More Than Music Went Into Creation of O.C. Orchestras

“Anyone can form an orchestra who is conceited enough to get it started and (who can) raise the money. Anyone.”

This statement by a veteran classical musician in Orange County wasn’t intended as criticism. Rather, it’s accepted as fact by many throughout the county’s classical music scene: Any conductor or musician with financial backing can form a performance group--then assign themselves a spot on the podium or in a principal chair.

Young Orange County music groups such as the South Coast Symphony, Mozart Camerata, Orange County Chamber Orchestra and the Orange County Four Seasons Orchestra were essentially willed into existence by their founding directors, who now either conduct or play with the groups. The county’s highest-profile, largest-budget orchestra, the Pacific Symphony, began the same way.

Before picking up the baton, these music directors have dipped into savings accounts, licked stamps, set chairs and badgered donors. But hard work hasn’t always garnered them respect--nor guaranteed rave reviews.

The story of how and why these grass-roots orchestras are born can reveal as much about the audiences they attract as about the movers that bring them into existence, the shakers who supply the dollars to get them running and the musicians who play in them.

If it’s true that anyone can form an orchestra, those who do often face questions about the quality, seriousness and permanence of such groups. In fact, critics of self-generated groups suggest that the director who starts them may be a stronger marketeer than musician.

“You have to balance that with the question of whether the orchestra would exist if the person on the podium was not a promoter,” said one musician who has played with several of the groups and who asked not to be identified. On the other hand, “if (the conductor) could get a job with a large (existing orchestra), would they go to all the work to put a group together?”

Creating an orchestra today requires leaders to wear many hats, including the cap of fund-raiser/promoter. Even critics of these leaders credit them for bringing live classical music to parts of Orange County that previously were silent. Further, each leader believes his (or her) group has a mission.

* John Larry Granger’s South Coast Symphony regularly introduces new works from regional composers and prides itself on being an “orchestra that people can touch,” Granger says. The group began as a Long Beach-based training orchestra in 1972, and was reorganized in 1984 into a professional orchestra. Its annual budget has grown tenfold under Granger, from about $30,000 in the Long Beach days to $350,000.

* The Mozart Camerata, founded by conductor Ami Porat in 1980, began as a volunteer organization with concerts in supporters’ living rooms. Porat says the group’s mission is to “educate, enlighten and delight the audience.” In 1985, Porat reformed the orchestra and moved it into larger venues, including the Irvine Barclay Theatre. The group’s budget has grown to $150,000.

* One goal of the Orange County Chamber Orchestra, says founder Micah Levy, is “not to program down to the public” and to introduce challenging new works along with repertory standards at most concerts. The group, formed in 1983, will operate on about $80,000 this year.

* The Orange County Four Seasons Orchestra, a newcomer launched last fall by Carolyn Broe, performs baroque and 20th-Century works and rotates guest conductors. Part of Broe’s crusade is to provide opportunity for Orange County players, so musicians from Los Angeles are excluded, she says. The group’s 1990-91 budget hovered around $22,000, but Broe, the orchestra’s principal violist, predicts it will triple next year.

There are about 1,500 orchestras throughout the country, most of which are small community, college and youth groups with budgets under $260,000, according to the American Symphony Orchestra League.

“Before coming to Orange County, (I’d have said) you needed leadership from the community” to build an orchestra, said Louis G. Spisto, executive director of the Pacific Symphony, which was created in 1978 and conducted for the next 11 years by Keith Clark.

“Not musical leadership,” Spisto continued, “but leadership from individuals with a strong desire to back an artistic endeavor. Here, I think the desire of artistic people has preceded the desire of the community.”

No matter where the motivation comes from, it takes more than that to start an orchestra. It takes money.

The Four Seasons’ Broe, who also founded a string quartet and a chamber orchestra, used $10,000 of her own to finance her new group’s premiere last fall at the Santa Ana High School Auditorium.

“The finances are the most difficult thing to draw together,” Broe says. “I think everybody enjoys live classical music, but finding the backers is a real nonstop project.”

Levy agrees. It was quite a feat to woo board members and financial backers when he first formed the Orange County Chamber Orchestra, he says. The group was incorporated for nearly a year before it held its first performance.

Levy, who formed the orchestra after graduating from the exclusive orchestral conducting program at the New England Conservatory of Music, finally persuaded Leisure World in Laguna Hills to fund the group’s first concert.

“It’s really amazing (that they agreed) because it was just me and I had almost no experience conducting,” Levy said. “They were taking a big gamble because I had no track record.”

