News Puzzles, Saddens Local Arts Leaders

Local arts leaders said they were shocked, puzzled and saddened Tuesday by Tom Tomlinson’s sudden resignation as president of the Orange County Performing Arts Center.

Bonnie Brittain Hall, executive director of Arts Orange County, a service organization of which Tomlinson was a founding board member, said she was “mystified.” It is “uncharacteristic” of Tomlinson or any “top person at a major arts institutions to leave so abruptly,” she said.

“I’m sitting here with my mouth open,” said Julie Bussell, executive director of the Pacific Chorale, one of several groups that often performs or presents works at the center.

“I had a meeting with him six weeks ago, and we talked about the future of a [proposed] symphony hall at the center, and he gave me every indication that he was part of that plan of moving forward.

“It’s a shame,” Bussell continued. “He had a clear vision . . . that the center was there to serve the community, as were the groups who performed there.”

Tomlinson, who came to the center in 1993, resigned without notice, “to pursue other interests,” center board Chairman Mark Chapin Johnson announced Tuesday morning. Johnson would not elaborate.

None of the arts officials interviewed said he or she ever had gotten wind of disagreements between Tomlinson and the center’s board of directors.

“I know individuals on the board very well,” said John Alexander, executive director of the Master Chorale of Orange County, another group that uses the center. “And I don’t know of any such [problems]. I thought Tom did a very fine job and I’m sorry to see him go.”

Several in the arts community noted that the center’s programming had become more varied under Tomlinson, who increased the number of pop music concerts; brought in such artists as k.d. lang, an openly lesbian singer, and the hip-hop percussion troupe Stomp while maintaining the center’s emphasis on ballet, classical music, opera and Broadway musicals.

Tomlinson also helped other groups expand their own programming by making the center more receptive to new ideas, said Dean Corey, executive director of the Philharmonic Society of Orange County, which presents touring ensembles and soloists at the center.

The center and the society had squabbled over programming under Tomlinson’s predecessor, Thomas R. Kendrick. But the two groups “made great strides in communication and there was a lot of consensus building that happened,” Corey said Tuesday, adding that the suddenness and secrecy surrounding the resignation “is all very surprising.”

“Sort of a fresh breeze blew through the place when Tom came,” said Hall. “Some of the relationships had been somewhat strained before.”

Louis G. Spisto, executive director of the Pacific Symphony, the center’s resident orchestra, said he “had a very good working relationship” with Tomlinson who “worked to improve several things important to the Pacific Symphony,” such as allowing use of the center’s backstage area for donor parties.