MUSIC : Life Backstage Has Taught a Lot to Pacific’s Assistant Conductor : Since joining the orchestra during its time of turmoil, Lucas Richman has learned the importance of confidence and fast work.

Backstage at every Pacific Symphony concert, ready to take over in case “anything unforeseen happens,” stands assistant conductor Lucas Richman.

So far, however, every guest conductor of the orchestra has stayed remarkably, unspeakably, fit and trim, so Richman, 26, has remained the standby rather than the kid who goes on stage a rookie and walks off a star.

“It comes with the territory,” Richman said Monday from New York, where he was finishing leading a monthlong training workshop in musical theater.

“It’s just inherent with the position. But the opportunity to work with such an orchestra and really learn the repertoire can’t be compared with anything else,” he said. “It can be very gratifying, and it’s good training to be able to rehearse quickly.”

Richman was appointed assistant to the Pacific in 1988 when the orchestra was undergoing its greatest internal turmoil because the board had not renewed the contract of founding music director Keith Clark. Clark had said that he had not even been included in the process of selecting Richman.

“Yes, morale was low when I came in, but that has completely turned around,” Richman said. “I feel very good about the opportunities I’ve had these past two years, even though I was kind of thrown into the fire immediately.

“The first concert I had was a pops concert where the repertoire I had selected was very difficult, and I had only an hour’s worth of rehearsal. But it set a momentum that has been picking up and picking up ever since then.”

Richman said that in the last two years he has grown in “confidence and being able to trust myself, never allowing the situation to get the best of me and ultimately letting the music be the most important thing. I know how to study scores quickly now and rehearse efficiently.

“But it’s not just making music when you’re standing in front of an orchestra. You’re dealing with many different personalities, not instruments.

“Mostly I’m younger than a good three-quarters of the orchestra members, so I’ve had to learn how to be respectful of their abilities, while at the same time guiding a performance to highlight the music--what the composer, I think, originally intended.

“The orchestra can very quickly sum up somebody who stands up on the podium. And I haven’t felt bad vibes when I get up on the podium. I feel generally they’ve been very supportive, and I appreciate that.”

A graduate of UCLA and USC, Richman studied violin with Alexander Treger and conducting with Daniel Lewis. He was associate conductor of the Young Musicians Foundation Debut Orchestra in Los Angeles from 1984 to 1987 and was one of four conductors selected in 1988 by Leonard Bernstein to share the podium for concerts presented in London and Moscow.

Richman actually leads the orchestra more than subscribers may realize. In addition to his conducting duties Saturday at Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre, Richman regularly leads the orchestra’s concerts in Orange County schools and the Saturday morning children’s series at the Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa.

That series has become so popular, incidentally, that the number of concerts offered had to be doubled.

“I like working with kids,” Richman said. “If anything, doing programs for the kids can be a very humbling sort of experience because they can be the most critical audiences.

“If I’m able to learn how to do children’s programming efficiently and with excitement and with an educational twist to it, and do it well, then I know the opportunity for conducting the standard classical repertoire will come up.

“One thing I’ve learned is patience. In this business, that’s a good quality to have.”

For the in-school and Saturday morning concerts, Richman picks repertory and writes scripts that are “very friendly to the kids so that the presentation is not an intimidating one.”

“Generally, there is never enough time to rehearse,” he said. “For kids’ concerts, I get only one rehearsal, and because of scheduling problems, that sometimes is not immediately before the concert date.

“But I’m learning how to make the best of every situation. This will prepare me for anything that I will encounter after Pacific Symphony.”

While he has been at the Pacific, Richman also has been teaching in the music and theater departments at UCLA. He has been composing, as well.

“I’ve been fortunate enough that things have come my way,” he said. “Right now, I also have a number of commissions to write large works. I have a commissioned oratorio performance (for the Brandeis-Bardin Institute in Simi Valley) next summer, and I’m also working on an opera and a musical theater piece.”

While he hasn’t laid out a timetable by which he would measure his success, he said his ideal future would combine the careers of composing and conducting.

“I would like to have the luxury of composing and guest-conducting within five years on a regular basis,” he said. “That equal balance between the two would make me very happy. Through my composing, I think I’ll be able to get the conducting opportunities. . . .

“But I can only move from one project to the next. Sure, I have dreams of certain orchestras I would like to work with and places I’d like to perform at. But I know the ropes, and I understand the paths traditionally followed to get there. So it’s about hanging in there and studying.”

Lucas Richman will conduct the Pacific Symphony in works by Falla, Ravel, Bizet and Gershwin at 8:30 p.m. on Saturday at Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre, 8800 Irvine Center Drive, Irvine. Nelson Freire will be soloist. Tickets: $8.50 to $37.50. Lawn seating: $8.50. Information: (714) 474-4233.

CONDUCTOR SEARCH: South Coast Symphony music director Larry Granger is one of four finalists for the conductor’s position with the Santa Cruz County Symphony. As part of the selection process, Granger will conduct the orchestra on Feb. 23 and 24. A decision is expected to be made in spring, 1991. Granger said Tuesday that if he is offered the post, he doesn’t expect to abandon his duties with South Coast Symphony.