Singles Orchestrate Lessons in Art of Mingling : Sophisticates are drawn to the non-threatening social groups of Orange County’s cultural organizations.

If you happen to wander into a party before a Pacific Symphony concert at the Westin South Coast Plaza hotel and hear that old conversational chestnut “What’s your sign?” don’t be surprised if the next words you hear are “ Da capo. “

Not that everybody in the room will be up on musical nomenclature, but the singles that gather periodically at the hotel for preconcert food, drink and talk aren’t your typical singles bar crawlers. They want a little culture with their courting, a bit of Romantic music with their romantic overtures.

And the numbers of these people appear to be growing as the appeal of singles groups that are associated with Orange County arts and cultural organizations grows.

“There isn’t the heavy emphasis on socializing, so you don’t feel intimidated,” said Ellen Dunn, 41, who is a subscriber to the Pacific Symphony Classic Encounters’ concert series for singles.

“I go to have a good time and to hear a good concert, and not necessarily to meet someone,” she said. “It seemed more select than some of the other things that are out there. I don’t like bars, and I don’t like loud music; plus some of the other activities tend to be heavily involved in drinking. This is not. It’s much more sophisticated than many of the other things out there.”

Since the opening of the Orange County Performing Arts Center and the attendant growth spurt of many musical, cultural and artistic organizations in the county, these groups have found that targeting the large local single population can pay dividends that are at once social, artistic and, in some cases, monetary.

As for the single people who have become actively involved with these groups, many say that they have found a less intimidating, less structured, more intellectual and more artistically rewarding way to spend their time and money than the more usual round of singles parties.

“It’s a good combination,” said Buck Buchhagen, chairman of Classic Encounters. “Single people are always looking for new and different avenues to meet people, and the majority of our people are truly interested in classical music. I don’t want to sound elitist, but I think we attract people who have both a love of music and who would like to find someone to get into a relationship with.”

Still, there appears to be far less of the intense sort of male-female socializing that can be characteristic of other singles organizations. Members of most arts/singles groups say that the idea of romance is fairly low on their agenda when they attend an event. They’re there for good food, good conversation with other arts fans and, in the shank of the evening, a cultural experience. Actual pairings and romances occur, but they are few. The nature of the groups is more communal than individual.

Most artistic singles organizations’ activities revolve around periodic social gatherings, such as preconcert parties, post-opera receptions or seasonal theme parties. However, nearly every group, to some extent, serves as a source of income for its parent artistic organization, whether through the purchase of tickets or through fund-raising activities.

The Performing Arts Center, for instance, has two guild chapters--the Cabaret Chapter and the Bogart and Bacall Chapter--that are designed for singles of different age groups and that devote their efforts primarily to fund raising. Still, said Bogart and Bacall’s incoming co-chairwoman, the social side can’t be neglected.

“When I got into the chapter last February, I’d just come to Orange County from Riverside, and I hadn’t really thought about whether I wanted to get into the arts or not,” said Debra Henderson, 41, a buyer for a medical company.

“I just knew that I wanted something that wasn’t the typical dating scene, something that was a place to gather whether you were male or female. And I’ve enjoyed it a great deal. But now we’re gearing things more toward a social atmosphere,” she said. “Before, it was more meetings and fund raising. That’s the goal of the group, but you have to make it fun in order to get people involved.”

Recently, the group has organized swing dance lessons, a car rally and a New Year’s Eve party as well as fund-raising parties, said outgoing chairwoman Patricia Migatulski.

“People meet other quality people through the group,” she said. “And because this is a volunteer group, the people are givers, and everyone knows that.”

They also are mostly female, a fact possibly explained by the nature of the cultural activities around which the groups revolve. Several women said that the opportunity to attend artistic and cultural events was the main reason they joined.

Some men said this, too, but the male-to-female ratio of the Bogart and Bacall chapter is two men to every three women (the Cabaret chapter of the Performing Arts Center guilds, which is designed for singles 30 to 55, has a similar ratio).

