Vienna Invite Defended

Concerned about protests over the Vienna Philharmonic’s exclusion of women and minorities, the Philharmonic Society of Orange County has sent a letter to thousands of subscribers and donors defending its decision to bring the orchestra to Costa Mesa next month.

Dean Corey, the society’s executive director, notes in the letter of Feb. 13 that in “fulfilling our mission” to offer “the best of world cultures to our audiences” the organization presents “artists without scrutinizing their personal beliefs or political affiliations.”

“Certainly,” he writes, “we have presented Russians who are Communists and Russians who are democratic reformers, Irish musicians both Catholic and Protestant--in short, we host artists who represent a broad range of cultural, religious and political traditions.”

The society is sponsoring two concerts by the 155-year-old Vienna Philharmonic (March 4-5) at the Orange County Performing Arts Center. Both are sold out, the society’s marketing manager Frank Terraglio said Wednesday. A coalition of women’s groups is planning protests.

Terraglio said the society has received a handful of letters and a few phone calls objecting to the orchestra’s appearance.

Corey’s letter was mailed to 2,900 households that had purchased slightly less than than 6,000 tickets, Terraglio said, adding, “We haven’t had anybody asking for refunds that I know of.”

One patron with tickets to the concert and a preconcert party said she regrets her purchase.

“Had I known about the orchestra’s policy against women and minorities,” Cypress resident Fran Cacha said, “I would not have supported them in any way.”

Cacha, a retired college teacher, said she spent $125 on a pair of concert tickets and $500 to attend the party. Her reaction to Corey’s letter was negative.

“I thought it was puerile. The rhetoric of the orchestra reminds me of the Nazis. My husband thought the letter was the best the society could do.

“But I was disappointed,” Cacha continued. “It didn’t say anything about the orchestra’s discrimination against ethnic and racial groups. . . . The Holocaust was about more than the Jews.”

Corey, however, said Wednesday that response to his letter “has been more positive than negative.”