MUSIC : 3 Musicians Say Camerata Barred Them

Three musicians who claim they had verbal agreements to play in the Mozart Camerata for the full 1990-91 season say they were barred from a rehearsal Monday night. Saying that orchestra officials told them they were not hired to play the group’s next concerts this weekend, two of the three said Tuesday they will file grievances with the Orange County Musicians’ Assn. The third could not be reached.

Meanwhile, a post-rehearsal meeting to address musicians’ concerns about the chamber orchestra prompted another exchange of charges and countercharges between orchestra management and musicians who have performed with the group.

Frank Amoss, president of the musicians’ union local, attended the meeting and said Tuesday that the union will investigate any complaints or grievances. But he otherwise characterized the meeting as “a turning point because musicians were assured they would be able to deal more directly with the Camerata board in the future.”

Camerata board member Harvey Berman, one of two management members present, said Monday night’s session at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in Newport Beach turned up no specific complaints. Some musicians who were at the meeting, however, argued that they were given insufficient time to voice their concerns. Berman said the meeting lasted about half an hour.

“They didn’t even want to have a meeting,” said violinist Robert Schumitzky, who said that he resigned from the orchestra in December but that he attended Monday’s meeting to present his complaints. “When we showed up for the meeting at 10:30 p.m., two guys from the Camerata said, ‘Well, it’s late, we really don’t have time to have this meeting. We have to get out of the church.’ We were really fuming.”

According to Berman, a follow-up meeting was called and will be held after today’s rehearsal. But Schumitzky said he was unaware that such a meeting had been agreed to.

Violist Miriam Meyer, who along with violinist Tanya Bovaird and violist Dimitri Bovaird was told to leave the rehearsal, agreed. “There was no decision made,” she said Tuesday. “If there was, it’s news to me.”

Meyer and the Bovairds, who are brother and sister, were not among eight musicians who told The Times recently that they had resigned from the chamber orchestra. Dimitri Bovaird and Meyer said they plan to file grievances.

Berman called the three “malcontent devotees of the one who led the mutiny” in the orchestra, referring to principal second violinist Alex Horvath. Mozart Camerata music director Ami Porat and board mangement say that Horvath has orchestrated a rash of resignations and complaints because of personal disagreements he has with Porat. Horvath has denied the charge.

Berman said that only those three of about 25 musicians present at the meeting had raised complaints and that those complaints consisted only of generalities.

“Unless there is some specificity, . . . I can’t deal with their conclusions,” he said.

Porat, as well as his mother and brother, sat in on the meeting at which complaints were to be aired until, at the mutual request of musicians and management, they were asked to leave, Berman said.

Meyer and the Bovairds “probably didn’t have the right to be present” at the Monday meeting, Berman said. “I allowed it because I didn’t want to stifle free speech.”

In the future, he said, “if (musicians) have no relationship with the Mozart Camerata, they will have to raise these stale issues through the union or address me individually, but not in the (orchestra’s) meetings.”

As for the possibility of musicians filing grievances, Berman said, “I think it’s a great idea.

“What they’re talking about is whether or not they have an existing contract,” he said. “They want to force us to retain them, yet these are the same people that were the most vociferous about alleged breaches of contract.”

Berman characterized the Monday meeting as “a step in the right direction,” however.

“The people who are now in the Mozart Camerata have been given the vehicle to make themselves heard if they so choose, without repercussion,” he said. “We want contented musicians that are committed, and we’re not going to get contentment if they don’t have an avenue to raise issues that they feel have to be resolved. So far I haven’t heard of any concerns.”