and audiences are still being made. (This year, the organization has a $1.2-million budget and a subscription membership of more than 1,000.)

Gilano said: “We’re counting a great deal on the fact we will be playing a far larger hall, and that we will be raising our ticket prices somewhat (above the current $17.50 maximum). We’re confident we can do it--raising the necessary money and drawing the people.”

According to Kendrick, Orange County groups--including the Pacific Symphony--will be given “break rates” at the Center. Rental fees, he said, are “competitive with--or under--those charged at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion.”

Speaking about the overall scheduling for the first season, Kendrick said: “This is a test of this area’s market. This is true for all of us--not just the Pacific Symphony, but any attraction, including the New York City Opera.”

“I have to say what Beverly Sills said a few weeks ago--’We have to learn to walk before we run.’ ”

Last Nov. 7, Opera Pacific, the Costa Mesa-based producing organization for operas and musicals, disclosed plans to stage three productions in early 1987 at the Center, including a “La Boheme” that would be directed by Gian Carlo Menotti. Kendrick, however, said the Opera Pacific proposal was still in negotiations.

Also in negotiations are 1986-87 concerts to be presented at the Center by the Orange County Philharmonic Society.