Other Centers Live With Pop : Survey: O.C. Center is one of few in the nation to shy away from contemporary pop and rock acts. A Center official says those shows are not the way to broaden support.

When booking officials at the most prestigious arts center in the country--Lincoln Center in New York City--had an open date recently on the schedule for Avery Fisher Hall, home of the New York Philharmonic, in came a pop vocal duo from 3,000 miles away: Orange County’s Righteous Brothers.

The Righteous Brothers have never performed at the Orange County Performing Arts Center, though. Bill Medley, who lives in Corona del Mar, recalls singing for a benefit that raised $35,000 for the Center in 1986. But he and fellow Righteous Brother Bobby Hatfield have never been invited to sing there.

In fact, the 2,994-seat Center is one of only a handful of such facilities in the nation that has shunned pop and rock music of the post-Elvis era, a Times survey has found.

The $73-million, privately funded facility “was not built . . . for pop acts,” its president, Thomas R. Kendrick, has said several times.

Rather, he said, it was built for ballet, symphonic music, opera and musical theater.

But the gulf between the Center’s presentation costs and box office income hit a record $4.52 million in 1990. So not only Kendrick but his new vice president of development and several board members in recent weeks have expressed a need to broaden the 4-year-old Center’s support base. While Center officials note that its financial position, supported by donations, remains strong, last month they made public a Center-sponsored survey showing that just 9% of county residents say they have donated money to the facility and that about 70% have never attended a performance there.

Kendrick has long maintained that pop music is not the way to broaden the base. For one thing, he has said, there is no “potential revenue out there for (us in booking) pop entertainment.”

But at most other centers, The Times has found, officials welcome occasional pop and rock concerts as special events that are lucrative in themselves and that furthermore draw people who normally don’t buy ballet, opera, symphony or Broadway show tickets.

A variety of bookings, says Warren Sumners, president and chief executive officer of Florida’s Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center, is “also a good way to make people more comfortable with our hall. . . . One of the problems that all of us face is being accessible to the general population. Our facilities can have an elitist image, and this (pop and rock programming) is one way of addressing it that is not condescending.”

Similar sentiments were found when The Times surveyed more than two dozen public and private halls, from Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall in New York to the 2,187-seat Peoria Civic Center Theatre in Illinois. Officials at these halls also said that pop-music programming indeed canhelp broaden the fund-raising base.

These administrators also maintained that rock and pop are compatible with the other types of arts and entertainments that the Orange County Center provides.

“I’ve long felt that there’s a segregation of different kinds of arts,” said Richard Van Kleeck of the Kentucky Center for the Performing Arts in Louisville, where the Neville Brothers, the New Grass Revival and Cajun singer Zachary Richard have played in addition to Mstislav Rostropovich, Leontyne Price and the Moscow Philharmonic.

“I feel I’m in a position to close the gap between pop and classical music,” Van Kleeck continued. “Whatever it is that makes any piece of music good--intonation, phrasing, technique, line--is there in any kind of music. My goal is to bring artists in who display good music, and who have something to say musically.”

James Randolph, president of the Tennessee Performing Arts Center in Nashville--which, like the Orange County Center, is operated by a private, tax-exempt corporation--said “the fact that we do these (pop and rock shows) and generate profit for the overall budget allows us to continue providing reduced fees for resident companies.

“But that is not the reason that we do it--not because we have to make up for those subsidies. We feel it is important to bring people from all segments of society into this building.” The Tennessee center’s programs have featured folk guitarist Leo Kottke and country singer Lyle Lovett.

Jim Weyermann, director of marketing and event servicing at the Seattle Center, added that rock and pop “offer you, on a per-day-booked for those venues, the highest net per-capita day you can generate.” Bonnie Raitt and country singer Dwight Yoakam are among the acts who have played Seattle’s 3,099-seat Opera House.

J. Lynn Singleton, director of the 3,217-seat Providence Performing Arts Center in Rhode Island, said that in the last year alone pop and rock shows have earned his hall almost $200,000 of its total annual “hard operational costs” of $1 million. For a facility such as the Orange County Center--which, like the Providence center, receives no direct government funding--such alternative avenues for generating income become especially crucial, Singleton said.

But the benefits of booking pop and rock can extend beyond immediate box office gain and even beyond long-term artistic imperative. “I honestly believe that foundations and major corporations are looking for new ideas to support,” said Van Kleeck, whose wide-ranging “Lonesome Pine Specials” pop music series recently won the Kentucky center an underwriting grant “in excess of $100,000” from the Dayton-Hudson Foundation.

