Let Arts Center Be Impresario, Not Czar : It Shouldn’t Dictate the Events That May Be Sponsored by the Philharmonic Society

The Orange County arts scene was tremendously enhanced six years ago with the addition of the area’s now major arts venue, the Orange County Performing Arts Center. The Center has been the site of numerous quality music and dance programs that have captured broad audiences.

That said, it’s time to ask about the Performing Arts Center’s relationship to one of the county’s oldest and most respected arts organizations, the Orange County Philharmonic Society. The Center is trying to exert too much control over what the society presents when it rents the facility.

The Performing Arts Center can, of course, do as it pleases. Privately built, funded and managed, it answers only to donors and subscribers. Still, it has a special responsibility. It was built with the aid of the community at large. And its 3,000-seat Segerstrom Hall is the county’s major venue for fine-arts programming.

The Center’s aim should be to offer--and to allow the groups that rent it to offer--the widest variety of quality programming. That could be better forwarded if the Center would loosen the reins on the Philharmonic Society, which has been responsible for bringing in virtually every major touring orchestra that has played the Center. The Center itself presents ballet, Broadway musicals, some jazz and chamber music.

A case in point is the Philharmonic Society’s Series C, one of three major series it wants to offer at the Center. Series C was designed to feature more popular, but nevertheless high quality, programming. In the past this series has included such groups as Ballet Folklorico de Mexico and the Chieftains, Ireland’s premier traditional music group. These groups were selected in part because they could generate money to support other programs that cannot pay for themselves through ticket sales.

Despite this, the Center, according to society officials, has told them it wants them to present only symphonic music. The Center comments only to say that Series C as proposed is not “classical,” which seems to confirm that it is indeed exerting pressure, but isn’t much by way of explanation. What does “classical” have to do with anything--as long as programming is of high quality?

Society executives believe that negotiations on Series C programming are an effort by the Center to pressure them to proceed with a merger with the Pacific Symphony. The Center says that a merger is for the two groups to decide, and on that point we agree. The Center’s role should be less that of a kingmaker and more that of a gracious impresario.