Arts Groups Love the Center but Not All Can Afford It : None of the groups regret having moved to the Center. The Irvine Symphony even plans to go back there, if and when it straightens out its finances.

Most of Orange County’s classical music groups saw the opening of the Performing Arts Center in 1986 as a form of cultural redemption.

At last, a county whose cultural attainment had lagged far behind its economic and population growth would have a concert hall worthy of itself. And surely, the suburban groups such as the Pacific Symphony, the Pacific Chorale, the Master Chorale of Orange County and the Irvine Symphony, would rise in quality--and public appeal--to fill the hall’s great space.

Sure enough, there have been success stories--most notably, that of the Orange County Philharmonic Society. But there also are some cautionary tales: The two major chorales in the county have had to merge for the 1989-90 season. And the Irvine Symphony ended its first year at the Center in debt to its own musicians; its future is an open question.

None of this is the Center’s “fault.” None of the groups regret having moved to the Center. The Irvine Symphony, in fact, even plans to go back there, if and when it straightens out its finances.

Simply by virtue of having opened its doors, the Center has dealt a new hand and has upped the ante. It cost $73.3 million to build, and it costs a lot to use. To cover the rent of Segerstrom Hall and its 3,000 seats, a group must draw far more than the small circle of aficionados that once supported it nicely, and concert-goers must be willing to pay far more than the modest admissions charged when the group played in community churches or at Santa Ana High School, which is half the center’s size.

This has not always been the case.

Unanticipated drop-offs in subscribers last year sent seismic waves through the Master Chorale of Orange County, which has decided to retrench somewhat by holding some of next year’s concerts in smaller halls.

John Rhynerson, chairman of the Master Chorale board and a tenor with the group since 1980, said a $700,000 budget had been planned for 1987-88, a jump of about $150,000 from the previous year.

The increase seemed warranted, Rhynerson said, by the huge leap in subscribers--from a steady 800 to 900 at Santa Ana High School to 1,400 during the group’s first year at the Center, even though top ticket prices had nearly tripled, from $12.50 to $35.

So the group was unprepared when subscriptions at the Center dropped back to 1,050 in the second year.

“No one could predict the falloff,” Rhynerson said. “We were able to see very quickly that (the ‘87-88) budget was not realistic. We had to readjust.”

Through hindsight, Rhynerson sees two reasons for the falloff: the Center’s novelty had worn off, and the number of offerings there was increasing. As a result, the pie was not only smaller than it had been; it was being cut into more pieces.

An additional factor, Rhynerson believes, was the sudden resignation of music director Maurice Allard after the first concert of the second Center season. “That was very critical,” Rhynerson said. “We did lose subscribers because of his resignation. Maurice had a strong following, and rightly so. He had been involved in the community for a long time.”

The chorale bounced back--but it took staff cuts, and the new music director, William Hall, waived his salary. Still, Rhynerson reports, “we came from $110,000 in the hole” after the first concert and “finished the year at $35,000 in the black.”

Projections now, Rhynerson said, are to budget $400,000--the same as the first year at the Center--and to pull in “1,200 subscribers. That is a little brighter picture from last season, but still a little down from the first year.” Right now, about 800 subscriptions have been ordered; the chorale gives its first concert of the season Oct. 30.

Efforts to contain costs continue--and one move will be out of the Center, at least for some concerts. Instead, the chorale will perform at St. Andrew’s Church in Newport Beach and Chapman College in Orange.

After that, though, to stay at the Center, it will have to merge with the county’s other major vocal group, the Pacific Chorale.

Staying at the Center is important to Rhynerson. “These have been very tough times, but there is no doubt it was worth it all,” he said. “Our constituency expects us to be at the Center now. The quality of the programming has increased, our audience is more aware of the arts now, and they expect much more of us.”

Officials of the Pacific Chorale say they had anticipated a major drop in interest after the Center’s first year, and therefore were not caught entirely unawares when their subscription rates fell. As a result, the organization was able to avoid a deficit.

Still, the idea of a merger with the Master Chorale is attractive to the Pacific. For one thing, it would help the group meet concert hall expenses that have skyrocketed: In 1985-86, it cost the chorale $14,832 to offer eight concerts at Santa Ana High School. A year later, at the Center, the cost of staging only three concerts was $40,434.

