The Pacific Chorale has received a $60,000...

The Pacific Chorale has received a $60,000 grant from the Harry and Grace Steele Foundation for educational outreach programs for youth. The grant, the largest the foundation has made to the Irvine-based group, will be paid over three years. It will be used in part to fund a Children’s Choral Festival on April 29 at the Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa and to establish a third Children’s Chorus.

Taking the better-late-than-never approach, the Orange County Philharmonic Society has mailed out program booklets to series subscribers who attended the Les Ballets Africains concert last weekend at the Orange County Performing Arts Center. The booklets, which are printed out of state, arrived late because of the American Airlines flight attendants’ strike.

An announcement of the problem was made at the performance, but no information was given about the full-length dance-drama, “Silo: The Path of Life.” “We really should have done something more,” a Society spokeswoman said Wednesday. “We were taken aback and just did not have a contingency plan since this had never happened before.”

There are about 350 subscribers to the “International Artists” series, which opened with Les Ballets Africains, the spokeswoman said. The next concert on this series will be the Chieftains on Dec. 6. Non-subscribers who attended Les Ballets Africains and wish to receive a program should call the Society at (714) 553-2422.

Local firefighters, police and Red Cross personnel will be admitted free to a working dress rehearsal of American Ballet Theatre’s new “Nutcracker” at 8 p.m. on Dec. 2 at the Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa. The offer is extended “in appreciation” of efforts in fighting recent fires in the Southland. Tickets will be offered on a first-come, first-served basis and will be limited to six per person. The “Nutcracker” production will receive its premiere performances Dec. 3-12 at the center, then move to the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles, Dec. 21-31. (714) 556-2787.

Compiled by Ken Williams