A Bow to the Royalty of Los Angeles

Los Angeles turned the tables Monday night, and the British entertained hometown royalty. Cultural royalty, that is.

The first ever, but promised for every Leap Year, Benefactors Ball spun out at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion with 300-plus of the Music Center’s major patrons turning out to celebrate the extraordinary success of their contributory efforts.

Highlighted in a charmingly informal way was what the Music Center offers on a day-to-day basis, this by bringing Dudley Moore and Jonathan Miller up from their rehearsal of “The Mikado” to entertain and having cellist Lynn Harrell play.

Among those givers who enjoyed courses of veal with wild mushrooms and a tasty salad of curly endive with warm Rouquefort dressing were givers like Dr. Peter and Helen Bing, Dorothy Forman with her son Michael and Pat Sprong, Frank J. Sherwood and the entire Taper family--Mark Taper with Adelaide Levine, Barry and Louise Taper and Henri and Janice Taper Lazarof.

Lois Erburu and Mia Frost had whipped up an evening of elegant perfection that spotlighted the guests--”our real honorees,” said Robert Erburu, chairman and CEO of Times Mirror, who, with Music Center chairman Daniel Frost, co-chaired the evening.

“Two great women” not present were the subject of the evening’s single toast--Frost rising to celebrate Lillian B. Disney and his mother-in-law, Dorothy Buffum Chandler.

He and the black-tie crowd then raised their glasses, honoring Mrs. Chandler, the woman who “made the Music Center possible.” For Lillian B. Disney, the applause came for her gift of $50 million to the Music Center to build a new home for the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

Dorothy Collins Brown chatted while her date, the debonair and dancing Papal Count Daniel Donahue swung Giney Milner around the floor (showing off to best advantage her luscious Oscar de La Renta red and black gown).

Bram and Elaine Goldsmith (she in elaborate patterned jacket), Norman and Sadie Lee (yes, they did take a few hours away from UK/LA), Felisa and Nick Vanoff (he never left the dance floor), a stunning and diamonded Dona and Dwight Kendall, Edward and Hannah Carter and Timothy and Terri Childs were among longtime, substantial Music Center supporters who indeed seemed to be having a wonderful time.

R. Stanton and Ernestine Avery joined their close friends the Bings, the Frosts and Don Haskell and Dr. Dorothy Ray. Shirlee Fonda whipped by with Sam Kaplan, Marco and Joan Weiss chatted with Glen and Gloria Holden while Esther and Tom Wachtell were busy making their social rounds. Armand and Harriet Deutsch (in a slinky silver Luis Estevez, and remembering how she joined up the Music Center efforts “way back when”) were seated with Marion and Earle M. Jorgensen. Other faces in the crowd included Peggy Parker with Walter Grauman and Bernie and Lennie Greenberg.

For all its formality (the women really did turn out with major gowns and major jewels), the evening was a real family affair--the speeches from the artists reflecting the personal love for the Music Center and the gratitude for the major givers who made it possible. The evening was detailed down to the last spoon, including wines like Shramsberg 1984 Blanc de Blancs and Beaulieu Vineyards 1982 Private Reserve Cabernet-Sauvignon. There was a luscious hazelnut chocolate dome and wonderful music from Ron Rubin that kept the dance floor crowded.

But nothing was more special than the short speech given by David Alan Miller, the young conductor (“from the San Fernando Valley”) who is the new associate director of the Philharmonic’s Summer Institute for young musicians and conductors. Miller said, for him, “the single most important formative experience” was attending the Thursday night Philharmonic concerts when he was growing up.

“It was like religion in my family.”

Conducting regularly at Carnegie Hall was wonderful, Miller said, but nothing compared to coming to the Music Center, “to standing on the stage where I first heard music from this wonderful orchestra.”

Surely such genuine thanks were music to the ears of the the Music Center’s most generous patrons.