Pacific Symphony, Opera Pacific Get NEA Grants

Pacific Symphony and Opera Pacific are the only Orange County arts organizations to receive grants in the latest round of awards from the National Endowment for the Arts.

The Santa Ana-based Pacific Symphony, which plays its next pair of classical concerts May 5 and 6 at the Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa, received $55,000 to support its sixth year of Class Acts, an orchestra education program that allows elementary school students to study with orchestra musicians.

Irvine-based Opera Pacific, which concluded its season earlier this month with Donizetti’s “La Fille du Regiment,” received a $5,000 grant for community outreach and education programs, the revival of its apprenticeship program and the development of a community outreach opera, “The Music Shop” by American composer Richard Wargo.

Both grants came under the NEA’s education and access support division.