MUSIC

A Garden Grove official who feels the city could replace subsidized performances by the Garden Grove Symphony with free concerts by military bands was the lone dissenter when the City Council voted 4-1 to allocate $16,000 for the orchestra’s fifth annual free summer concert on Aug. 19. Council member Robert F. Dinsen also opposed an additional $14,000 for the symphony for the fiscal year that began July 1. The councilman, who opposes all municipal support for the arts, including the annual Grove Shakespeare Festival, complains that the Garden Grove Symphony’s overhead has grown too high and says the orchestra is “overloaded with professionals.” Military groups have played free concerts in the city twice in the last two years, but a spokesman for the U.S. Navy Band in San Diego says that military groups are limited to performing patriotic programs and prohibited from replacing an organization of professional musicians. Union and symphony officials say they are not opposed to anything that doesn’t replace a paid performance.