Venue Returns to Its Original Identity as the Music Center

After a year of trying out a new name, the Performing Arts Center of Los Angeles County will return to its original name, the Music Center.

Music Center President Joanne Kozberg confirmed that the Music Center’s board of directors voted Monday to bring back the original name of the downtown performing arts complex because the new name created an “identity void” for the complex, which includes the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, the Mark Taper Forum and Ahmanson Theatre, and the Walt Disney Concert Hall, the new home for the Los Angeles Philharmonic under construction at 1st Street and Grand Avenue.

Music Center officials made the decision to change the name to Performing Arts Center last December, after the center merged its operations and fund-raising arms. At the time, Kozberg said, the center’s board felt that the new name better reflected the scope of the center’s presentations, which include theater and dance as well as music.

But as time passed, center officials and the directors of its resident performing arts companies grew disenchanted with the new moniker. “There are too many performing arts centers; we’ve created an identity void,” Kozberg said. “Plus, our marketing research showed such a strong affinity for the name ‘Music Center’; it’s got 30 years of positive relationship with the community. It didn’t matter where you went, when you said, ‘Performing Arts Center,’ it drew a blank.”

Among those requesting a return to the original name, according to Kozberg, was Gordon Davidson, artistic director of Center Theatre Group--even though the name change was instigated largely to reflect that CTG’s theater productions were part of the mix.

Kozberg said that, all along, Performing Arts Center had been considered a “transitional name.” In fact, center officials had talked of possibly naming the entire complex after a major donor. Kozberg said that no such donor has yet been identified and that the center could as easily offer such a naming opportunity after returning to the original name.

Now, Kozberg said, the center plans to update and brighten its signs, most of which date back to the 1960s. The new signage will read “The Music Center,” with the added phrase, “Performing Arts Center of Los Angeles County.” She said patrons will begin seeing the new graphics in programs in January.