A merger also would make the Center easier to fill. The Pacific had an average attendance of 2,100 at each performance during 1987-88, according to its development director, Bonnie McLain.

Furthermore, both chorales compete for the same corporate dollars, according to Pacific’s board chairperson, Anne Nutt, who doles out money to such groups as director of community relations at Northrop Corp. in Anaheim.

“Because of the need for corporate dollars and the constant competition for an audience base, it makes sense to try to consolidate resources and organizations,” Nutt said.

1987-88 was a dismal year for the Irvine Symphony, the smallest of the organizations using the Center. It ended its 10th season in debt $25,000--a good-sized chunk of its $180,000 budget--having been unable to fill the Center either for its own concerts or for a special benefit performance in May by Bob Hope.

Yet conductor Roger Hickman said things actually would have been worse if the orchestra had not made the move to the Center.

“We would be in debt even further if we’d played the same concerts in (South Coast Community) Church” in Irvine, where the orchestra has played for the past four years, Hickman said. “Instead of getting (audiences of) 1,200, we might be getting 200 or 300.

“Things were dwindling here (in Irvine),” Hickman said. “We were suffering from recognition problems and lack of audience interest.”

So he looked to the Center. At the start, things looked promising. Two concerts at the Center in 1986-87 had “broken even. So we planned another season, four dates.”

But only two were well attended. A Bob Hope performance was scheduled to benefit the orchestra--but then it failed to draw more than 1,200 ticket buyers.

Hickman thought the orchestra’s own falloff might have been a function of repertory and scheduling. “Monday and Tuesday nights . . . that’s all we have had this year,” he said. “It’s hard to come home from work and get dressed to go to a concert.” In its first year at the Center, he noted, “we had had Friday and Saturday concerts.

Also, “I get the sense that people want to see bigger names,” Hickman said.

Hickman remains committed to the idea of using the Center as a magnet for audiences.

“We’re very happy with the Center,” he said. “I think their prices were very reasonable for what they offered. We play better there. There are better acoustics. The musicians get more inspired. And it is the best concert hall around.”

But, Hickman says: “We will not venture forth until we take care of our debts and have enough money accumulated to take care of things ahead of time. We will be a little more cautious in the future.”

For Opera Pacific, there are no good old days. The group, which presents original and touring productions at the Center, was born when the Center was, formed for the inaugural Center season from the remains of a moribund, 24-year-old Laguna Beach outfit, the Festival of Opera.

Opera Pacific officials will tell you, not surprisingly, that the opening of the Center revived opera in Orange County. But they’ll also tell you that competition with the Center’s own presentation of the New York City Opera kept them from expanding their own program as quickly as they would have liked to.

In fact, Opera Pacific closed the season with a deficit of $27,000, according to Martin Weil, the company’s managing director.

“We were a little over-optimistic in predicting our ticket sales,” Weil said. “We based our projections on a phenomenal first season,” he said.

The opera has postponed plans to expand its season from three productions to four until at least 1990, Weil said.

The Orange County Philharmonic Society presents visiting symphonies and artists at the Center, including such renowned orchestras as the Royal Philharmonic and the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande.

Of all five Center tenants, only this one has made it through two seasons with healthy ledgers and no need to either fold its tent or change its course. Erich Vollmer, the group’s executive director, said subscriptions rose 14% and that single-ticket sales also were up. In all, he said, the society averaged 93% capacity at the Center. The society’s 1987-88 budget was $1.8 million; in 1988-89, it is projected to be $2.4 million. Where other groups are pulling back, the society has expanded.

Vollmer attributes these successes to a “stronger season” of performers.

Ah, stronger than whose?

An obvious lesson has not escaped Henry T. Segerstrom, the real estate baron who donated the land on which the Center stands, and who serves as its board chairman and chief executive officer.

Asked his thoughts on how the county’s classical music community is faring at the Center, Segerstrom noted, “We are learning that the top-flight groups and the top-flight performers fill the house, and that has a message in the area of the local groups.

“I think what we’re seeing is that the community will support each one of the disciplines in the performing arts, but in that support the community is going to be very selective,” Segerstrom continued.

“Sometimes,” he said--not mentioning local groups specifically, but not really having to--”our wishes can lead us beyond reality. When that happens, we pull back to reality. This is a learning process. This is somewhat of a period of adjustment and learning.”