MEHTA SET FOR ARTS CENTER OPENING

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 said Tuesday.

Thomas Kendrick, center executive director, told a press conference in the center’s Costa Mesa office that Zubin Mehta, the music director of the New York Philharmonic and former conductor of the L.A. Philharmonic, is scheduled to conduct the L.A. Philharmonic for the center’s 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 Mehta to conduct such a concert before Andre Previn became the L.A. Philharmonic’s new music director.

Further details of the Philharmonic’s 1986-87 schedule in Orange County, Kendrick said, are to be jointly announced by the Philharmonic and Orange County center at a later press conference.

The Orange County Pacific Symphony--the first local ensemble to be signed by the center--will perform Oct. 2 as part of its 14-concert schedule through May 1987 at the Orange County center. Keith Clark, the orchestra’s music director, said the programs, soloists and specific dates will be announced early next year.

“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 at the 50-year-old, 1,600-seat Santa Ana High School Auditorium.

Said Kendrick: “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 $70.7-million Orange County center’s 3,000-seat multipurpose hall is part of the project’s opening phase now under construction in the South Coast Plaza Town Center sector of Costa Mesa.

The Orange County Pacific Symphony announcement came three weeks after the Orange County center named its first signed attraction--a two-week, three-production run by the New York City Opera in January, 1987. The announcement also ended speculation on whether the local orchestra would be performing in the center’s opening season. At one time, orchestra supporters said that some center officials had expressed doubts whether the Pacific Symphony or any other Orange County ensemble were of sufficient caliber--and would have enough box-office draw--to perform in the larger hall.

William Lund, the center board chairman, said Tuesday, “We have always been committed to the idea of having the (Orange County) regional groups perform here.”

However, Clark and orchestra board president Michael Gilano said their 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.

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.”