“The arts center equivalent of painting by the numbers is to do your international dance group every year, followed by your local dance group followed by your opera singer followed by your touring orchestra,” Van Kleeck said. “The powers that be in the arts community need to start recognizing the importance of including a wider palette of arts offerings.”

Kendrick, who declined to be interviewed for this article, has said in the past that the Orange County Center doesn’t include pop and rock because of its commitment to “the four major performing arts disciplines.” Nevertheless, he has booked up to half a dozen jazz performers in a given year, including Ella Fitzgerald, singer-pianist Harry Connick Jr. and guitarist Earl Klugh. The Center has also presented such Tin Pan Alley-style pop crooners as Andy Williams, Toni Tennille and Vic Damone. And in its 299-seat Founders Hall, which is used primarily as a rehearsal space, it once offered the acclaimed Turtle Island String Quartet among a handful of small-scale jazz and chamber music concerts.

But so far, the facility has been host to no rock, folk, blues or rhythm and blues artists and only one country act: Johnny Cash, whose 1988 concert was a Center rental to an independent promoter. (Ray Charles and Chet Atkins have performed at the Center in pops concerts with the Pacific Symphony through arrangements made by that orchestra, not by the Center itself.)

Like the Orange County Center, the 25 other facilities contacted by The Times fill the bulk of their schedules with performances and rehearsals by local or touring orchestras, ballet and opera companies. Most, like the Orange County Center, also book touring Broadway musicals.

But of the 25, all but two--in Birmingham, Ala., and Milwaukee--also allow rock and pop concerts, from as few as a handful to as many as 40 a year. And only one--Birmingham--considers rock and pop concerts inappropriate for the facility.

“We certainly would not have any rock,” said Phoebe Howell, director of booking at the Birmingham-Jefferson Civic Center, home to the Alabama Symphony. “It would never work in here. The sound would be incredible.”

Mary O’Hara Stacy, marketing director of Milwaukee County War Memorial Performing Arts Center, said a resident orchestra, ballet troupe, opera company and choral group require 90% of the available time in the center’s 2,301-seat Uihlein Hall, leaving only “undesirable” dates. “We have no weekend nights open,” Stacy said.

In the six months from October to March, the Orange County Center’s official calendar lists 80 nights in which Segerstrom Hall was and is unoccupied by performances of any kind. Neither Kendrick nor Center marketing director Richard Bryant would say how many of those nights were taken up by rehearsals or setup/breakdown time for shows.

But Tampa Bay’s Sumners, who is also a founder of the national Assn. of Performing Arts Centers, of which the Orange County Center is a member, said that typically between 40 and 50 days a year are set aside for rehearsals, setups and breakdowns.

Generally, building managers, instead of presenting pop and rock concerts themselves, prefer renting their halls to promoters who specialize in these acts. That way, the building shoulders none of a concert’s financial or promotional risks--another reason Kendrick long has cited for not playing host to pop and rock at the nonprofit arts facility.

Yet, on a good night, the building can collect $20,000 or more between rental fees and the percentages (generally 6% to 12%) of ticket sales, concessions, merchandising and other sources that typically go to the facility, according to figures supplied by numerous arts center managers.

“Last year we reached 96% attendance on our pop series,” said Terry Schlender, associate director of marketing and public relations for the Chicago Symphony Assn. The association owns and operates the 2,574-seat Orchestra Hall where R&B; singer Etta James, gospel vocal group Sweet Honey in the Rock, jazz trumpeter Miles Davis and rock singer Marianne Faithfull have performed or are scheduled.

“Each one might bring in $20,000 or $30,000. That’s certainly not taking up expenses of presenting the Chicago Symphony,” which has an annual budget of more than $30 million, “but if you add up six, seven or 10 of those, it does help.”

But beyond that, “it’s also a good way to make people more comfortable with our hall,” Schlender added.

“The hardest ticket to sell is the first one. If I can sell you a ticket to Judy Collins, I have a better chance of getting you back for the symphony or the ballet,” added Sumners, whose bookings at the Tampa center have featured not only Collins but Gordon Lightfoot, the Indigo Girls and Polish pop singer Basia.

“I’d love to get as many people in here as possible short of a tractor pull,” said Susan Kodner, director of marketing for the association that not only oversees the Minnesota Orchestra’s annual schedule but that also books and promotes 30 to 40 pop and rock concerts a year, both in its own 2,462-seat concert hall and occasionally in outside facilities. Kodner said her marketing studies indicate that there is some crossover between pop and classical audiences in Minneapolis.

