Arena Set for Boston Glee Party : Benefit: The Pond bolsters acoustics for OCPAC’s 10th annual Candlelight Dinner Gala, featuring Pops orchestra and William Hall chorale.

When is a hockey rink a concert hall? When the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra takes over The Pond in Anaheim on Thursday for a program to celebrate the Orange County Performing Arts Center’s 10th anniversary Candlelight Dinner Gala. The concert is the first for the Pops in Orange County and also the first event sponsored by the center at The Pond.

“But it’s not the first concert where we have had a full orchestra here,” said Brad Mayne, 40, the facility’s general manager. “We had a full orchestra for the Barbra Streisand shows, and when we did the Disney Symphony, one of our first events, we had a full orchestra as well. This is not really new.”

In fact, he said, the complex was built with sound in mind.

“Our ceiling is acoustically treated. Our walls, on the upper concourse area, are acoustical walls. All of our seating is cloth, so it’s acoustical materials. We’ve had pretty good success with our sound. Obviously we’re not concert-hall quality, by any means. But for a facility of this kind, we’ve received great reviews for this type of sound.”

Though The Pond is known mostly for sporting events--including ice and roller hockey, indoor soccer, basketball games and various rodeo shows--the arena is no stranger to other events.

“We have held a lot of different types of musical events, including anything from classical to rap to country,” Mayne said. “We try to be a little more diverse in offering things to a more general public than the Performing Arts Center or a convention center would do. We try to bring in a little bit of something for everybody.”

Conducting the Pops concert will be Keith Lockhart, 35, appointed to the position in February.

“I’m almost a neophyte in doing arena-type shows,” he said. “I did my first this summer at Hollywood Bowl, two concerts there. . . . They have such a high-tech, state-of-the-art system and sound delays. I was amazed.”

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Still, he said in a phone interview from a concert hall in Wichita, Kan., playing these venues is tough for the orchestra.

“We’re acoustical instrumentalists, and we’re used to hearing the sound hit the wall. If you don’t hear your own sound coming back, you play by memory and can’t judge how loud loud is.

“The orchestra has much more experience doing that sort of environment than I do. But I took to it like a fish to water.”

Though The Pond has a configuration for presenting concerts, the center’s president, Tom Tomlinson, has taken some extra steps.

“We’ve worked very hard on the sound reinforcement,” he said. “We’re hanging some pretty significant sound-absorbing draperies in certain portions of the arena ceiling. There are two banks of speakers on each side of the stage and another major cluster over the stage. The speakers are on a time-delay toward the rear of the arena, so the sound is consistent throughout.”

There will be no shell behind the orchestra because “a shell would isolate the stage and throw off the amplification.” Instead, there will be sound-absorbing material behind the stage.

Although audience capacity at The Pond is 18,400, the Pops concert will not utilize the full 360-degree seating. “It will be closer to 16,600,” manager Mayne said.

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Even so, the center hopes to raise $200,000, as compared with the $100,000 to $150,000 typically raised at past Candlelight Dinner Galas.

“We’ve already sold over 950 benefit tickets [at $250 each, including dinner], as opposed to previous years, which were in the 500-to-600 range,” Tomlinson said. The general seating [$19.50 to $49.50] is looking very well too. We’re almost at 10,000 tickets. So the house is about 80% full. We’re very pleased. I’m sure it will be very tight as we get closer to the event.”

Besides the orchestra, the William Hall Master Chorale will be there.

“Two years ago, we used the two chorales--the Pacific and the Master Chorale--together at the gala,” Tomlinson said. “Last year, we had the Pacific. This year, it was the Master Chorale’s turn.”

The orchestra itself, however, is not exactly the one people are used to seeing on the Boston Pops concerts broadcast on public television.

“We have an elaborate shell game at the Boston Symphony,” conductor Lockhart said. “There are more service demands for the Pops than the orchestra can supply. The Pops orchestra per se is the Boston Symphony minus its principals. The Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra is about 25% of those and the rest from the community and from all around the country. A lot of musicians cut their chops in Boston, then got jobs elsewhere. Some people think it’s only a freelance band. But the average tenure in that rivals most national orchestras.

“Why do these things? The reason is simple. They’re a great chance to bring these concerts to a lot of people. The holidays are a particularly appropriate time to tour the orchestra. A lot of people want to hear the Boston Pops, and the only way we can tour the group is to go to large venues. The show is big enough and splashy enough to fill the house.”

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Keith Lockhart will conduct the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra and the William Hall Master Chorale on Thursday in a holiday program at The Pond, 2695 E. Katella Ave., Anaheim. $19.50 to $49.50 (concert only). (714) 740-2000 (TicketMaster).