Orchestra Cancels Summer Concert : Funding: The O.C. Symphony of Garden Grove calls off event after failing to receive assistance from financially strapped city.

For the first time since its 1984 inception, the Orange County Symphony of Garden Grove has canceled its annual outdoor summer concert, because the city of Garden Grove has refused to subsidize the event, an orchestra official said Monday.

The orchestra also failed for the first time to garner a general-support grant from the city, which last year gave the group $30,000 and has given it as much as $50,000, orchestra general manager Yaakov Dvir-Djerassi said.

The decision to deny the funds was made in mid-April by the City Council, then facing a serious budget deficit, Deputy City Manager Michael Fenderson said Monday.

The orchestra, which officials said in March might have to consider bankruptcy, has managed in recent months to shave down a $120,000 deficit to about $40,000 largely through corporate contributions, Dvir-Djerassi said.

“It’s a grim picture, but it looks like we’ll be doing fairly OK,” he said, despite cancellation of the summer concert.

For six years, the orchestra has held a free concert in August (this year’s was scheduled for Aug. 17) at Garden Grove’s Village Green Park, and the city has contributed at least half the concert’s $30,000 cost, Dvir-Djerassi said.

“It had become a tradition,” he said, attributing the city’s funding denials to budget constraints. Before it passed a 1991-92 budget of $46 million last last month, the city was facing a $5.6-million deficit.

Mayor W.E. Donovan said Monday that the cuts were “just a question of not having the money,” noting that new city assessments have been placed on water and park use and that city employees suffered a 3% pay reduction.

“We may be able to help them out later,” he added, if sales tax revenues increase.

Despite the reduction to its deficit, the orchestra has had to cut corners--shortening its season to four concerts this year from seven last year, for instance--to cope with its financial problems. The fiscal troubles stem from the accumulated deficits of its summer concerts since 1985 and other expenses, orchestra officials have said.

“We really have to catch up,” Dvir-Djerassi said. “Also, the amount of corporate and individual contributions, after seven years of existence, has basically stayed steady and could even drop a little. Under the circumstances, we have to operate conservatively.”