Kendrick repeatedly has cited intense competition from pop concert facilities in the Southern California market as among the reasons he has not booked contemporary pop and rock music acts. Most other arts center managers also compete for pop attractions in their cities. But they say they have used their well-appointed facilities to competitive advantage.

“Because we have fewer seats (than some nearby pop facilities), it is hard to get some of the acts that we would like to do,” said Paul Simmerman, manager of the 2,700-seat concert hall at Washington’s Kennedy Center, where Kendrick was director of operations (a position that involved building maintenance rather than programming) before coming to Orange County in 1986.

“But there are a number of artists who prefer playing the Kennedy Center because of the prestigious part of it,” Simmerman added. The Kennedy Center has been host to folk rocker Suzanne Vega, country singer Merle Haggard and Rev. James Cleveland & Gospel Caravan as well as stand-up comedians and the Chinese Golden Dragon Acrobats as part of what Simmerman described as a goal “to do a little bit of everything that we possibly can.”

Kendrick often has said that independent promoters have shown no interest in booking concerts into the Center on a single-night basis. But several promoters say just the opposite is true.

Brian Murphy, president of Avalon Attractions, the Southland’s largest independent concert promoter, said he contacted Orange County Center officials when the building opened in 1986 and proposed to promote pop concerts there periodically. “The message that was sent loud and clear was that they really had no interest in dealing with us at all,” Murphy said.

“We figured that if they ever gave any indication that that has changed, we’d come running back. . . . If they were interested in having a nice package of pop shows . . . there are promoters--and I’m not the only one--who would be more than willing to talk to them about it.”

Besides Murphy and Avalon, booking agents at the Nederlander Organization (which operates the Pacific Amphitheatre, the Greek Theatre and numerous other pop-rock concert facilities nationwide), at the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano and at San Diego-based Bill Silva Presents all recently told The Times that they would consider the Orange County Center a valuable site for occasional pop music bookings.

Told that Center officials consider rock and pop inappropriate for the building, Nederlander’s vice president of West Coast concerts, Alex Hodges, quipped: “What is appropriate to the audience and what is appropriate to the management (are) often two different things.”

Unanimously, arts center executives said they avoid hard rock and heavy metal shows, or any event that is likely to attract unruly crowds. “That’s something we are always aware of,” said Les Smith, public relations manager for Copley Symphony Hall in San Diego, where performers recently have included the blues-rock Robert Cray Band, the country-rock Joe Ely Band and the Waterboys, a Celtic rock band.

“This is a fairly ornate hall with nice seats. We want to be careful we don’t bring in an act that’s going to wreck the building,” Smith said. “When anyone wants to come in and book a show, we examine the type of audience they want to attract. Yet we still have a pretty wide range of shows that come through.”

“We’ve really never had any damage to the facility,” said Singleton in Providence, who has booked rock, pop and blues acts including Talking Heads, the late Stevie Ray Vaughan, INXS, K.D. Lang, Suzanne Vega, Laurie Anderson and Michelle Shocked.

“There’s a certain line I won’t cross,” Singleton said. “If an outside promoter is in here, I’ll hold a reasonable damage deposit, from as little as $500 to $5,000; the average is $1,000. That gives us time to really check the place over the next day. I always say if there are promoters who don’t like it, don’t come. That’s the rules of the game. And if you don’t flinch from that, they’ll live with it.”

