SYMPHONY MUSICIANS LEAVING S.D.

If a contract between the San Diego Symphony musicians and the symphony management were signed in time to reinstate the summer Pops concerts, about three-quarters of last season’s orchestra players would be around to play.

Worse, the symphony’s best players are leading the exodus.

A year ago, 90 players would appear in a typical full orchestra concert at Symphony Hall; around 70 of that group are still here. While musicians have not been leaving the area in droves in the wake of the months-long dispute with management that canceled the winter season, the attrition of significant players continues.

On Tuesday, veteran first-chair French horn player Jerry Folsom, a member of the San Diego Symphony since 1970, won the audition for a position with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, according to that orchestra’s management. Under former music director David Atherton, Folsom was frequently featured as a soloist with the symphony.

“We didn’t want to leave the area,” said Folsom. “We were quite happy here. I was playing with the Orange County Pacific Orchestra in Costa Mesa, and decided to take the L.A. audition. I became pretty apprehensive after David left.”

Folsom will start his new job when the Philharmonic begins the summer Hollywood Bowl series. He and his family will leave the area as soon as they can sell their house here.

“I was out celebrating with Jerry Tuesday night after he got the post,” said Peter Rofe, the San Diego Symphony’s principal contrabass player who has been playing with the Philharmonic for the last year. “I’ll be going on tour shortly to Europe with the Philharmonic, then play the Hollywood Bowl summer series.”

Unlike Folsom’s position, Rofe’s appointment to the Los Angeles orchestra was for a vacancy of a single season. He will audition for a permanent post with the Philharmonic later this month.

In late January, violist Ann Gref won an appointment to the New Mexico Symphony, a position that will be upgraded to assistant principal viola after a customary probationary period, according to William Weinrod, that orchestra’s executive administrator. “We’ve experienced an unexpected fallout,” Weinrod explained, “with a number of players from orchestras in trouble coming here to Albuquerque to audition.”

Both Folsom and Gref have spouses who were contract San Diego Symphony players, so their leaving represents a double defection from the local scene. Beth Folsom played first violin, and Warren Gref was a member of the French horn section. According to principal bassoon Dennis Michel, San Diego second flute Linda Lukas is among the final round of players auditioning this weekend for a principal flute vacancy in the Baltimore Symphony.

Many of last season’s symphony players were only temporary, however.

“There were many vacancies in the orchestra,” Michel explained. “It was cheaper to pay substitutes than to pay full-contract players.” Other vacancies had been created when Atherton demoted players and then did not fill their chairs with permanent players.

“Our former music director consistently failed to hold the sort of regular auditions for these vacancies that the master agreement called for,” symphony trumpeter Mark Bedell said.

“Of course, well-qualified people were reluctant to come to the auditions the San Diego Symphony did hold,” Michel said. “San Diego had a terrible reputation after the crisis of 1981, which we were just beginning to overcome.”