From Death Comes a Will to Survive : Concerts: The Southwest Chamber Music Society decided to carry on despite the loss of a key member. Today its budget and bookings are thriving.

The Southwest Chamber Music Society is ending its seventh season this weekend in sound financial shape and is facing what looks to be a brighter-than-ever future. But it wasn’t so long ago that the ensemble almost folded.

“We almost disbanded and threw the thing into the ocean when (pianist and Society co-founder) Albert Dominguez died” of pancreatic cancer in 1992, artistic director Jeff von der Schmidt recalled during a recent phone conversation.

“I would say some of the (current) success is deeply gratifying, but a lot of the catalyst has been, ‘How do you go on when someone in the group has died? How do you continue?’

“A lot of music groups in this area have experienced the death of someone essential,” he noted. “We did the best we could. But there is no way to describe how devastating that felt. That’s one of the things that music does a lot better than words. We decided that if we continued this, we would become the best ensemble we could be.”

The hard work is paying off. Next year the group’s operating budget jumps to $175,000 from the current $98,000, and the season will also expand to include 10 different venues across the Southland (the Society essentially has been playing at only two, Chapman University in Orange and the Pasadena Library).

“We’re expanding dramatically,” Von der Schmidt said. “With the amount of gifts we’ve received, we have to increase the numbers of people who come to the concerts . . . So the group is going to be busier than ever.

“We’ve had an incredible convergence of major gifts,” he elaborated, “shored up by an impressive increase in personal gifts. We’re obviously grateful. Who wouldn’t be excited in this era of riots, fires and quakes to raise these types of funds?

“It’s a validation of just keeping your nose to the grindstone. A lot of the convergence will look like it happened overnight but believe me, there was a lot of sustained work. Not every proposal we threw in got funded.”

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Since January, the Society has received:

* A two-year $20,000 grant from the Clarence E. Heller Charitable Foundation in San Francisco to rehearse and perform a complete cycle of Beethoven’s 17 string quartets;

* $15,000 from the Ahmanson Foundation in Los Angeles to launch the Society’s first summer season, at the Huntington Library in San Marino;

* A three-year $45,000 grant from the James Irvine Foundation in Los Angeles to boost the Society’s administrative structure and expand its educational outreach programs.

* $30,000 from Chamber Music America in New York for a three-year residency at the Armory Center for the Arts in Pasadena. “This grant is particularly gratifying to us,” Von der Schmidt said, “since one of CMA’s founding members was Peter Marsh,” the Society’s current first violinist. “So it has come full circle for us.”

* A two-year grant of $40,000 from the Ralph M. Parsons Foundation in Los Angeles for general operating support.

* An $8,500 grant from the National Endowment of the arts to produce the Society’s second CD, a recording of the late chamber works of Ernst Krenek. “It will probably be out in fall of ‘95,” Von der Schmidt said.

Obviously the society has come a long way since 1987 when, with only about $25,000, it launched its effort to become the Southland’s first resident ensemble modeled on the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center in New York.

* The Southwest Chamber Music Society will play Halsey Stevens’ Trio for Violin, Viola and Violoncello; Purcell’s “Theatre Music” and Brahms’ String Quintet in G, Op. 111 tonight in Bertea Hall at Chapman University, 333 N. Glassell St., Orange. Curtain: 8 p.m. $8 to $15. (800) 726-7147.

THE SOUTHWEST CHAMBER MUSIC SOCIETY

The 1994-’95 Orange County concerts:

* Oct. 22, 8 p.m.: Messiaen’s “Psychotropics” (world premiere) and “La Merle Noir” ; Bruckner’s String Quintet in F.

* Nov. 20, 3 p.m.: Britten’s Phantasy Quartet for Oboe, Violin, Viola and Cello, Opus 2; Donald Crockett’s “Celestial Mechanics”; Shostakovich’s String Quartet No. 15.

* April 30, 3 p.m.: Oliver Knussen’s “Alleluya Nativitas,” “Sonya’s Lullaby” and “Hums and Songs of Winnie-the-Pooh”; Ravel’s “Chansons Madecasses” and “Ma Mere l’Oye” Suite.

* June 16, 8 p.m.: Ives’ String Quartet No. 1; Elliott Carter’s String Quartet No. 2; Brahms’ Quintet in F minor.

All programs will be at Chapman University in Orange, except the Oct. 22 program which will be in Founders Hall at the Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa. Tickets: $20 per concert ($10 for students and seniors), $72 for all four.

The Society also will play concerts in Pasadena, Santa Monica and San Marino. For a complete schedule and further information, call (800) 726-7147.