SOUND BALANCE: A LOOK AT PERFORMING ARTS CENTER PROGRAMMING AROUND THE COUNTRY

Many performing arts centers offer pop and rock shows in addition to classical music, dance and Broadway fare. This chart lists halls surveyed by The Times and their estimates of the number of pop-rock concerts presented in a given year, along with examples of the range of acts that have been featured. At centers that are multi-theater complexes, the name of the concert hall most comparable to the Orange County Performing Arts Center is indicated in parentheses. Facility: Academy of Music, Philadelphia Capacity: 2,929 Pop/Rock Shows: 20-25 Pop/Rock Programming: Bruce Hornsby & the Range; Ruben Blades; the Judds Classical and Other Programming: Philadelphia Orchestra Facility: * Austin Performing Arts Center, Texas (Bass Hall) Capacity: 3,000 Pop/Rock Shows: 3-4 Pop/Rock Programming: Robert Palmer; Rickie Lee Jones; K.T. Oslin; Clint Black Classical and Other Programming: Austin Lyric Opera; Austin Symphony; Austin Ballet Facility: * Benedum Center for the Performing Arts, Pittsburgh Capacity: 2,887 Pop/Rock Shows: 15-20 Pop/Rock Programming: Gladys Knight & the Pips; Linda Ronstadt; the Winans; Patti LaBelle Classical and Other Programming: Pittsburgh Opera; Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre; Joffrey Ballet; Broadway shows Facility: * Birmingham-Jefferson Civic Center, Alabama (Concert Hall) Capacity: 2,971 Pop/Rock Shows: 0 Pop/Rock Programming: NONE Classical and Other Programming: Alabama Symphony; Ballet South; Birmingham Opera Theatre Facility: * Carnegie Hall, New York City Capacity: 2,804 Pop/Rock Shows: 20 Pop/Rock Programming: Arlo Guthrie; Take 6; Paquito D’Rivera Classical and Other Programming: Boston Symphony; Andreyev Balalaika Orchestra; Leontyne Price; Ballet Folklorico de Mexico Facility: Chicago Civic Opera House Capacity: 3,529 Pop/Rock Shows: 5-6 Pop/Rock Programming: Paul Simon; Laurie Anderson; Linda Ronstadt Classical and Other Programming: Chicago Lyric Opera; Joffrey Ballet; American Ballet Theatre Facility: Chicago Orchestra Hall Capacity: 2,566 Pop/Rock Shows: 6-10 Pop/Rock Programming: Etta James; Sweet Honey in the Rock; Miles Davis Classical and Other Programming: Chicago Symphony Facility: Copley Symphony Hall, San Diego Capacity: 2,255 Pop/Rock Shows: 10-15 Pop/Rock Programming: The Robert Cray Band; the Waterboys; the Whispers Classical and Other Programming: San Diego Symphony; Itzhak Perlman; U.S.S.R. State Symphony; Orchestre de Paris Facility: Houston Civic Center (Jesse H. Jones Hall; Music Hall) Capacity: Jesse H. Jones Hall: 3,001; Music Hall 3,023 Pop/Rock Shows: 4-10 Pop/Rock Programming: Aretha Franklin; Jody Watley; Ronnie James Dio Classical and Other Programming: Houston Grand Opera; Houston Symphony; Houston Ballet; Broadway shows Facility: Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Washington D.C. (Concert Hall) Capacity: 2,759 Pop/Rock Shows: 25-30 Pop/Rock Programming: Suzanne Vega; Merle Haggard; David Ruffin & Eddie Kendricks Classical and Other Programming: National Symphony Orchestra; Washington Opera; American Ballet Theatre Facility: * Kentucky Center for the Performing Arts (Whitney Hall) Capacity: 2,406 Pop/Rock Shows: 3-4 Pop/Rock Programming: Neville Brothers; Zachary Richard; New Grass Revival Classical and Other Programming: The Louisville Orchestra; Kentucky Opera; Louisville Ballet; Broadway shows Facility: Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, New York City (Avery Fisher Hall) Capacity: 2,738 Pop/Rock Shows: 20+ Pop/Rock Programming: Randy Newman; the Preservation Hall Jazz Band of New Orleans; Keith Jarrett; the Righteous Brothers Classical and Other Programming: New York Philharmonic; Juilliard String Quartet; English Chamber Orchetra; Yo Yo Ma Facility: * Milwaukee County War Memorial Performing Arts Center (Uihlein Hall) Capacity: 2,331 Pop/Rock Shows: 0 Pop/Rock Programming: NONE Classical and Other Programming: Milwaukee Symphony; Florentine Opera Co.; Milwaukee Ballet; Broadway shows Facility: Minneapolis Orchestra Hall Capacity: 2,462 Pop/Rock Shows: 30-40 Pop/Rock Programming: The Kinks; B.B. King; David Bromberg Classical and Other Programming: Minnesota Orchestra; St. Paul Chamber Orchestra Facility: * Music Center of