ORCHESTRA NEARS PACT WITH CLARK

Pacific Symphony music director Keith Clark and the board of directors of the Santa Ana-based orchestra say they are on the verge of signing the conductor’s first contract with the organization.

Until now, Clark, who founded the orchestra in 1979, has worked without a contract.

“I never had a formal-in-writing contract with the symphony,” Clark said Friday. “A contract was mentioned occasionally over the years, but it was nothing anyone got around to doing.

“But we’re growing now, and we’re finally getting around to doing it. We are putting something together that everyone will be happy about.”

Clark declined to detail the talks, but he rejected published reports that he was being offered a one-year, take-it-or-leave-it contract as a ploy by some members of board to get rid of him.

“I wouldn’t interpret it as that,” he said. “I don’t sense any tension on the board.

“There is nothing problematic about the contract. You know, the minute you put things in writing in any field, matters that are really simple seem very complicated to some people.”

Clark said he felt confident that he and the board’s president, John Evans, could conclude a deal “very quickly.”

“I’ve been here for eight years,” Clark said, “and I expect to be here for many years to come.”

Evans said, “In principal, (Keith and I) have agreed. (But) it is not a signed deal (yet).”

Evans declined to detail the contract, saying “It is a confidential matter. I don’t want to invade any of (Clark’s) privacy.”

However, Evans also rejected reports that there was serious division among board members and that Clark would be offered an unattractive contract to get rid of him.

“If we’re offering him (Clark) a contract--and we are--that shows that we are confident of his ability and wish to have him with us,” Evans said. “If we did not wish to have him with us, we would not have offered him a contract.

“The board has always acted in a very unified way,” Evans added. “We’ve all had different opinions, but we’ve worked through them very productively.