Bid Made for Series of Ethnic Concerts : Music: Philharmonic Society is hopeful that the new administrator of the O.C. Arts Center will welcome diversity.

The Orange County Philharmonic Society has proposed a new series of ethnic concerts at the Orange County Performing Arts Center, where last year the top administrator announced that no such concerts would be allowed.

That administrator, Thomas R. Kendrick, since has retired. His replacement, Tom Tomlinson, was unavailable Thursday to indicate whether he will be more receptive to the idea of diversifying offerings at the center.

But Dean Corey, the society’s executive director, said Tomlinson has “been very receptive. The only conflicts left basically (have to do with) intricacies of scheduling” and are “not philosophical” as they had been with Kendrick, who had dismissed the programs as “non-classical” and therefore inappropriate. There has been “much more cooperation, good cooperation” from Tomlinson, Corey said.

Corey declined to name the acts under consideration, but said they are “somewhat similar to this year’s mix”--the Mariachi Los Camperos de Nati Cano, Les Ballets Africains, the Hungarian State Folk Ensemble, the Canadian Brass and the Chieftains, a group of Irish folk musicians (who play the center Monday night).

After acrimonious public debate, Kendrick’s opposition to these concerts was overruled by the center board in February. In June, Kendrick announced his resignation. He and other center officials said there was no connection between the resignation and the board action.

In any case, in announcing the board’s permission for the concerts, Kendrick had said the approval was “specifically limited to the 1993-94 season” and that “all future Philharmonic Society series at the center shall reflect a primary focus on quality touring symphony orchestras and other classical music attractions.”

But when Kendrick left, society officials indicated that they would appeal to the new center leadership.

Tomlinson, who has been on the job four months as of this week, has been noncommittal when asked if he would support ethnic programs.

On the one hand, he has stressed that the center is booked to capacity and has indicated that he doesn’t think ethnic programming should necessarily replace anything on the current roster of Euro-centric classical music, dance, opera and musical theater. He has said the addition of anything probably would depend on expansion of the center, which he sees as unlikely.

But at the same time, he has said “there’s certainly an awareness on all our parts (that) Orange County is an ethnically diverse county, and we would like to have a part in reflecting that.” He recently said the center would undertake research into types of ethnically-oriented presentations it might host.

Times correspondent Rick VanderKnyff contributed to this report.

Philharmonic Society