Pacific Symphony Receives $1.3-Million Concert Grant

The Santa Ana-based Pacific Symphony has been awarded a $1.3-million grant from the newly formed Hal and Jeanette Segerstrom Family Foundation, orchestra officials said Wednesday.

The grant, the first to be made by the foundation, will be given over five years. Funds will underwrite the 20 classical subscription concerts presented yearly at the Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa.

The orchestra also announced an expanded 2001-2002 concert season that includes a weeklong Dvorak festival and a new five-concert chamber orchestra and chamber music series to take place in two locations--Founders Hall at the center and the Irvine Barclay Theatre.

To open the Dvorak festival, which will focus on the composer’s years in the United States, Mstislav Rostropovich will play the Cello Concerto at a special non-subscription concert April 17, 2002, at the center. The program also will include the “New World” Symphony. Music director Carl St.Clair will conduct. The festival will continue with a pair of subscription concerts in Segerstrom Hall and two chamber music concerts to be announced.

Highlights of the 2001-02 concert series at the center include a world premiere in November from Richard Danielpour, culminating his three-year tenure as composer-in-residence with the orchestra, and in October, Michael Kurek’s “That Which Remains Unspoken,” commissioned by the Pacific.

Roberto Minczuk and Max Pommer will be guest conductors, on Jan. 9-10 and April 3-4, 2002, respectively. Guest artists will include violinists Kyung-Wha Chung and Robert McDuffie; cellist Allison Eldredge; and pianists Angela Hewitt, Hsing-ay Hsu, Benjamin Pasternack, Pascal Roge and Lilya Zilberstein.

South Coast Repertory co-founder and producing artist director David Emmes will direct a semi-staged production of Mendelssohn’s music for Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” on March 6-7.

Information: (714) 755-5799.