This Symphony Spans the Border

Two years ago, Tom Ireton, 66, retired salesman and amateur musician, sailed his boat south from Washington state to La Paz, Mexico. He decided to stay.

About a year ago, Susan Richter, 60, also retired and a former cellist with the Detroit Symphony and the National Symphony, navigated her 40-foot ketch from San Diego to La Paz. She stayed too.

The close friends, who first met in Mexico, live on their boats and they spend a lot of time together, says Ireton with a laugh--and not just because Ireton has a phone and Internet access.

One of the things these musical soul mates do with their time is volunteer at La Paz Escuela de Musica (La Paz Music School), home of the La Paz Youth Orchestra. Richter teaches music classes; Ireton finds funding, provides transportation and does whatever is necessary to keep the school going.

The school serves some of the children of a nearby colonia, Marques de Leon, where there is no electricity, no running water and most of the homes have dirt floors. Families can’t afford the tuition of $30 a month.

While scholarships provide the children the opportunity to study and perhaps even join the orchestra, there aren’t enough instruments to go around. Ireton and Richter have cajoled many in their close-knit sailing community to donate funds and instruments, but the orchestra is still missing entire sections. They have no tubas or trombones, and the double bass player uses a cello bow. So Richter and Ireton also spend time at the computer, arranging music for instruments never intended by the composer.

“We’ve got two soprano saxophones, and nobody writes orchestral music for soprano saxophones, so we take the oboe part and transcribe it for soprano sax,” Ireton says by phone from his boat--cheerfully warning that the line could disconnect at any time. “Or if there’s an important trombone part, we’ll write it for baritone sax.”

But all that is about to change for the La Paz Youth Orchestra. It will be among the beneficiaries of a new cultural partnership involving the three Californias--Baja California, Baja California Sur and California. Funding from the three regions is going to create the Orchestra of the Californias, which is holding its first event: the 11-day Orchestra of the Californias Festival, a series of concerts in all three areas, at venues selected by the host cities--from civic auditoriums to university halls to historic missions.

The Orchestra of the Californias is an assemblage of musicians from ensembles around the country. It is produced by San Diego’s Mainly Mozart organization and conducted by David Atherton, founder of the Mainly Mozart Festival Orchestra, a 14-year-old entity that also pulls together instrumentalists from other orchestras. The Orchestra of the Californias includes players from Dallas, San Diego, San Francisco and Houston. Martin Chalifour, concertmaster of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, holds the same position with the new orchestra.

Also under the festival banner, Cuarteto Latinoamericano, a string quartet that celebrates the work of Latin American composers, has been engaged to perform in the tour cities. The quartet, which tours the world, maintains residencies in Mexico City and at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.

“Mainly Mozart puts together a top orchestra, but in June, not in February,” said Mainly Mozart executive director Nancy Laturno. “It’s not nearly the challenge it is to mount an orchestra in February, when almost all of the major orchestras are in their subscription series season. And it’s an enormous undertaking; we’re flying musicians from all over the country to San Diego, then flying them together to La Paz, and there are visa issues and permit issues.

“Plus, we have concerts in non-traditional concert spaces, such as missions, where it’s easier to do chamber music--we have a full orchestra,” she added. “In the case of Mission San Diego, we are having to build out over the area where the pews are, and all this has to be done in and out, in one day.”

Concerts began Thursday in La Paz. The event moved to Todos Santos, another city in Baja California Sur, on Saturday. The music groups will move on to Tijuana and Mexicali before coming to California. California concerts begin in San Diego (Thursday), with a concert by the new orchestra at Mission San Diego. The festival will move on to San Gabriel (Friday), La Jolla (Saturday) and San Luis Obispo (Feb.17).

On the program for Orchestra of the Californias are four Mozart selections and “Ocho Por Radio” by Mexican composer Silvestre Revueltas. All five pieces will be performed at each concert. For their festival concerts, Cuarteto Latinoamericano will perform programs of Mexican waltzes.

Festival organizers say that, in the future, the orchestra may perform at various times throughout the year rather than making an intensive tour, but they wanted to launch the new entity with a concentrated effort. The quartet and the orchestra will not perform together but they have a common goal: Besides enriching the community via master classes given by the musicians and other community activities, all proceeds will benefit local groups such as the La Paz Youth Orchestra.

Funding for the $300,000 festival will be provided by the California Arts Council, the two Baja states, and private and corporate contributions--including a lead gift of $150,000 from the Barad Family Foundation. Jill Barad, former chief executive of Mattel Inc., is honorary chairwoman of the festival and a member of the Commission of the Californias, a cross-cultural organization with members appointed by the governors of the three states. The commission approached Mainly Mozart about producing the festival.

The $300,000 will also cover the costs of master classes and seminars by orchestra musicians, and instruments for youth organizations in the cities they visit. Rudy Murillo, director of the Commission of the Californias, said that was Barad’s idea. “It’s one thing to tell kids to hear music and appreciate it, but then you can’t tell them they can’t do it, and they can’t do it without instruments,” Murillo said.

He added that despite the state’s economic problems, Gov. Gray Davis has remained supportive of the commission’s efforts. “He said: ‘We’ve got a million excuses to do it next year [instead of now], but go ahead and do it. We can’t just stand here with our arms at our sides,’” Murillo said.

The difference between the Orchestra of the Californias and the existing Mainly Mozart Festival Orchestra is that concerts will be affordably priced--concert tickets are $15 to $35, and most other events are free--and all proceeds will benefit youth music groups chosen by the communities the festival will visit. “It’s a populist, community event,” Murillo said. “And the proceeds stay with the community.”

In California, beneficiaries of the project include San Diego’s Community Council for Music in the Schools, the San Gabriel Educational Foundation and San Luis Obispo County Youth Symphony.

Most of the new instruments will be distributed in Baja California and Baja California Sur, where the need is greatest, Murillo said. Ireton, for one is happy that the La Paz Youth Orchestra will no longer have to rely on the kindness of sailors to get the instruments it needs.

He’s full of stories about the kids--including 14-year-old Leo, who cannot hear or speak but now plays drums in the orchestra. Then there’s Charlie. “Gosh, we had Charlie yesterday, he took his first flute lesson, first time ever,” Ireton said. “To see his eyes, his enthusiasm, and all the kids looking--an excitement happens, and they all want to play instruments now.

“We’re poor people, it’s a simple life, but boy, is it rewarding,” he added. “I tell people I’m the highest paid person in La Paz.”

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ORCHESTRA OF THE CALIFORNIAS FESTIVAL, various locations in California, Baja California and Baja California Sur.

Dates: Feb. 7-17. Prices: $15-$35. Phone: (619) 239-0100 or www.mainlymozart.org.

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Diane Haithman is a Times staff writer.