Conejo Symphony’s Ramsey to Retire After 30 Years As Leader : Music: Conductor’s decision prompts talk of a merger with the Ventura orchestra.

Conejo Symphony conductor Elmer H. Ramsey announced Monday that he is retiring after 30 years, sparking speculation that Ventura County’s two competing symphonies could ultimately become one.

Felice Ginsberg, board president of the Ventura County Symphony Assn., said she thought Ramsey’s departure “leads to a lot of possibilities.”

But Conejo Symphony officials were quick to downplay rumors of a merger.

“That rumor has circulated for years,” said Cate Brown, vice president of the Conejo Symphony board. “Obviously, we have common interests. But we have no plans whatsoever to merge with the Ventura Symphony at this point in time.”

The notion circulated anew after Ramsey’s announcement Monday. The 64-year-old conductor, who took control of an embryonic Conejo Symphony 30 years ago and expanded it to its current stature, was generally viewed as opposing any merger.

The symphony was under the aegis of Cal Lutheran University and comprised 20 musicians who gave concerts in the school’s gymnasium when Ramsey assumed control in 1965, shortly after the institution hired him as a music professor.

Today, Ramsey leads up to 90 musicians in the newly opened Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza. The orchestra is now independent of the university, operates on a $500,000 annual budget and is governed by a board of directors.

Ramsey retired from the university in 1992. He is stepping down from the symphony effective May 20.

“This is like a funeral for me,” said Antonia Boehm, who has played violin for the widely acclaimed conductor since 1966. “Things will be different.”

An interim conductor will be named sometime next week, Brown said. A series of guest conductors trying out for the position will be invited to lead concerts through the middle of 1996, Brown said.

Beyond that, both symphonies must constantly adapt to compete not only against each other but also with quality sound systems and compact discs that are vying for music lovers’ money.

“You have to grow and improve,” Ginsberg said. “You don’t want some dinky entertainment.”

The Conejo Symphony has the bigger and better performance hall in the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza. The Ventura Symphony performs in the Oxnard Civic Auditorium.

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Merger rumors last surfaced in 1992 when Frank Salazar retired as the longtime conductor of the Ventura County Symphony. Ginsberg said Salazar was resistant to the idea of a merger because he wanted to retain control of the symphony, which he had founded.

Salazar and Ramsey each served 30 years. “They are very similar,” Ginsberg said. “I was astonished at how closely alike they are. They’re both strong-willed.”

If a merger is to occur, at least one major issue must be addressed: the question of which musicians are laid off and which remain.

Any merger would leave at least half of the nearly 200 musicians of both symphonies without work.

The Ventura Symphony has an annual budget of $700,000, but it has recently fallen on hard financial times while the Conejo Symphony continues to enjoy expanding support.

“Certainly mergers make a lot of sense because of the economics,” Ginsberg said. But she added that only informal discussions of a merger have occurred and that no serious talks are scheduled.

A May 20 concert featuring Shirley Jones will be Ramsey’s finale. Afterward, Ramsey, a native of North Dakota, said he plans to travel and concentrate on writing his own music.

“I put it down in 1966 and never really got back to it,” he said.