Philharmonic Salutes Volunteers in Style

On stage at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion of the Music Center only eight floral arrangements of red anthurium and orange California bird of paradise separated the 100-member Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra and the 3,000 spiffed-up crowd of volunteers.

“We are proud of this,” said Joseph LaBonte, looking squarely at the orchestra, “and we are proud of you,” he added, gesturing to the tied-up-in-black-tie volunteers framed by the pavilion’s eight large crystal sconces, copper ceiling and butternut wood walls. “We’ve needed a start-the-season event for a long time.”

Then the philharmonic’s executive vice president and general manager, Ernest Fleishmann, came out and told the crowd, invited gratis in appreciation on the orchestra’s 75th anniversary, “No great orchestra can function without people supporting it.” Next came the youthful conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen, who shook his hair magnificently while the orchestra and the Los Angeles Master Chorale, the William Grant Still Chorale and the Korean Master Chorale plunged into the wonderful Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony (Chorale). The audience enjoyed it so much that they broke protocol and clapped between movements.

Did that bother Salonen? At the dinner party for 425 later at the Hotel Inter-Continental, he grinned an emphatic “No!” He called the night’s performance “amazing. I felt so privileged--and I had the best seat in the house.”

Guests valet-parked at the hotel, shuttled to the Music Center, sipped champagne by the plaza fountain, sat in concert, and shuttled back to the hotel for the party. However, the evening was balmy, and many instead strolled back to the hotel in the twilight past the Museum of Contemporary Art, acting like sidewalk New Yorkers.

Philharmonic Gala Committee chairwoman Nancy Wayte, who had sat in the Founders with husband Alan, in the box originally reserved for Dorothy and the late Norman Chandler, had slipped away from the concert early to check out party details. Yes, opera singer Julia Migenes, who at the last minute replaced chanteuse Ute Lemper, was there.

After the fruit terrine dessert, decorated with a chocolate treble clef and served on tables with white tulips, roses and lilies, Migenes with her “electrocuted” kinky red hair did “The Windmills of Your Mind” in French.

Loving it: Fred and Joan Nicholas, John Welborne, Joe and Bob Kroger, Bitsy (her father, Henry Duque, was Philharmonic president in the 1960s) and Dick Hotaling, Kit and Burton Smith, Jeanine Cushman, Carol and Jim Collins, Carl Honeystein and Shauna Trabert, Anita and Haley Fromholz, Lynda Palevsky, Henry and Ginny Mancini, Donna LaBonte, Diane and Howard Deshong, Sid and Nancy Peterson, Peggy and Walter Grauman, Vera Panosian, Jane Lombardo and Joan McLaughlin.

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PROMISES: “The Last Best Hope of Earth: Abraham Lincoln and the Promise of America” opened at the Huntington Library in San Marino with parties galore. Nancy and Charles Munger (he’s a partner of Warren Buffett) hosted the first black-tie preview dinner. Hosting the second two nights later were Robert and Lois Erburu, Robert and Anne Wycoff, and Lawrence and Mary Tollenaere. Then, on Friday, Nestle USA Inc. (headed by Timm Crull and attending with his wife, Peggy) underwrote a “Cuisine of the Civil War Era” banquet on the library lawn for nearly 700. On Sunday, Junior Fellows congregated 300-strong for intimate guided tours.

Louise and Barry Taper, who have provided 70 of the 200 rare pieces (including 100 original letters and memorabilia--Lincoln’s spectacles, his beaver stovepipe hat) for the show, were at all events.

At the Friday party, Ruth Shannon signed the Huntington’s very illustrious guest book. “Isn’t this terrific!” she gushed. On that particular evening, Louise Taper extolled, “It makes you proud to be an American.” Said husband Barry, “The U.S. is the only melting pot in the world--and as you know, Lincoln was born in a log cabin.”

Maybe it was only because we’re in a recession in California, but Nestle executive chef Roberto Gerometta, who masterminded the enormous buffet, said there were only two squirrels in the Kentucky burgoo. But, it wasn’t exactly stretching five loaves for 5,000, for Northern cuisine featured venison, rabbit, lamb, grilled quail, buffalo patties, white corn salad, potted elk and fry bread, and Southern cuisine featured oyster stew, deviled chicken, ham hocks and black-eyed peas, braised collards, bayou beans, goober salad, chutneys, squab, partridge, biscuits and molasses. Lincoln would have had to diet.

But, oh, the desserts--peach cobbler, maple walnut wild rice pie, sweet potato pecan tarts, spice cake, Pennsylvania Dump Cake, brittle, divinities.

Porking down were Gordon and Judi Davidson, Marilyn and Jud Roberts, Joanne Albrecht, Cindy Albrecht, philanthropists Adelaide and Alec Hixon, Janet and Alan Stanford.

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CITY WHIRL: Clement and Lynn Hirsch led the happy crowd to the Oak Tree Meet opening day in the Directors’ Room at Santa Anita Race Track. Joining in: Charles and Kathy Johnson, Charles and Ann Mathewson (they flew up from Newport Beach in a helicopter), Betty Strub (widow of Bob Strub); Joe Harper; mother/daughter Gretchens--Gretchen Seager and Gretchen Seager (the younger, the star of rock group Mary’s Danish); Georgia Ridder, Ray (Breeder’s Cup event coordinator) and Dorothy Rogers, Karen and Cliff Goodrich, Randy and Marilyn Stoke, Anabeth and John Elmore (the big Brawley farmer), Sherwood and Sandy Chillingworth and George and Katy Tuerk.

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KUDOS: To the newest group in town--239 members called the USC University Hospital Guild, headed by Mary Kay Arbuthnot. They lunched on the hospital green Tuesday with plaudits from Dr. Joseph P. Van Der Meulen, USC School of Medicine vice president of health affairs, and USC President Steven B. Sample. Honorary charter members are Lucy Hubbard, Marilyn Zumberge, Eileen Eamer, Judy Bedroian and Kathryn Sample. The new group will extol the two-year-old hospital and its USC medical faculty, sponsor a sports medical program for coaches and parents, sing Christmas carols for patients and eventually stage fund-raisers.

Mary Lou Loper’s column is published Thursdays.