O.C. Symphony Manager Fired by President : Music: Yaakov Dvir-Djerassi says orchestra let him go over ‘personal frictions’ with the recently named board leader.

The Orange County Symphony has fired general manager Yaakov Dvir-Djerassi, an eight-year staff member who helped found the orchestra and saw it through several major changes.

Dvir-Djerassi said Friday that “some personal frictions” with new board president Lorraine Reafsnyder, a Tustin businesswoman who took over on July 1, were behind his termination.

Reafsnyder could not be reached for comment Friday. Earlier in the week, she declined comment until after an executive general board meeting that was scheduled for late Friday afternoon.

Problems between the two had surfaced when Reafsnyder “began assuming more managerial duties,” Dvir-Djerassi said. “I complained several times and thought time would fix it.”

On Monday, however, she asked for his resignation, he said. “I refused and asked for an appeal to the full board. But that was denied by the president.”

Ironically, Dvir-Djerassi said he had tried to resign twice last year but was asked by former board chairman Dick Hain to stay.

“I thought it was time for me to move on,” he said. “I welcomed change. I had no difficulties with that.”

He also said that he had volunteered to cut his salary of $24,000 last year as a way to help reduce a deficit he estimated at between $50,000 to $60,000. “I always collected my salary the last anyway,” he said.

Because of the deficit, the orchestra, which has a $300,000 budget, will cut its usual four-concert season to three concerts for 1992-93.

When Dvir-Djerassi started with the orchestra, it was called the Garden Grove Symphony. The name was changed in 1991 as part of efforts to win the orchestra support beyond the city for which it was named.

In December, the organization won an $8,000 grant from the Anaheim-based Leo Freedman Foundation. The orchestra opens its 1992-93 season on Sept. 25 at the Celebrity Theatre in Anaheim, which is owned by the Freedman Foundation. The concert is the orchestra’s first on a subscription series outside of Garden Grove and is being underwritten by the Freedman Foundation.

For the other two programs, the orchestra will return to the Don Wash Auditorium in Garden Grove.

It is unclear whether Dvir-Djerassi’s departure will affect plans for the orchestra to appeal a low 2+ rating by a California Arts Council panel next week. The rating, on a scale of 1 to 4, affects state grants. Typically, only groups rated 3- or above get grants.

Dvir-Djerassi said he plans to work in an art gallery that he and his wife, Lori Kaye, own in Anaheim. “I am not seeking anything else in particular,” he said. “I’ve done my Albert Schweitzer years.”