L.B. SYMPHONY CUTS DEBT

“We are ahead of schedule in meeting our debts.”

Those words from a confident-sounding Mary Newkirk are music to the ears of fans--and employees--of the Long Beach Symphony. In updating the status of the financially troubled orchestra as well as detailing plans for the 1986-87 season, general manager Newkirk continually stressed that the current abbreviated season must be viewed as “part of the rebuilding” of the orchestra.

“For one thing, the ‘85-’86 season has only three concerts (the final event takes place Thursday in the Terrace Theatre, with Murry Sidlin conducting a Brahms-Beethoven-Sibelius program). For another, we’ve had to honor all of the tickets from our canceled season (‘84-’85). That translates to 2/3 of the house being non-revenue producing. Our resources are being taxed.”

Still, the debt, which amounted to $253,582 in a March, 1985, audit, has been reduced to $152,243 as of Feb. 28, she noted. “We’ve exceeded our goal in repaying over $100,000 by this point. We have owed money to over 100 separate creditors, some of it going back five years. But so far we have consistently met our debt payment schedule of $10,000 per month. We haven’t been a day late.”

In discussing next season--which is back to the previous five-event format--Newkirk said stellar soloists are, by financial necessity, lacking from the line-up. “It’s just not possible to pay for expensive artists,” she said. “We want to put the focus on the quality of this orchestra, to highlight its members. This is the same orchestra we had before the shutdown, you know. They’ve stuck right with us.”

Repertory does indeed seem to be a selling point for next season. Such seldom-heard (and, needless to add, not particularly audience-favored) works as Barber’s Symphony No. 1 (opening night, Sept. 25), Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 6 (Nov. 13) and Ned Rorem’s “Lions (A Dream)” (March 26) are scheduled. Standard fare, naturally, is well represented: Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition” (albeit in Stokowski’s arrangement, rather than the expected one by Ravel), Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto (with Alec Chin as soloist), Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, Mozart’s “Jupiter” Symphony, etc.

In addition to five subscription programs at the Long Beach Convention Center, Newkirk listed some pops programs at a yet-to-be-determined site (negotiations are in progress with the Long Beach Arena, she said) and a Sept. 6 fund-raising concert.

BACK HOME: The Los Angeles Philharmonic resumes its Music Center season this week, as Kurt Sanderling begins a guest-conducting engagement with the orchestra that will extend through the end of the season (April 27)--and continue to the beginning of next season. This week, the program lists symphonies by Haydn (No. 39) and Brahms (No. 1) and the Oboe Concerto by Mozart, with Heinz Holliger as soloist.

BUJONES--LIFE AFTER ABT: Fernando Bujones has certainly kept himself busy since leaving American Ballet Theatre under less than amicable circumstances. The dancer, who turned 31 last month, accepted an invitation to serve as an associate director of the Rio de Janeiro Opera House, where, he said in a statement issued by his manager Zeida Mendez, “I will have the opportunities to continue choreographing, restaging the classics and transmitting my artistic knowledge to other artists.”

Following numerous recent guest appearances in North America and Europe--including a spectacular success in “La Fille mal gardee” with the Royal Ballet at Covent Gardenin February-- Bujones will appear with the Joffrey Ballet at its New York gala opening on Tuesday. Mendez said that he may appear with the company during the remainder of its New York season, “but not (with the Joffrey) in Los Angeles.” She did, however, indicate that negotiations are under way for an appearance by Bujones this summer at Hollywood Bowl with Leslie Collier (his partner in the London “Fille”), under Philharmonic auspices.

Mendez commented on a rather strange half-page advertisement on Bujones’ behalf that appeared in the New York Times on March 9. Signed by one Richard Mineards, the ad refers to Bujones as an “American Superman of Dance,” detailing his past, present and future accomplishments. It described him as “a living legend in his own time (and) an American of universal ranking.” Said Mendez, “It was commissioned, we discovered, by a ballet lover named Carmen Hall, who took it upon herself to run the ad (with a quarter-page photo of the dancer) in response to his being dumped by Ballet Theatre. I had no idea she was doing this--nor did Fernando.”

OPERA NEWS: In announcing recently most details of casting for the Fall-Winter (1986-87) season of Music Center Opera, beginning Oct. 7, Peter Hemmings, executive director of the MCO Assn., also let drop a few other details.

The total budget for the five-production schedule (“Otello,” “Salome,” “Madama Butterfly” “Alcina” and “Porgy and Bess”), he revealed, is $4.8 million. That money will originate from these sources: $1.5 million from the Performing Arts Council of the Music Center, $1.7 million from box office receipts (“figured on an attendance rate conservatively estimated at 65% to 67% of capacity”), $1.1 million from restricted gifts, $200,000 from governmental agencies, and $300,000 from galas and special events.

The recent $1-million grant to Music Center Opera from the family of William R. Forman will be the basis, Hemmings also announced, of the Forman Family Fund, an endowment fund to strengthen the association’s economic position, and “will not be spent within one season, but alloted over several.”

As for the future, Hemmings told the lunching press corps that he intends that MC Opera, “by the end of this decade, is producing 10 operas in five performances each, spread over a six-month winter season.”

MUSIC AND DANCE PEOPLE: Kent Nagano will return as music director of the Ojai Music Festival, scheduled for May 30-June 1 at Libbey Park in Ojai. Joining the Bay Area conductor at the five-event festival will be the Kronos Quartet, pianist Ursula Oppens, the California E.A.R. Unit and members of the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

Birgit Nilsson will host three days of master classes at Pepperdine University over the weekend. The celebrated soprano will instruct a select group of singers at three all-day sessions in Smothers Theatre on the Malibu Campus. Information: (213) 456-4589.

The Joseph Duell Education Fund has been established in memory of the New York City Ballet principal dancer who committed suicide earlier this year. Information: (212) 580-5426.