Conductors to Vie for Santa Monica Post

Four veteran conductors--Patrick Flynn, John Barnett, Allen Gross and James Smith--will be on the podium of the Santa Monica Symphony in the orchestra’s music-directorless season of 1989-1990.

“It is our expectation to select a music director from one of these,” said Robert K. Roney, president of the symphony association. The announcement is due at the end of the season.

Each of the four candidates has strong credentials. Flynn, who is music director of the Riverside Symphony, spent 10 years in Australia, in conducting posts in Canberra and in guest engagements at Australian Opera. He served American Ballet Theatre in two consecutive seasons, 1976-78. In the past decade he has guested at Paris Opera, at the Royal Opera, Covent Garden and at North American festivals in Chautauqua, Charleston and Detroit.

Flynn will conduct the season opener, Oct. 15, to be held in Barnum Hall at Santa Monica High School--the remaining three concerts take place at Santa Monica Civic Auditorium. With clarinetist Gary Gray as soloist, Flynn’s program lists Bernstein’s “Candide” Overture, the Second Clarinet Concerto by Weber and Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony.

Barnett, who in recent years has held conducting posts in New York City and Puerto Rico, was, from 1946 to 1958, associate conductor to music director Alfred Wallenstein at the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Barnett will lead the Feb. 4 concert, a program without a soloist, comprising Beethoven’s First “Leonore” Overture and Symphony No. 1, Elgar’s Serenade for Strings and a suite from Strauss’ “Rosenkavalier.”

Last week, Barnett told the Times that he had not been interested in conducting the Santa Monica group until he heard two concerts led by former music director Yehuda Gilad, programs that included symphonies by Mahler and Sibelius.

“I was very impressed, amazed even, at the professionalism of these people, the quality of tone and the meticulous playing--and with a minimum commitment of rehearsal time and exposure to each other,” Barnett commented.

Gross, music director of the Pasadena Youth Orchestra and a member of the faculty at Occidental College, will conduct the April 15 concert. That agenda: Beethoven’s “Egmont” Overture,” Mozart’s Flute Concerto No. 2 (the soloist to be announced) and Dvorak’s Symphony No. 8, in G.

Smith, a professor and minister of music at First United Methodist Church of Santa Monica, will lead the final concert of the season, May 13. His program lists Robert Schumann’s “Konzertstucke” for four horns and orchestra; Bernstein’s “Chichester Psalms” and Saint-Saens’ Third Symphony, with Catharine Crozier the organ soloist.

A teacher of conductors and a longtime Santa Monica resident, Smith acknowledged that “I’ve been looking to the chance to conduct this orchestra for 25 years.” Flynn and Gross were not available for comment.

The four conductors were chosen from a field of 125 applicants from the United States and abroad, said Sheila Wells, the longtime publicist for the Santa Monica organization.

“And we didn’t even advertise,” Wells said.

A FESTIVAL: “Black Choreographers Moving Toward the 21st Century” is the title of twin “national dance festivals” scheduled for November in San Francisco and Los Angeles.

The southern half of the event occupies Nov. 13-19 at UCLA, the Inner City Cultural Center and, said spokeswoman Ann Erb, “all through the community.” Four performances in Wadsworth Theater in Westwood are scheduled to top off the festivities on consecutive nights Nov. 16-19.

Among the visiting and resident companies participating in the four separate programs are Dimensions Dance Theater, Los Angeles Contemporary Dance Theater, Urban Bush Women, Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane and Co., Spotted Leopard Dance Co., Donald Byrd/The Group, Lines Dance Co. and L. Martina Young. In addition to performances and community events, the festival will offer master classes, lectures and symposiums.

PEOPLE: Julie Rosenfeld, first violinist of the Colorado Quartet, has advanced to the semifinals of the Carnegie Hall International American Music Competition. With 11 other violinists, Rosenfeld will compete for a top prize of $75,000 in the contest administered by Carnegie Hall and made possible by a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation. The competition was established to “promote excellence and stimulate greater interest in the performance of 20th-Century music.” The semifinals are scheduled Sept. 18 and 19; the final competition ends Sept. 23. . . . At American Ballet Theatre, four promotions among the dancers have been announced. Ricardo Bustamante and Wes Chapman have been promoted to principal dancers, and Jeremy Collins and Christina Fagundes have been promoted to soloist, all effective Nov. 1. . . . Andre Previn, who continues to suffer from tendinitis, has canceled his appearance as pianist at SummerFest ’89 in La Jolla, citing the tendinitis problem. Previn will be replaced by Yefim Bronfman. . . . George Perle has been named new composer in residence with the San Francisco Symphony, effective at the beginning of the season, Sept. 6. . . . Maurice Staples has been appointed general manager of the Los Angeles Master Chorale, replacing Robert Willoughby Jones, who resigned last spring.