CHORALE LISTS DATES FOR CENTER

The Pacific Chorale will present two fall concerts and an all-day choral festival in its first season at the Orange County Performing Arts Center, chorale and Center officials have announced.

The Santa Ana-based Pacific Chorale thus becomes the third local organization to announce appearances at the Center’s 3,000-seat multipurpose theater, which opens Sept. 29.

Already set for the 1986-87 season are Opera Pacific, the Irvine-based producer of operas and musicals, and the Orange County Pacific Symphony. Schedules are expected to be released shortly for the Master Chorale of Orange County and the Orange County Philharmonic Society.

Nationally known organizations signed to appear at the Center are the Los Angeles Philharmonic, appearing with Zubin Mehta at the September opening; American Ballet Theatre and New York City Opera. The Center also is negotiating with the New York City Ballet to appear in the opening season.

Under music director John Alexander, the 105-voice Pacific Chorale will offer “A Coronation Festival” Oct. 25, an evening of English “coronation” works by Handel, Edward Elgar, William Walton and others. Alexander will also direct the Orange County Pacific Symphony for this event.

“A Christmas Festival” Dec. 5, also in collaboration with the Pacific Symphony, will feature works by Bach, Vaughan Williams and Franz Biebl.

Also planned is “A Choral Festival” May 9, 1987, which will include a competition of Orange County college and high school choral groups, plus an evening performance of the Berlioz “Requiem” with the Pacific Chorale and student singers.

Pacific Chorale board chairwoman Mary Lyons said other chorale appearances at the Orange County Center are under consideration for the 1986-87 season. These include performances of Handel’s “Messiah,” Bernstein’s Second Symphony and Brahms’ “A German Requiem.” Plans also are under discussion, she said, to include Pacific Chorale members in Opera Pacific’s production of “La Boheme” in early 1987.