Whitney Gives a Toot About the Symphony

Dorene Whitney, the La Jolla socialite who has become known as one of the county’s most efficient and successful volunteer fund-raisers, seems not to have absorbed the lessons of the “once-burned, once-learned” theory of experiential education. The woman, who found herself the focus of controversy when she headed the 1985 benefit-opening of Symphony Hall, has agreed to take on a second major San Diego Symphony benefit when the adjacent Symphony Towers, the city’s tallest building, officially opens in September.

To those excluded from the symphony’s inner circles, everything appeared to be sweetness and light on Nov. 2, 1985, when the former Fox Theatre reopened as Symphony Hall. Sylphs hidden in the chandeliers showered roses upon the packed house, which included nearly 1,000 patrons who had paid as much as $1,000 each to attend an event that was billed, in a conscious abandonment of modesty, as “the party of the century.” Sandwiched between an extravagant reception and a lavish supper party, the program featured performances by Joel Grey, Diahann Carroll and the San Diego Symphony Orchestra.

Whitney masterminded the event. As the beneficiary of months of media attention and unfettered hoopla, it generated $730,000, a sum so remarkable that the symphony seemed buoyed by a rising jet stream of champagne bubbles certain to bear it to previously undreamed-of heights.

The Bubbles Burst

Yet, within weeks, those bubbles burst. The organization, which often had been reported as being mired in fiscal quicksand but which seemed to have stepped onto solid ground when it acquired Symphony Hall, announced that it had sunk into the worst financial crisis in its history. As 1986 dawned, the “party of the century” seemed nothing less than a hollow triumph for a symphony that was fighting not only for credibility, but for its existence.

For Whitney, the symphony’s unanticipated collapse was the nadir in an 18-month labor that started with her 1984 appointment as the fund-raiser’s chairman. The stint frequently was punctuated by bitter disagreements--both within the symphony and in the city’s volunteer fund-raising community--about the feasibility of her original plans and goals. (An early proposal called for tenting the intersection of 7th Avenue and B Street as shelter for a rococo-style entertainment for as many as 2,000 guests; the projected net for funds raised was $1.5 million.) The final, modified version fell far short of the original goal but still earned twice the amount raised by any gala in the city’s history to that point.

The diminutive blonde, now well along in the planning for the opening of Symphony Towers, asked, “Why did I go back to fund-raising for the symphony after all the problems I had with the Symphony Hall gala?

“No one has had more problems that I had with that. But we need a symphony in this city, and the Symphony can’t run without money.”

According to insiders tapped into the Byzantine communication channels that link the city’s volunteer fund-raising forces, the planned Sept. 9 gala has not ignited the controversies that swirled around its 1985 predecessor. Plans for this year’s gala are far less grandiose, but they are not modest. Whitney, who also founded the San Diego Opera’s annual season opening-night benefit and will chair that organization’s 25th anniversary gala next January, does not take a loving-hands-from-home approach when she mounts an event.

Classical Concert, This Time

Whitney said she intends to do without the show-biz aspects of the concert that opened Symphony Hall. Plans this time call for a classical concert, starring a musician she refused to name, although, she said, he has been signed. She described him as “a world-famous performer who has never previously appeared in San Diego.”

The event will not be shy on expenses. Whitney said the star musician alone will command a five-figure fee, but added that underwriting by individuals and corporations, rather than proceeds from ticket sales, is expected to cover the bulk of the expenses.

“The success of any event like this is determined by how much underwriting you can attract,” she said.

Whitney occasionally spoke like an investment banker who had pledged to multiply a client’s grubstake in a brief time.

“The symphony would like to earn $300,000 from the Symphony Towers opening, and I’ll try for more,” adding that the amount has not yet been earmarked for a specific use.

Although $300,000 seems ambitious, Whitney said providing the right level of entertainment is the key to attracting 200 patrons at the price of $750 apiece, and another 800 in lower-priced--but hardly bargain-basement--categories of $250 and $300 a ticket. In order to fill Symphony Hall, much less expensive tickets will be available to those who only wish to attend the concert.

Whitney already has sold more than 100 tickets in the top-price category. One marketing ploy was a recent champagne brunch and fashion show for women who have already purchased tickets for the opening. Such added attractions are perceived as increasing the value of an event, even though they have only a peripheral connection to it.

Much more important are the details of the entertainment itself, and those in the top category--limited to 200--will find themselves sitting pretty, in the auditorium’s Grand Tier for the concert and later in the office tower’s 37th floor for an elaborate dinner. Guests in the lower-priced category will get a buffet in the “sky lobby” above Symphony Hall, and dancing, with the possible addition of Las Vegas-style entertainment, will follow.

Whitney said she had to satisfy herself that the symphony was on “the right track” before she accepted the assignment of a fund-raiser, but, once that block had been passed, she was eager to go to work.

“I want to keep music in San Diego by keeping the San Diego Symphony in business,” she said. “A town is not a sophisticated town without a symphony. We can have theater, ballet and opera, but, without a symphony orchestra there’s no music. But we have music in our Symphony Hall, and that’s something to be proud of. It makes others think of us a city of culture, rather than as just another beach town. You can’t live here just for the weather--if you want to be part of San Diego, you have to support the arts.”