O. C. MUSIC : Camerata Won’t Have to Post Bond : After meeting with group’s management, the musicians union decides not to make the requirement, despite complaints of late payments.

The Orange County Musicians Assn., Local 7, has decided not to require the Mozart Camerata to post a bond to cover musicians’ salaries for rehearsals and the chamber orchestra’s concerts in February.

The union’s executive board met with members of Camerata management Monday night and issued a statement on Tuesday that “after careful review” the union will not require a bond. The decision runs contrary to the union’s assertion last week that it would require the bond in the wake of complaints of late payments and allegations of other contract violations made by 17 Camerata musicians.

“Neither of the parties choose to disclose the terms of the agreement,” according to Art Dragon, secretary-treasurer of Local 7.

“We view it as a vote of confidence in the Mozart Camerata,” Camerata board member Harvey Berman said Tuesday. Berman was one of two Camerata officials who met with the union’s executive committee.

“The problem was that they were prejudging before they heard our side of what happened,” Berman said. “The intent (of the Monday meeting) was: Come to us and discuss and find out what went on.”

Musicians’ complaints of consistently late salary payments, together with charges of inept leadership by Camerata founding music director Ami Porat, prompted the resignation last week of at least eight Camerata players, including concertmaster Endre Granat and principal second violinist Alex Horvath.

Porat has denied all allegations. He claimed that only Granat and Horvath could resign because the orchestra contracts most of its musicians on a “per-service basis” and that other musicians who told The Times they have resigned “were never hired” for the group’s next concerts on Feb. 9 and 10.

Berman downplayed the significance of the resignations of Granat and Horvath. “If you change the principals, how will it affect the music?” he said. “We think it’s going to sound better.”

Porat maintains that the issue is the result of “a personality problem” between himself and Horvath. Although Horvath denies there is a personality conflict, he told The Times that he has suggested that the board replace Porat.

Dragon and Berman confirmed that other issues between the union and the orchestra are pending, but they did not elaborate.

Other financial problems appear to loom for the chamber orchestra, one of two Orange County chamber ensembles, however. The Camerata still owes rent money for concerts held at the Santa Ana High School auditorium in 1988 as well as about $5,000 worth of expenses rung up at the Center Club in Costa Mesa during a fund-raising event there last October, The Times has learned.

“I believe we are making payments on (the Santa Ana High School debt),” Berman said. “The exact amount of the debt is being negotiated.”

Gaylen Freeman, assistant superintendent of business services at Santa Ana Unified School District, on Tuesday said the Camerata owes “about a couple thousand dollars” and that “we just get no response at all from them. . . . They didn’t even respond to our last letter in October.”

In addition, Berman confirmed that the bill of roughly $5,000 from the Center Club remains unpaid.

“We have been negotiating (with them) and attempting to resolve that,” Berman said.

Whatever the orchestra’s financial problems, however, Porat’s position appears secure.

“Under Mozart Camerata bylaws, there are some unusual features, one of which is that Ami Porat’s tenure is guaranteed and (he) may not be terminated,” former board president James D. Baker III said this week.

“Given his position of having founded the organization, I would say that it would reflect (that) the Mozart Camerata is Ami Porat and without him it probably wouldn’t have much reason for existence.”

Meanwhile, several musicians have rallied to the defense of the embattled conductor.

“I certainly feel that he is a good conductor, that he is very musical,” Jay Grauer, a string bassist with the Camerata since 1985, said Monday. ‘When he comes to rehearsals, he’s prepared and knows what he wants.”

Grauer said that he has “never received a late payment.”

“That’s never been a problem, within the normal range of two or three weeks” after the concert, he said.

Local president Frank Amoss, however, said last week that the orchestra’s contract requires that musicians be paid within 14 days of the concert.

Violinist Sergiu Schwartz, who guested with the Camerata last April and is scheduled to return in May, also complimented Porat’s leadership.

“He’s a wonderful musician,” Schwartz said Monday. “He took extra care and time to prepare the concerts and not only (was) he interested in giving me enough time to rehearse with the orchestra, but he also wanted to spend more time on artistic interpretations. . . . Few conductors are so thorough.”

Schwartz said he never had any problems in getting paid, although another prominent soloist who has appeared with the Camerata, who asked for anonymity, said his check was a month late.