To raise the funds to launch an orchestra, rent a hall and pay musicians, a founding director must have the energy, charisma and dynamism of a top salesman. In some cases, this ability to raise money and build support may be as important to the success of a group as the musical ability of the founding director, say observers of local orchestras.

“There’s a certain tolerance by the audience,” said Preston Stedman, professor of music at Cal State Fullerton, and longtime Pacific Symphony board member.

“You can be an average or competent (musician), but you have to be a superior marketer. If you don’t do that, then you won’t make it,” Stedman said.

But just because someone can form an orchestra doesn’t mean he or she should.

“You can buy a lot of things in this world,” said Zelman Bokser, director of the music department at UC Irvine. “You can buy talent. You can even buy an audience. Here (in Orange County) there’s a lot of money and it makes it possible for groups to succeed here that would not succeed somewhere else.”

Other musicians, and the founding music directors themselves say that a leader’s ability to pay musicians and to market his or her group may determine its early success. But they say that in the long run, promotional skills alone are not enough to keep players or audiences happy.

“I have to be careful because I work with a lot of conductors,” said Alfred Lang, principal trumpet with the South Coast Symphony. “Money is more important in the beginning to form an orchestra. A player is willing to give something a shot as long as he knows he’ll be paid for his work. . . . Music and the quality of the conductor takes on more significance from one concert to the next.”

Said Levy: “It’s crucial to be able to build support, but it’s equally crucial to be able to deliver. You can be great salesman, but if the product doesn’t work, you aren’t going to sell any more.”

Nevertheless, after existing for years, most of these groups continue to draw good and bad reviews, wavering from season to season and, in some cases, faltering from concert to concert. (See related story, this page.)

But those who may be in the best seats to judge the county’s musical leadership are the orchestra players. Many said the quality of the groups varies and that there is plenty of room for artistic growth, but most players wouldn’t comment directly on individual conductors.

“You are dealing with free-lance musicians who depend on these leaders for their work,” said Gary Bovyer, principal clarinetist with the Mozart Camerata who has also played with South Coast Symphony, Pacific Symphony and the Irvine Symphony. “You’re not going to get a candid response from anybody unless they have an ax to grind.”

Music directors in Orange County have access to the pool of Los Angeles musicians that includes professional studio players who may want performance time before a live audience. The caliber of these players, another matter that sets the groups above the level of most community orchestras in other parts of the country, means that Orange County conductors may find themselves outplayed, critics say. Even very talented players will agree to work with an average conductor for the opportunity to play for a live audience--and a paycheck.

“(The musicians) are not there to be inspired; it’s a gig. It’s a paid performance,” said Burton Karson, founding music director of the Corona del Mar Baroque Music Festival as well as professor of music at Cal State Fullerton.

“They wouldn’t be with those conductors (or groups) if they weren’t being paid union scale,” Karson said. “If you gave them a list of conductors, they wouldn’t be playing under the ones they are. But that’s where the money is.”

Not everyone is quite so cynical. Anne Karam, principal cellist with the Orange County Chamber Orchestra, is also a regular with Henry Mancini’s studio group. Karam said she sometimes gives up more lucrative jobs--and drives into Orange County from Malibu--to play with Levy.

“If I get a call to do a motion picture (score) on the day I have a concert, ordinarily I would give up a concert because it doesn’t pay enough,” Karam said. But because she likes Levy’s conducting style and his relationship with musicians, Karam said she is willing to play with the Orange County group--for about 25% less than she would get if playing with a comparable group in Los Angeles.

“I think musicians are always frustrated with the quality of groups,” Karam said. Besides, it’s not uncommon for musicians to play above their directors, said Diana Halprin, concertmaster of the Orange County Chamber Orchestra.

“In some cases, the conductors (in Orange County) are not as good as the groups, from what I’ve seen,” said Halprin, who came to Southern California from New York. “But that’s the nature of the orchestral music business around the country and around the world. You have conductors who are very good at politics and very good at attracting money and not so good on the podium.

“I’m not so sure (Arturo) Toscanini would have made it in the music business today because, I mean, how good do you think he would have been at the party scene?”

Despite mixed opinions on the directors’ musical abilities, musicians and union officials say they are grateful for their ability to provide unprecedented employment for musicians and to give Orange County audiences access to live classical music.

“They’re bringing heretofore unheard music to Orange County,” said Frank Amoss, president of Orange County Musicians Assn., Local 7 of the American Federation of Musicians, whose membership includes many of the musicians in these orchestras. “I celebrate their birth. . . . It’s a great talent to be able to start from scratch to create an orchestra and an audience. That’s a great service to the community.”