‘POOR RELATION’ : LIFE’S NOT A BREEZE AT NEW WIND ORCHESTRA

When conductor David Warble unveiled his new California Wind Orchestra before 3,000 Orange County schoolchildren at the Orange County Performing Arts Center in March, he proudly described the group as “the musical brother to the symphony orchestra.”

But more frequently, Warble acknowledged in a recent interview, the concert band “has been treated as a poor relation--maybe a second cousin.”

To counter a popular image that largely relegates band music to football half-time shows, military functions and holiday parades, Warble formed the 61-member California Wind Orchestra as the first professional symphonic wind band in Orange County.

Warble recognizes the difficulty of starting yet another orchestral group, even on a part-time basis, at a time when competition for cultural arts supporters within the county is at a peak. But, he said, “I don’t feel we’re in competition with anyone.”

“There is a tremendous body of band music, but it is never heard outside high schools and colleges,” said Warble, who has also been conductor of the Disneyland Band since 1983.

“These pieces are the standard literature for young instrumentalists, but because of academic limitations, they rarely realize their potential,” he said. “I may be all wrong, but I really think this is music that orchestral audiences would love to hear.”

The concert band, or wind symphony, evolved from the popular military bands of the 18th and 19th centuries that comprised brass, woodwind and percussion instruments and no strings. But such groups received little attention as a legitimate counterpart to the symphony orchestra until the 1950s when the Eastman Wind Ensemble began performing and recording works written for wind band by Holst, Vaughan Williams, Grainger, Stravinksy, Hindemith, Alfred Reed and other composers.

Founded in 1952 by Frederick Fennell and conducted by Donald Hunsberger since 1965, the Eastman band, based at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, N.Y., remains “in a class by itself,” Warble said, having set the standard by which all wind bands are measured.

“What Fred did,” Hunsberger said in a phone interview, “was to establish a corps of players that he could offer to composers in whatever numbers they wished. It was more flexible and offered more musical opportunities to composers.”

Although Fennell’s efforts with the Eastman Wind Ensemble spurred a dramatic increase in the number of compositions written for symphonic band, Hunsberger said, there are still no full-time professional wind ensembles in the United States. The only such salaried, year-round group is in Japan: the Tokyo Kosei Wind Orchestra, for which Fennell has held the post of “regular conductor” since 1984.

“I don’t know what the reason is for lack of public support,” Hunsberger said. “There’s certainly no shortage of music. But there is a common misconception that there is nothing between the symphony orchestra and the band that plays in the park. There is also a misconception that this music is not as valid (as the orchestral repertory).”

Hunsberger and Warble agreed that greater public exposure to wind band music performed at a professional level is the best way to rescue the music from the exclusive domain of educational and military groups.

While Warble was hesitant to compare the California Wind Ensemble to the Eastman group, he said: “What a professional ensemble, because of time constraints, may overlook in terms of academic regimen, it can (compensate for) by performing with more expertise and more heart.

“This (California Wind Orchestra) is a situation where the group has been handpicked to the man--and woman--from Southern California, which has one of the greatest talent pools in the world,” Warble said.

At its youth programs at the Performing Arts Center, which are jointly sponsored by the Orange County Philharmonic Society and the Orange County musicians’ union, the orchestra presents a range of material including Joseph Jenkins’ Coplandesque “American Overture for Band” and excerpts from Percy Grainger’s “Lincolnshire Posy” suite for band. The group also showcases lighter works such as a new arrangement of “Mexican Hat Dance” by orchestra creative consultant Roger Bissell and John Williams’ “Olympic Fanfare and Theme” composed for the 1984 Olympic Games.

Warble suggested that a major problem facing wind groups is that “the genre hasn’t produced a Beethoven or Debussy yet.” Hunsberger, however, said, “I don’t think it’s going to take just one great composer, but a whole series of great works like Joseph Schwantner’s (1977 composition) ‘And the Mountains Rising Nowhere.’ ”

Warble is lining up the orchestra’s first public performances, and he hopes to bring the group into the Performing Arts Center eventually. The ensemble’s next performances will be youth concerts on April 27 at Plummer Auditorium and May 4 back at the Center.

But Warble was quick to emphasize that he has no ambitions for an extensive concert schedule for the group.

“I don’t anticipate any lengthy concert seasons with a big subscription base, and I don’t want to get into a pops concert series in the park playing the hits of Sonny & Cher,” he said. “If we can play five times in our first season for a discerning, enthusiastic audience, I would consider that adequate and appropriate.”

Warble also said he considers Orange County an ideal location for the new group to grow.

“I don’t see this happening in Boston. This is where I’d like to give Orange County some credit. In a city like Boston, with its stoic, staid attitude, I don’t think a group like this could happen. But Orange County is a more vibrant, dynamic, forward-looking area where we can be evaluated in our own terms. People are more inclined to say ‘Why not?’ ”

Hunsberger also looked to Boston in drawing an analogy between the roles of professional and amateur groups in music and sports.

“It’s like the difference between watching the NCAA basketball finals and seeing the way the public reacted to that versus watching the Boston Celtics play the Lakers,” Hunsberger said. “There is validity to both sides.”