Los Angeles (Dorothy Chandler Pavilion) Capacity: 3,197 Pop/Rock Shows: 1-2 Pop/Rock Programming: Stevie Wonder; Basia; Rev. James Cleveland Classical and Other Programming: Los Angeles Philharmonic; Music Center Opera of Los Angeles; Joffrey Ballet Facility: Orange County Performing Arts Center, Costa Mesa (Segerstrom Hall) Capacity: 2,994 Pop/Rock Shows: 0 Pop/Rock Programming: NONE Classical and Other Programming: Pacific Symphony; Opera Pacific; Australian Ballet; Broadway shows Facility: * Peoria Civic Center Theatre, Illinois Capacity: 2,187 Pop/Rock Shows: 10-12 Pop/Rock Programming: Nelson; Alice Cooper; Patti LaBelle Classical and Other Programming: Peoria Symphony; Christopher Parkening; Broadway shows Facility: Portland Center for the Performing Arts, Oregon (Schnitzer Concert Hall) Capacity: 2,776 Pop/Rock Shows: 10-20 Pop/Rock Programming: Joe Satriani; Nelson; Lacy J. Dalton; the Allman Brothers Band Classical and Other Programming: Oregon Symphony; Portland Symphonic Choir; Portland Youth Philharmonic Facility: Powell Symphony Hall, St. Louis Capacity: 2,717 Pop/Rock Shows: 3-6 Pop/Rock Programming: The Monkees; Peabo Bryson; Roberta Flack Classical and Other Programming: St. Louis Symphony Facility: * Providence Performing Arts Center, Rhode Island Capacity: 3,217 Pop/Rock Shows: 30 Pop/Rock Programming: Talking Heads; Stevie Ray Vaughan; K.D. Lang Classical and Other Programming: Bolshoi Ballet; New York City Opera; Festival Ballet Company of Rhode Island; Broadway shows Facility: San Francisco War Memorial and Performing Arts Center (Davies Symphony Hall, War Memorial Opera House) Capacity: Davies Symphony Hall: 3,063; War Memorial Opera House: 3,252 Pop/Rock Shows: Laurie Anderson; Miles Davis; Willie Nelson; Merle Haggard Pop/Rock Programming: 8-12 Classical and Other Programming: San Francisco Symphony; San Francisco Opera; San Francisco Ballet Facility: * Seattle Center Opera House Capacity: 3,099 Pop/Rock Shows: 20-25 Pop/Rock Programming: Bonnie Raitt; Dwight Yoakam; Van Morrison Classical and Other Programming: Seattle Symphony; Pacific Northwest Ballet; Seattle Opera; Bolshoi Ballet; Broadway shows Facility: * Spokane Opera House Capacity: 2,700 Pop/Rock Shows: 30-40 Pop/Rock Programming: Neil Young; Alice Cooper; Little Feat; the Statler Brothers Classical and Other Programming: Spokane Symphony; Cleveland Orchestra; American Indian Dance Theatre; Broadway shows Facility: * Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center, Florida (Festival Hall) Capacity: 2,400 Pop/Rock Shows: 30-40 Pop/Rock Programming: Indigo Girls; Basia; Africa Oye Classical and Other Programming: Florida Opera; Florida Orchestra; Philadelphia Orchestra; Alvin Ailey Dance Company Facility: * Tennessee Performing Arts Center (Jackson Hall) Capacity: 2,442 Pop/Rock Shows: 20-30 Pop/Rock Programming: Vanilla Ice; Leo Kottke; Lyle Lovett; Melissa Etheridge Classical and Other Programming: Nashville Symphony; Nashville Ballet; Nashville Opera; Broadway shows Facility: * Wang Center for the Performing Arts, Boston Capacity: 3,800 Pop/Rock Shows: 10 Pop/Rock Programming: Ziggy Marley; the Robert Cray Band; Kitaro Classical and Other Programming: Boston Symphony; Boston Ballet; Alvin Ailey Dance Company; Broadway shows * Facilities most comparable to the Orange County Performing Arts Center in booking a balance of symphonic music, dance, opera and/or Broadway musicals in a single, multipurpose hall.

HOW THE SURVEY WAS CONDUCTED

For this survey, The Times spent two months contacting 25 performing arts facilities across the country, focusing on pop and rock music activities in halls with capacities comparable to that of the Orange County Performing Arts Center, which seats 2,994 in its Segerstrom Hall. These range from the 2,187-seat Peoria Civic Center Theatre in Illinois to 3,800-seat Wang Center for the Performing Arts in Boston. Capacity average for halls surveyed was 2,839.4.

Of the facilities, 14 are especially comparable to the Orange County center in that they offer a balance of opera, symphonic music, ballet and musical theater in one multipurpose hall. (The others are either single-purpose halls or parts of multi-theater complexes.)

All but two of the 25 halls include pop and rock music in their programming.