Other artistic/social groups in the county are not specifically designed for singles but seem to attract a large singles following nonetheless. The Bohemian Guild, a group attached to Opera Pacific, has a high singles membership--the result, said the group’s chairman Rudy Lukes, of a specific attempt to attract young single professionals.

However, not unlike other singles/arts groups, the Bohemian Guild has many members, according to Lukes, who began their involvement with little knowledge of music in general or opera in particular. The social life drew them in, and, in many cases, the artistic exposure held their interest.

“The participation was a turning point for some people who you couldn’t pay to see an opera before,” Lukes said.

One opera convert is Nigel Wager, a graphics system consultant from Laguna Beach who says he is “around 30.” His involvement with the Bohemian Guild began, he said, when he met Lukes in a Laguna Beach bakery and began discussing an opera poster that had hung in the bakery window and which the baker had given to Wager. Lukes talked him into joining on the spot.

“It’s a fun group,” Wager said. “We do dinners, movies and have regular nights after the opera at a restaurant when we’ll bring in some of the cast and get a chance to meet and talk to them. My involvement with opera has become greater and greater, and I meet lots of people. There’s no question that it’s a good social outlet. The main thing is that it’s a lot of fun.”

Wager, like other members of arts/singles groups, said that romance is not necessarily a key element of the groups’ programs, but friendships and the occasional romantic relationship do blossom. The often elegant surroundings at group events can nudge things along.

At events sponsored by Toccata, a 2-year-old social group affiliated with the Orange County Philharmonic Society, the socializing goes on at post-concert receptions at area restaurants, where fine dinners are provided for members.

“We’re not promoted as a singles group, but we tend to attract young people who are single, as well as couples,” said group chairman Lou Miraula. “We’re not in the fund-raising business per se. What binds us together is our common interest in, primarily, classical music, but also in nice food and wines. We also have what we call ‘music tastings,’ which are events where musicians are invited to play and talk about their music. It’s kind of like Music 101.”

Similar education is the primary emphasis of Bowers Singles for the Cultural Arts, a group of singles primarily in their 40s and 50s who meet monthly at Bowers Museum in Santa Ana for lectures or other artistic programs.

“When I became single, I was looking for people with interests similar to mine,” said Julia Blakesley, a retired teacher from Fullerton. “And the group had a marvelous variety of topics that cover all the arts. It’s a way to socialize with people who are talking about art and to have an interchange with a knowledgeable speaker.”

The atmosphere is less festive than most of the performing arts singles groups, but relationships are formed, Blakesley said.

“There are people (in the group) who I know of who have become couples or have become fairly committed to one another,” she said.

Still, the byword for the artistic singles groups may be social rather than romantic. Again and again, members of the groups expressed an appreciation for the nature of the gatherings (“non-threatening” was used as a description in several cases) and for the sense of elegance and culture that was part of most evenings.

Not that things get mired in heavy artistic conversation. A good number of people at, for instance, Classic Encounters parties “may not know Beethoven from a loaf of bread,” said Buchhagen, but they do enjoy a good jaw over drinks and appetizers.

To push that along a bit, said Buchhagen, “icebreaker games” are always offered at each event, in which members are issued slips of paper with, say, the name of a composer and are charged with finding the person in the room with the name of a corresponding musical composition. The search can take them through several conversational groups.

If that seems a bit juvenile, Buchhagen said, people don’t seem to care. In fact, he said, when the games were omitted at one event, “several people asked me what happened to them. They wanted them back.”

“The atmosphere is like a cocktail party,” said Gil Mahlmeister, 45, of the preconcert gatherings sponsored by Classic Encounters. “You have a lot of opportunities just to walk around and meet people, and everybody’s there to be social. I’ve met a lot of nice people and made a lot of friends, but so far nothing serious or special.

“I’m primarily interested in the music, and my secondary goal is to meet women who have the same interests and values as I do,” he said. “The way I see it is, what type of person is going to like this type of music?”