Fans, Flames of Candlelight Concert

Developer Kathryn Thompson had more than the 20th anniversary of the Candlelight Concert to celebrate when she attended the annual gala on Sunday night at the Hyatt Regency in Irvine.

Recently, at a Los Angeles fund-raiser, the Orange County Performing Arts Center’s vice chair- woman of development was bussed--generously-- on the cheek by President Clinton.

“Next day, I was on the phone, calling my mother and telling her about it,” said Thompson, who attended Sunday night’s bash with her husband, Gus Owen. “I mean, there are a few things that happen in life that you need to just stop and celebrate. Of course, the success of the Candlelight Concert is one of them.”

Like the hundreds of other guests enjoying the center’s black-tie gala, Thompson--one of the county’s premiere hostesses and fashion pacesetters--was impressed by the ballroom decor. Towering, ivy-smothered candelabra centered dining tables topped with white-on-white linens and spotless mirrors. Tiny terra-cotta pots filled with fresh white roses accented each centerpiece. Ballroom chairs were dressed up in snow-white coverlets.

“The idea was to create a look of understated elegance,” noted decor chairwoman Electa Anderson. Anderson worked with Roger’s Gardens in Corona del Mar to create the romantic setting. “We just about trucked the whole nursery over here today,” she said.

Everywhere guests looked they saw light-smothered trees, topiaries and greenery.

Once seated, party-goers tore into the Tiffany boxes that graced each woman’s place setting. Opening hers, Thompson called the porcelain box with candle- light motif “perfectly beautiful.”

Tiffany vice pres- ident Jo Ellen Qualls, gala co-chairwoman with Terry Goldfarb-Lee, explained that Tiffany created the boxes especially for the occasion. “China is the traditional 20th-anniversary material,” she said. “The flames of candlelight inspired the design. And the colors you see in a flame (gold and midnight blue) are represented on the box.”

Before joining guests in the ballroom, the party’s honorary chairmen and underwriters gathered in the hotel’s Zot nightclub for a pre-gala party.

Tom Moon, chairman of the first Candlelight Concert in 1974, remembered that it was almost called off by the fire department. “A fire marshal told us we didn’t have enough fire extinguishers on hand,” he said. “So we went to a nearby building and purloined 16 of them. Of course, we returned them when it was all over.”

Floss Schumacher, who chaired eight Candlelight Concerts, said that the event’s 20th anniversary proves the seven-year-old center has a history. “I can remember back at the beginning when we all asked ourselves: ‘Is this concept going to work?’ Now we can talk 20 years!”

After guests dined on poached tomato with Atlantic salmon mousse, seared beef tenderloin and a white chocolate gift box filled with chocolate cake and Bing cherries, they settled back to hear a concert performed by the Pacific Symphony Orchestra and the Pacific and Master Chorales.

“I love this night,” said Carol Wilken, who once chaired the concert. “I’m glad that Jo Qualls and Terry Goldfarb-Lee have brought back the tradition that was started years ago--the county’s regional groups participating in a holiday concert.”

Also among guests: center chairman Tom Nielsen (who presented the co-chairwoman with bouquets of red roses) with his wife, Marilyn; center president Tom Tomlinson; Al and Deeann Baldwin; Lawrence and Dee Higby; Timothy and Susan Strader; Rick and Nancy Muth and Judie and George Argyros.

Honorary event chairmen were: Moon, Schumacher, Wilken, Ruth Ding, Gordon Hodge and Ciel Woodman.

Gala proceeds were estimated at $80,000.