Symphony in Turmoil Over Musicians’ Petition on Funds, Firing of Clark

More than a third of the Pacific Symphony’s musicians have quietly given the orchestra’s board of directors a petition asking for “scrutiny of the alarming trend” of excessive spending that threatens the group’s “very existence”--and calling the 12-to-11 vote that removed the group’s founding conductor three months ago “questionable.”

The petition--a copy of which was obtained by The Times--and interviews with many people in the organization, paint a portrait of an orchestra in turmoil. The situation, insiders say, is especially disturbing as the symphony prepares for a board election later this month and for union negotiations in which players are expected to make unprecedented tough demands.

Several board members have privately expressed such discontent with the organization that they are thinking of resigning. One says board membership is becoming “a profound embarrassment.”

The petition was signed by 35 members of the 85-member orchestra, in reaction to the board vote in February that forced the resignation of conductor Keith Clark, the orchestra’s founder, by refusing to extend his contract. The petition asked for a reconsideration of the vote. Musicians and Clark’s supporters on the board say that the petition only drew an angry rebuke from his opponents.

The document, unpublicized when musicians submitted it about a month ago, raises questions of ethics and economics that, according to symphony insiders, continue to generate bitter disputes at all levels of the orchestra association, which completes its subscription season tonight.

The half-page, single-spaced petition was written by Charles Adams, an orchestra violist who stressed that he didn’t mean it as a personal defense of Clark but to question “how things have been handled, how they are being run and how they are going to be run.”

“After creating the Pacific Symphony Orchestra and devoting 10 years to its life, growth and welfare, Keith Clark has been forced to resign in a humiliating and inappropriate manner, based on an extremely close and questionable vote by the board,” the petition states.

The word “questionable,” the petitioners say, was prompted by allegations that Michael N. Gilano, chairman of the Pacific Symphony board, phoned a Clark supporter on the board to tell him not to appear at the crucial meeting on Clark’s employment (see accompanying story). At the same time, petitioners say, Clark opponents on the board allegedly lobbied colleagues who rarely attended meetings and asked them to be there.

Gilano said this week that the charges are unfounded and that Clark and his supporters waged an aggressive battle on his behalf. Louis G. Spisto, the orchestra’s executive director, said that the question of how Clark was removed is unimportant.

“The point is that Keith Clark was a bad conductor and that’s why he’s not going to conduct this orchestra any more and we are going to find a fine conductor who will,” Spisto said this week. “That is all that matters. None of the rest of it. None of it . . . Keith Clark is a dead fish in the water.”

Of the vote, he said: “It was very, very fair. It was legal.”

The petition does not address any of the complaints from Clark’s opponents, such as the numerous bad notices he received from local reviewers. Nor does the petition defend him against claims that he was a domineering founding father, whose nurturing zeal for orchestra numbed him to the need to share managerial control.

“I’m not pro-Clark or anti-Clark, just pro-decency,” said one signer, who asked not to be identified.

The petition further says that the administration of the symphony--a mix of Hollywood free-lancers and local professionals--is growing “larger, more highly paid, less efficient and prodigal.” The orchestra’s administrative staff has grown from four to about 14 in recent months, an increase orchestra officials say they needed to cope with the orchestra’s move to the Orange County Performing Arts Center.

At the same time, rumors abound that the orchestra will report an operating deficit of between $300,000 and $500,000 after audits of its current fiscal year are completed in July.

Gilano said in an interview this week that a $550,000 deficit was projected as of January, but that it will be closer to $350,000. Spisto acknowledged that a deficit is looming but said it will be less than $350,000. “My operation is running very smoothly,” he said.

The hints of a behind-the-scenes storm continue although the group’s leaders are trying to impose a fair-weather smile on the organization’s public face. In an internal memo to board colleagues, board president John R. Evans recently wrote: “I want us to convey to the community the unanimity of purpose we have as a board and as an organization, so that we may focus on those things that will put us in a positive light.”

