Pacific Symphony Appoints Composer : Orchestra: Frank Ticheli will leave his teaching position in Texas to advise the orchestra on contemporary works and compose a work for the 1992-93 season, among other duties.

The Pacific Symphony on Thursday named Frank Ticheli, 33, a newly appointed assistant professor in composition at USC, as the orchestra’s composer-in-residence.

In announcing the two-year appointment, which begins Oct. 1, music director Carl St. Clair said it is important that the orchestra have someone on staff “who could personify concepts in new music” and provide ideas “from a creator’s vantage point, rather than a re-creator’s vantage point” like his own.

At the Pacific, Ticheli will give preconcert lectures, advise St. Clair on contemporary works to be played by the orchestra and compose a new work for the 1992-93 season. Although the date for the premiere has not been set, St. Clair said the work would be tailored for the orchestra and would be “a substantial work.”

Orchestra officials declined to say how much Ticheli will be paid, but executive director Louis G. Spisto said the money will come out of the orchestra’s annual operating budget in the first year and through private or corporate grants to be sought for the second.

St. Clair said that the orchestra held no competition to fill the position, nor advertised it. “I decided on it,” St. Clair said. “Frank has all the (qualifications) I wanted. . . . He’s someone I’ve known for a considerable amount of time, back to the early ‘80s.”

A native of Monroe, La., Ticheli teaches at Trinity University in San Antonio, Tex. He was educated at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, and at the University of Michigan, where he received a master’s degree in composition in 1983 and his doctorate in 1987. St. Clair taught at the University of Michigan from 1978 to ’85.

His published works range from works for chamber groups to concert bands and orchestras.

He said that his latest work is a setting of three poems by Rabindranath Tagore and will receive its premiere next week in San Antonio. Ticheli described it as “a farewell piece for my colleagues at Trinity.” He dedicated it to his fiancee, whom he described as “a pianist (who) plays a mean folk guitar.” He will begin teaching at USC in September.

Ticheli said that he is “leery” of labels when trying to describe his compositional style and methods. “I take from a lot of influences, all the time, and I continue to do that,” he said. “(But) reaching an audience is important to me, but without writing down to them,” he said.