MUSIC

Jorge Mester, music director of the Pasadena Symphony, will conduct the opening concert for the new Oakland East Bay Symphony, March 31. The inaugural season for the orchestra, which is attempting to fill the void left by the bankruptcy of the Oakland Symphony in 1986, lists five concerts through June 3, one of them a pops program. The orchestra has raised $120,000 towards its initial $360,000 budget, not counting a $100,000 matching grant from the City of Oakland. The new ensemble has enlisted 52 of the 72 players from the defunct orchestra.