Stewart C. Woodard, a member of the board’s executive committee, said of the orchestra’s general condition: “We’re all enjoying each others’ company and having a very nice time. We have unanimity. We are in sound financial shape.”

He said that it would be “ridiculous” to discuss the details of the Clark decision. “The decision has been made,” he said. As an example of how the Pacific Symphony is doing well, Gilano offered “the great choice” of Polish conductor Kazimierz Kord as a temporary conductor for the orchestra in its 1989-1990 season. “The whole community is ecstatic that he is coming,” Gilano said.

His effusiveness obscured the fact that Spisto’s talks with Kord’s New York agent, while there is serious interest on both sides, have not produced a contract.

Adams, the violist who wrote the petition, said this week that it stems from “the revulsion of common, ordinary people against the way a man had been treated, a man to whom they owed their job. . . . There is also anger that the future of the orchestra is being toyed with and there is a great deal of doubt about whether it is being supported by its own board in a directional and knowledgeable fashion.”

At a board meeting last month, the petition reportedly drew antagonistic responses from board members in a reflection of the board’s own continuing discord. Adams and others present at the time said that Woodard sharply rebuked Adams and two other musicians who submitted the document, and that Raymond J. Ikola, a Clark-supporting board member, then chastised Woodard for verbally abusing musicians.

“Woodard said musicians should do their job and that he was extremely angry that I had done this,” Adams said. “He said, ‘It’s our decision (to remove Clark). Whether it is a bad decision or a good decision, we’re going to stick to it. That is the way it is.’ He said two or three times that he didn’t want any interior struggles. He said we should keep our mouths shut. The only thing that mattered was raising money.”

Adams’s recollection is faulty, Woodard countered. “Those sentences and those words are absolutely incorrect. They (the musicians) were misinformed. . . . They petitioned us to look at certain issues, and those issues were based on incorrect information.”

Among those who signed the petition is the prominent violinist Israel Baker, at 67 a former chamber music colleague of violinist Jascha Heifetz and cellist Gregor Piatigorsky, and founding concert master with the Pacific Symphony. “There is a danger of musical culture being destroyed down there,” said Baker, who still plays with the orchestra on occasion.

“They have done a hatchet job on the man who built that orchestra. He is not a bad musician and they’re going overboard. I’m really quite positive about him, musically. It is all very strange and quite vicious. I think the key to what is happening down there--and I am not pretending I understand it all--is money. I think maybe they (symphony managers) want to bring in some big name who will attract money.”

Adams said that, from some signers’ perspective as well, money is a motive behind the petition. He and other musicians said that orchestra members are unhappy with their wages and lack of benefits.

At one point, the petition states: “The first priority of money spent should be . . . to raise money to pay more to the musicians.” Orchestra members are preparing for contract negotiations; several indicated that they may make an opening demand for a pay increase of roughly 35%. Also, these sources say, players will press for a pension fund, tenure for performers and other fundamental changes.

An official representative of the Orange County local of the American Federation of Musicians and members of the orchestra’s player-elected, four-member bargaining committee disavowed any association between the petition and the local’s preparations for upcoming bargaining with the management of the Pacific Symphony.

“There’s a lot of talk about making this a more professional orchestra,” said one musician. “Well, we think that should mean more than getting rid of a conductor who they think is not their kind of professional. It also means waking up to the realities of how to treat an orchestra in the real world.”

Another musician, who has kept a studiously neutral stance throughout the controversies, said: “I think that many friendships have suffered because of all this turmoil. All kinds of sides have been taken. Some signed for fear of their jobs. Some didn’t sign for fear of their jobs. People are under pressure from both sides. They want to speak out and they don’t want to be hurt. There is a certain amount of jockeying for position among the players. They want to be on the right side when it’s all over. They want to land on their feet.

“I can remember what this group was like a year ago. There was a camaraderie that existed that was unlike any other orchestra I have ever seen. The orchestra is still sounding very, very good, but that camaraderie most certainly does not exist today.”