Ma Recital to Benefit Barclay Partnership

Cellist Yo-Yo Ma will give a recital Nov. 18 at the Irvine Barclay Theatre to highlight a joint fund-raising effort for the Irvine theater and the Philharmonic Society of Orange County. Repertory for the 7 p.m. recital will be announced.

While he is there, Ma also will participate in artist-in-residence activities with UCI music students. Ma will return to the theater in April to appear with the Mark Morris Dance Group to perform “Falling Down Stairs” and “Rhymes With Silver.” Tickets for the Nov. 18 recital, to go on sale July 24, are $85.

“We’re looking to raise $500,000 at the fund-raiser--$250,000 for each [of us],” Philharmonic Society executive director Dean Corey said Tuesday.

The theater and the society will also are teaming to sponsor a recital by Canadian tenor Ben Heppner on Jan. 17 at 3 p.m. at the theater. Heppner sang the title role of Wagner’s “Lohengrin” in March at the Metropolitan Opera in New York and appeared with the Met Orchestra led by James Levine on its recent spring tour. Repertory for his recital will be announced. Tickets, to go on sale July 24, are $30 to $40. Information: (949) 854-4646 or (949) 553-2422.

The society has been presenting programs at the theater since the venue opened in 1990. The two groups began collaborating in 1995 by co-sponsoring Le Ballet National du Senegal. They recently announced a joint 1998-99 series. The society also co-sponsors a chamber music series at the theater with the Laguna Chamber Music Society.

“In many respects, the greatest value of our collaboration over the past several years is that we have been able to present some things we wouldn’t have been able to do individually,” Barclay theater president Douglas C. Rankin said Tuesday. “The general public benefits from that.”

Both groups will maintain their individual offerings as well.

“We have two separate missions,” Corey said. “But the product we deliver to the public is relatively similar. We both strive for high quality, unique events you can’t hear anywhere else. Our relationship will continue to develop. We don’t know where it’s going to end up.”