He’s Not in Utah to Ski

Carl St.Clair was the dark horse in the Pacific Symphony’s two-year search for a music director. He arrived last in the series of six guest conductors seeking the baton of Orange County’s most prestigious orchestra. Still, he trumped the competition and got the job in 1990.

St.Clair will appear last again this weekend in the series of 12 guest conductors under consideration to take over the Utah Symphony when music director Joseph Silverstein retires in May.

With its $8.5-million budget and 18 pairs of subscription concerts, compared with the Pacific’s $7.3-million budget and 10 pairs, the Utah position would be considered in music circles a step up.

If St.Clair were to triumph a second time, he could probably fulfill his duties to both orchestras, at least in the short run, as he conducts only seven of the Pacific pairs this season.

Today and Saturday, St.Clair will lead a program in Salt Lake City’s Maurice Abravanel Hall that includes two works he has conducted with the Pacific--the Overture to Mozart’s “The Impresario” (in December 1996 and last May) and Mahler’s Fourth Symphony (February 1995). The centerpiece of the program will be Schumann’s Cello Concerto.

Two of the Utah contenders are familiar to local audiences. Richard Buckley, formerly principal guest conductor of the Seattle Symphony and music director of the Oakland Symphony, lost out to St.Clair for the Pacific job.

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Keith Lockhart, music director of the Boston Pops and the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra, led the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra at the Pond of Anaheim in December 1995.

The other Salt Lake City candidates:

* Matthias Bamert, director of the Lucerne Festival in Switzerland and music director of the London Mozart Players.

* Robert Henderson, music director of the Arkansas Symphony.

* Kenneth Kiesler, music director of the Illinois Symphony and the Illinois Chamber Orchestra and principal conductor of the St. Cecilia Orchestra in New York.

* Graeme Jenkins, music director of the Dallas Opera and principal guest conductor of the Cologne Opera.

* Pavel Kogan, conductor of the Moscow State Symphony.

* Matthias Kuntzsch, principal guest conductor of the Basque National Symphony and general music director of the Saarbrucken State Opera and Symphony.

* Fabio Mechetti, music director of both the Syracuse (N.Y.) Symphony and the Spokane (Wash.) Symphony.

* Karl Anton Rickenbacher, principal conductor of the BBC Scottish Symphony.

* Victor Yampolsky, music director of the National Symphony in South Africa, the Peninsula Music Festival (Wisconsin) and the Omaha Symphony.

St.Clair said in an interview with The Times in August that Utah had invited him to conduct before he learned that his contract with the Pacific would be renewed through 2001. He said he’s happy here.

He’s also well established. St.Clair has recorded with the Pacific and with other orchestras, and he conducts in Europe and South America, as well as elsewhere in the United States. He and his wife, Susan, are expecting a child next month.

Will their first born grow up in Orange County or in the Beehive State? Utah Symphony officials expect to make their decision by early February.